How do we get rid of Kinniknnick. It is growing wild all over our backyard from a home we just purchased in Kelowna
Are you positive it is kinnikinnick? In my experience, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi grows rather slowly and should not be difficult to pull out.
Alls I can tell you it's what the landscaper told us it was and I'm not sure how long it's been allowed to grow wild. I will try and get a picture to upload if that's possible.
I suspect the Kinnikinnick in your yard may be not as “wild” as you may think. It is sometimes grown by more ambitious gardeners as an evergreen ground cover. Instead of having a boring, all too common lawn, that you have to mow, water, and fertilize, you have an interesting low maintenance plant that looks well without any of that, and, unlike mowed grass, provides food and shelter to birds and beneficial insects. It may be spreading slowly, but it is not invasive. It takes time to get established. It could be that by getting rid of it you will destroy the effect of several years of effort and patience to establish it on the property. So take all this into account before making the final decision what to do with it.
if indeed it is kinnikinnik - i'm with the other readers here who wonder why you would try to "get rid" of it - it is a great xeriscape plant for the Okanagan - there is not a lot of water there for gardens (I know that lots of people from east of the mountains think that the lake is "huge" and endless- but it's not) here is an interesting brochure from the Okanagan Xeriscape organization http://okanaganxeriscape.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/LAT-2-LawnAlternatives.pdf also - kinnikinnik grows best in poor quality soils - very well drained - so I don't know what it would take to get something else (cringe, like a lawn!) to establish well. Esp if this is on a slope or south-facing hot. Or north facing shade there is a really inspiring xeriscape demonstration garden at the Summerland Research Station - now called Pacific Agri something - it is the federal gov't facility that is south of Summerland in Trout Creek, driveway is across from Sunoka provincial park. I think I would be looking at some design rehab for your new-to-you garden - some hardscape then that provides solid borders to visually 'contain' the kinnikinnik. etc. I think look around for ideas that conserve water before destroying what sounds like an asset that likely needs some refinement.
