I dug out some invasive mulberries today. I’ve been cutting them for years, but found out you have to dig all the roots out or they just keep coming back. The first two were littlevand easy. The third one grew into TWO buried rail road ties. I had to get the old man on the tractor to pick that one up.
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Plant native ones in their place!
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Burn those invasive buggers!
(joking pls don’t set fire to them. Uprooting and decapitation should be enough)
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This year I’ve planted 11 natives.
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I feel that pain. They send out runners roots and can sprout nearly everywhere ( or at least that’s how it seemed). There’s also the berries that smush and get tracked in on kid feet, staining at each step, Birds’s berry-poop on everything, especially the chair the mother-in-law sits in (no brownie points there)…and the yummy berries are always at the top, out of reach for the short human to harvest.
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A controlled burn probably would reduce their numbers and promote native species. Burning might be a good idea.
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I was thinking the same thing! DO burn them! To the ground!
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I know some of us here may have strong views on herbicides, but I will point out that there are a number “cut stump” treatment options. This involves cutting down the offending tree or shrub and applying a paste or solution of herbicide to the stump which will be absorbed into the root system putting stop to further regrowth. There are a number of products available for this purpose. Because the application requires a very small amount of chemical and is targeted to the plant being treated it should pose very low risk to surrounding vegetation.
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Nice lawn. You clearly live in an area with good rainfall. Here in the (increasingly) hot and dry Southwest, any tree is precious for shade (except maybe tree of heaven) and even mulberries are tolerated. They’re certainly hardy. They are somewhat invasive in the river valleys but not a serious threat.
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I’ve read those can take multiple years to be effective.
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But hacking with a machete until it dies is so much more fun!
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I don’t think any lawns are nice, ever.
In my humble opinion.
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For Tree of Heaven this is basically a must. Even then the amount of sucker sprouts you deal with is unreal. I do hack and squirt to at least leave a snag for habitat purposes and let it fall naturally.
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I think it is quicker than that if applied in the growing season. In any case if the tree doesn’t grow back it doesn’t make much difference.
How many times do you have to hack down a mulberry bush until it doesn’t reshoot?
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There are some tree species with trunks that have been coppiced many times over thousands of years in the UK, still sending up healthy new growth. I do this now with some tree-of-heaven on my property, as I find it to be a perpetual source of very nice walking sticks, and it might even bait some spotted lanternfly within my reach.
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Same as tea, Camilla sinensis. Commercial tea plants are pruned severely every year and the leaves are made into dried tea leaf. Apparently there are 600 year old tea plants in China still producing. Tea connoisseurs say that the best tea comes from bushes 300 years old plus.
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I just want to thank you for this post - the title caught my eye and really made me laugh, not at you, but because I know the feeling! (Although I haven’t battled Mulberry in particular.) Thanks for all you’re doing to restore the land you’re on. I wish you well on your project and thanks again for a great title. 
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Never tried it, but with bush honeysuckles, enough times to get a good workout.
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