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Snake Grass

Does anyone have any suggestion how to permanently kill Snake Grass? It is still sold as a pond side plant at garden centres.... is related to Horse tail and has been around since the dinosaurs.... It spreads via spores and underground in the same way as ferns.

We would prefer to be organic but I am happy to be pragmatic at first!

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090

    Equisetum hyemale is considered to be an ornamental plant for bog gardens and pond margins.  It is nowhere near as vigorous or persistent as the more ferny horsetail.

    If you have more than you want, either drain the area so it dries up and dies out or just keep digging and hoeing and removing stems and rhizomes till it gives in.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154

    Obelixx

    Thanks for the clarification ; this is the tall translucent stemmed species I've grown for years ; never known it as Snake Grass though !

    Can be pretty invasive in clay soils , but fairly easy to control (if need be) in ordinary garden soil . Just proves a point in trying only to use proper botanical names image .

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090

    I have an American gardening friend I met in Belgium who called my patch of bog equisetum snake grass.   My patch was fine till th year we had a very wet autumn which soaked the soil and made the pond (natural) super full and then froze to -32C in January.  Just one night and then 3 weeks of below -20C.   

    Killed off the equisetum and also lots of evergreens and some clematis and roses and perennials in dryer parts of the garden.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154

    Sounds like a very severe winter to damage your plants like that ! Three weeks of below -20C sounds pretty horrific ; this coming from the almost balmy climate of E.England image . Thanks again for the clarification on the plant name . Have honestly , in all my years of growing plants never heard the name 'Snake Grass' , though I can now see the allusion .

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