We had blackberries in our backyard growing up. Every year we would cut and dig up as much of every plant as we could possibly see and we would scrape the top 6 inches of soil to move it far away.
We would burn them all before we churned the soil and burned some more.
We tried every trick and "natural" solution people recommended, but nothing ever stopped them from coming back.
My super hippy mom got so fed up she bought turbo cancer death chemicals and sprayed them everywhere. The blackberries finally stopped coming back.
It's been 15 years and shes still mad that's how she finally got rid of the blackberries.
My vote is japanese knotweed is going to win, and it will do so with ease in my experience of seeing how difficult it is to get rid of.
Maybe the previous resident of the house was a scifi writer actually worth their salt and they created the plant royale to observe what that part of the earth would be uniformly covered in after the wild ecosystems are gone.
What am I kidding scifi writers only care about serious man topics like space war and space politics and the specific kinds of engines on imagined starships...
I like space war but space politics sounds really dumb. I want Neolithic cultures on pseudo ringworlds slung on planetary tethers down to supermind AI machine worlds beyond their wildest comprehension built by the star gods left behind in the wake of the human species.
I think Ian M. Banks ('The Culture' series) already had that, unless that's specifically what you were referencing. Though humanity wasn't a part of The Culture, as explicitly explained when they were viewing us like apes in a zoo, so the ringworlds with primitive cultures on them that had AI machine minds tending them weren't from the wake of humanity.
We had blackberry vines in the backyard when I was little along a fence bordering with a neighbor (I think they originally started on their side of the fence) and I cried when they cut them down. They were so delicious!
Never understood the problem with English Ivy. It only grows in the shade, you can see the line along my house where the sun never hits.
Never seen it in the wild, can't imagine. And if you don't want it around, rip it up. The root system is extremely shallow, couldn't be easier to kill.
Planted bunches of it year before last at camp. It's all either dead or barely hanging on.
Speaking as someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest, that shit can take full sun to full shade, grow insanely fast, and choke out even the largest trees. Leave a small piece in the soil by accident, and you’ve got a new monster-sized plant before you can blink.
It all depends on where you live. Lucky you that you live in a place where ivy behaves itself. Not everyone gets to be that lucky.
It depends on the area. English Ivy is not native to the US, and it can fucking suck. It can easily take over entire areas. Since it re roots itself, it's awful to remove.
It's great in it's native environment
Just.. don't use it in the US. Plant natives plants. There are lots of incredible native vines.
So if you're in this area it may not be a big deal.
Virginia Creeper is also native to that area, and folks consider it a weed because it grows fast. Even though it's native, and the colors slap in the fall.