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Dealing with mare's tail
malcolm dobson
Posts: 4
My front garden is infested with mare's tail. One part is laid as a wild-flower meadow, and during the summer I pull/pick off the mare's tail so that it doesn't become to dominant. The other part I thought I'd lay as grass (fairly rough - not al a lawn) with spring flowering bulbs & loww-growing plants (eg primroses), which would have finished flowering when the mare's tail appears. Once that happens I would rough-cut the grass to get rid of the mare's tail. Any suggestions and/or comments? Any advice would be much appreciated.
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We have many many threads on the mare's tail problem .... I think your proposal sounds a good strategy for managing it.
Watch out for the fruiting bodies that appear in the spring and get rid of them before they release their spores.
I would add that it does seem that mare's tail isn't common in chalky/limey soils ,,, so the addition of some lime to the garden may help to weaken if ... although it may slightly limit some of the plants you can grow.
Good luck and let us know how you get on
Last edited: 27 January 2018 11:56:22
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks, I've just had a look at some of the other threads. It does look as if the choices are live with it & 'manage' it, or go for a 'scorched earth' policy & blast it with weedkiller, which I imagine means you have to live with a completely bare garden for 2-3 years
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One response in a thread said that it will grow from pieces of stem, not just the root. Is this true? I've not seen that said specifically in anything else I've read.
Mares Tail is apparently a prehistoric plant that is virtually impossible to kill I once dug down three feet to try and dig out a plant but gave up, I have tried all types of weedkiller to no avail.
My daughter is a conservation biologist and worked out in New Zealand for several months eradicating invasive species, there is an effective weedkiller out there but thanks to our friends in Europe we are not allowed it here.
In my allotment I hoe off the plant as soon as it shows and it does seem to slow down its progress.
I have a small area in my garden where Mares Tail grows. My garden is 1100 metres up in the Alps and it grows quite happily every year despite the ground being frozen solid for 4months or thereabouts every year.
As Pansyface said earlier "anything is possible with Mares Tail" The top growth is really no problem to remove so it is not a problem for me and in general it is not fast growing so doesn't interfere with my crops.