If you can’t beat kudzu, enjoy it.

That’s been Chuck and Shari Toth’s motto since they moved to their kudzu-laced property in 1975.

“There are a lot of positive things about it,” Mrs. Toth said. “It’s an amazing plant.”

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the couple prefer kudzu to other plants. They don’t.

If they could afford it, they would remove it. If they trusted goats to eat just the kudzu — and not their garden plants — they’d hire a herd today.

But since those options don’t appeal, the Toths celebrate August by sniffing the kudzu blossoms.

“It smells like grape Kool-aid,” Mr. Toth said.

Kudzu’s purple blossoms make attractive flower arrangements. The vines also can be draped across a table for a brief, pungent display.

“We have a lot of fun gathering the blossoms and making arrangements for people,” Mrs. Toth said. “They are kind of like a joke.”

The Toths even went so far as to jokingly call their property, which included the Crystal Airpark Motel before the couple’s recent retirement, Kudzu Blossom Acres. They were also regulars at the Kudzu Balls, held for years at Durty Nelly’s in North Chattanooga each August, around the time of the annual Cotton Ball for debutantes.

The flowers are surprisingly short-lived, according to Mrs. Toth.

“They’re very delicate,” she said.

Not so the kudzu vine. Introduced from Japan in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia as an ornamental, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service spread kudzu widely in the 1930s for erosion control. In 1972, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared the plant a noxious weed, according to the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council.

Thick storage roots grow as deep as 3 feet and spread up to 60 feet in a year. Repeated herbicide treatments may take as many as 10 years before the plant dies.

Recently, the city of Chattanooga marshaled herds of goats to eat the plants, with some success.

The Lookout Mountain Conservancy also has hired goats from Natural Land Clearing (www.naturallandclearing.com), a Petersburg, Tenn., company, to clear John C. Wilson Park on Cummings Highway of kudzu and English ivy.

After the goats dispose of the vines, herbicides will be applied to the roots. The cost is estimated at about $1,500 per acre, according to news reports.

After researching its properties, though, the Toths believe kudzu also can offer benefits.

Basketmakers, such as Tennessee Aquarium outreach educator Bill Haley, weave beautiful creations from kudzu vines.

The Japanese use kudzu for a tea to treat dysentery and fever. They also make kudzu tofu, kudzu cloth and kudzu paper.

Harvard Medical School researchers recently isolated a compound in kudzu that suppresses alcohol cravings.

And, using a homemade still, Cleveland, Tenn., locksmith Doug Mizell created a batch of 80-proof “kudzuhol” last year that smells like rum and runs his lawnmower, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.

Though they appreciate the beautiful, fragrant blossoms, like most area homeowners, the vine definitely pesters them, Mrs. Toth said.

Each year, they pull vines from trees and mow, chop and dig what vines and roots they can. Despite their efforts, the vines never lose ground, and sometimes they gain it.

“A lot of people are angry because it does cost them a lot of money to remove it, if they want to build on or improve their property,” Mrs. Toth said. “It’s not a friend of the South.”