Getting rid of asparagus fern without killing other things?

[Midlife]

We have a row of something like boxwood or similar shrub in between our rented home and the neighbor's. The entire row is just full of asparagus fern which we'd like to get rid of........ without killing the shrubs. This row of shrubs may have been planted 25+ years ago, and is very dense, so getting these ferns out by the roots is a non-starter (I've had enough trouble with it all on its own, so I know better than to try).

Any ideas??? Pleeease!!!!

[meatn3]

This stuff is hard to get rid of, even if you can dig it out.

You might want to try this trick a friend (former groundskeeper) told me was successful for poison ivy, especially in places where you didn't want to harm surrounding plants.

He would cut the stem and paint on Round-up. I'm not usually a fan of the stuff, but I have used this method for poison ivy and it worked well. Gets it directly into the plants system without hurting the other plants nearby. Just spray some into a cup and use one of those cheap sponge brushes to apply. Process will be tedious with the fern, but you may not have to trim every frond.

Hopefully someone will have a less toxic method...

[Midlife]

Thanks for the suggestion.

The problem here is that the shrubs have had all those years to become a very dense hedge and is flush to ground level. Getting in there to cut individual ferns is virtually impossible.

[Eldon Kreider]

A different approach using Roundup or generic glyphosate may work. This herbicide is systemic and goes down into the roots so applying to partial foliage can be pretty effective. Glyphosate is not very effective on woody plants, even tiny tree seedlings, which is a good thing in this case.

Wear disposable nitrile gloves with a cloth glove, preferably canvas not jersey, over the nitrile glove on one hand. Then dip the cloth glove in mixed glyphosate solution (not full strength concentrate) and gently rub solution on as many asparagus fern leaves as you can reach easily.

This approach can be used on grass that is growing though shorter plants. I have to deal with a bed of Dragon's Blood sedum with a lot of grass coming though but need to wait until daytime temperatures in Chicago are above 60 with no rain in the forecast for a couple of days. Most formulations work OK if rain holds off for at least six hours, but I do not want to take a chance on any unabsorbed glyphosate washing down into the sedum.

[Midlife]

Actually our local garden shop owner gave us that same suggestion today. We'll give it a try. Thanks.