This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
getting rid of ground elder
little-ann
Posts: 878
in Plants
i have read a number of posts about getting rid of ground elder and was sure id heard if you planted some sort of calendula it killed the roots. i have found a post on this forum that suggests Sarah raven has this plant but i cant find it on her website, do any of you know wich calendula it is and does it work
0
Posts
I have heard this before little-ann but I don't believe it. If it was that easy ground elder wouldn't be the problem it is.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Yea, and when pigs fly the price of bacon wll rise!! Sorry, but really, if only it were that easy. It is possible that some plants will over run it and reduce its strength, though I've never in all the years come across one. Many people are absolutely plagued with ground elder and the only way to get rid of it is to dig, dig, dig and then dig again, removing each tiny bit of root because each broken bit will yield a new plant. You can weaken it with constant mowing or choppige, glyphosphate will reduce it, keeping it in the dark (under carpet or black plastic) just slows it for a while - really hard graft is all that does it. Having said all that, I have it, and quite honestly it is a weed I'd rather have than some, say mares tail, docks and so on. It can be cut down, if you never let it flower it slows the spread. It disappears in winter and quite honestly, with other plants growing through it, it rally is not that offensive IMHO.
I agree bookertoo. Not the worst weed by a long way. That said, I've managed to eradicate mine completely (TOUCH WOOD) with a combination of digging it out, waiting for it to reappear and then BRAMBLE KILLER. Had to do that 2 years running, but haven't seen any in 5 years now. I personally find bindweed and brambles harder to get rid of, and more unsightly too.
thank you i thought it was to good to be true but had to ask
wow, so bramble killer works? That is good news, though at the moment there are so many things growing alonside of the ground elder that I feel I can't do that now - but certainly something to remember.
I do agree that bramble and bindweed worse, there was someone on here who had a way of training the bindweed up canes then covering with a plastic bottle and spraying hard with weedkiller - seemed to work. So far - very little of that and still hand removable, tho' not always maybe. Where do brambles come from when there is nothing related to them growing hereabouts? Suppose they same way as all self seeded things, birds and mice etc.
I'm nearly completely overcome by ground elder. Some things will grow through it but many won't. The only thing I've had much luck with (limited) is to build up with raised beds. First i dig down as far as I can, put ground fabric down (the kind water will penetrate), and then drive solid edging material around the edges. After that I put in my raised bed from the new ground level, fill it all with new material and plant it. You may well get new plants emerging around the edges, but not too many to pull. DON'T let any nearby ground elder bloom. Expensive and complicated, I know.
The garden here was just a corner of the field, it was covered in ground elder, over the years we have dug it out, there is none now, sometimes just the tiniest bit, I just sat and dug, it's not deep rooted but you need to trail it along and not break the roots. I actually enjoy doing it.