Pine cones, paper and no till composting

[zeroma]

Originally Posted by Got Worms?

Zeroma, how big is this area? Regardless of what or how much organic material you bestow atop your Ivy, it still may not succumb by fall.

I don't see why you don't just put down a couple of layers of blastic... aka: black-plastic... mulch. If the Ivy isn't gone by fall, you might be able to plant some stuff through the plastic and remove it once the Ivy is dead, dead, dead!
Charlie

The hill is about 70 X 70. Not so huge that I need (or have) a tractor. It's my ront yard! Even if it isn't ready for any sort of planting by fall, that's ok. I have been removing the total ivy plants, roots and all for the past few years. But that has caused a lot of soil erosion plus much of that ground area has been left bare (between the plants).

Then to make it worse, mid-summer last year, the neighboor had his shade tree removed. I know that my shade loving hostas won't like that much, nor the coral bells. They have both multiplied a lot, but more plants are needed. I filled in a lot of the spaces between the plants with impatiens. They objected and died last year. I added more sun loving daffodills and bulbs last fall. So at least some of the plants near the bottom part of the hill have some hope of looking good.

FYI: English ivy can survive with only 1% sunlight! So I know I'll need to really bury it with paper products - cardboard - but want to stay away from plastics if I can. Because I want the quality of the earth to be improved right along with the killing process!!! By trial and erro, I'm figuring out I need to keep the roots in the ground to preserve the area from eroding into the storm drains.

I'll get some pictures that should explain "more better". Meant to do that today while the sun was shinning. Rain for tomorrow.

I'm just experimenting with chopping those darn pine cones.