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What can I plant to smother a Euphorbia?

We inherited a Euphorbia on a small narrow slope between the main path to the front door and the patio, wrong plant in the wrong place now creeping through the adjacent lawn and cracks on path. With two young children with sensitive skin it needs gone. I've tried hacking it several times, digging it out (less successful as so little soil can be disturbed without destabilising the slope) and in desperation with much angst resorted to roundup. Shoots are now showing again, I'm sure if I wanted it there it would have died years ago!! 

I've concluded it needs depriving of all light with a thick mat for a few weeks and then before it can revive itself get a load of tough but less inappropriate plants in to smother it and create a more attractive year round bank around one of the most seen and used areas of the garden with some wildlife benefit. Was thinking heathers then debated Hebe and Hypericum both for pollinator joy, I know most people are actually trying to grow stuff here but wondered if anyone else had been through similar and found an effective situation? 

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I think you should snip off the shoots as soon as they appear. It will give up eventually. In my experience, a healthy euphorbia will out-compete practically anything. Also, if you plant something close by, you won't be able to get at the euphorbia so easily.
    If it's any comfort, they're not particularly long-lived plants.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Agree.  Regular snipping to remove it of its power source - leaves that photosynthesise - will starve the roots and they'll die eventually but you'll nee patience and constant vigilance for a while.
    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
  • Loo_becLoo_bec Posts: 3
    Thankyou, heading out now anyway, will try again. This one seems determines to rock the not long lived category, 7year battle so far and it was well established when we moved in! Even a bramble trying to grow through it is out competed. I don't normally hold with battling stuff as everything has a place but this one is my exception.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Just snip every time you pass it. 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    If you do as B3 advises and paint each cut with SBK brushwood killer afterwards, it won't last long.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Can you mow it and lay down matting?
  • Loo_becLoo_bec Posts: 3
    Combining all tips, I'll snip it, treat it and smother it, maybe invest in some proper slope mat too to plant into after as it'll stop the soils washing out every winter too. 
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