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Looking to keep Green Alkanet in a fast, eco-friendly manner

IronSquirrelIronSquirrel Posts: 68
in Problem solving
So, friends of mine have a green alkanet problem. I estimate it covers about 7% of their back lawn.

They intend on redesigning it next year, so I would myself go with the Tabula Rasa method- blank slate the whole thing. 

However, they seem a little apprehensive, since either it'll take a while to get the weed sheet laid over 65 sq. meters of lawn, or perhaps only 1/3 rd of that, and remove the random lone patches by hand.

The other method being a lot of digging and pulling it up by the (easy to snap) roots...

Only, and this really seems to be the main problem, is I'm doing the gardening and I don't use glyphosate, or anything else hazardous for bugs and planet for that matter. 

Neudorf is bio-degradable but it doesn't boast the ability to take out such a villainous semervirens as Green Alkanet.

any help?
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”
Trolius & Cressida

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Looking to keep Green Alkanet


    ?

  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
     Not using glyphosate is good for the environment but covering a garden in slate is?
    I find reading this very sad, personally I feel that this is not gardening.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
     Not using glyphosate is good for the environment but covering a garden in slate is?
    I find reading this very sad, personally I feel that this is not gardening.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    "Blank slate", @GardenerSuze, not covering it in slate... the OP is suggesting having a blank canvas for the redesign, by getting rid of the alkanet.

    If you're not using weedkiller, @IronSquirrel (and I'm certainly not advocating its use) then excluding the light for a long period is probably the only sure way of killing the beast.  As you say, digging just tends to proliferate it by snapping the roots...
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Covering with plastic would work, but remember it will take at least a year.
    Weedkiller is the only fast and easy option for removing weeds, that's why we invented it. Otherwise you can go easy and slow, (excluding light) or hard and fast (digging and possibly sieving the soil)
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    Thank you for pointing that out @Liriodendron. I do apologise @IronSquirrel read it twice as black. I have dug up alkanet as you say it snaps just under the surface. If you do dig down I am sure you have found roots as thick as your wrist. I doubt if any weedkiller will work. You may think you have got it and back it comes a few months later or the following year.
    I agree with @Skandi you will need to cover for at least a year. If it is in the garden next door you could still have a problem.
     
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I get all sorts of unwanted plants growing in my lawn.
    Once I start mowing once or twice a week they weaken and after a couple of months they mostly seem to be gone.
    If you keep chopping the top off over and over again the plant will eventually die.

    I've not had alkanet in my lawn as far as I know, so have no direct experience of that.
    I do get alkanet popping up here and there - sorry but I use glyphosate - life is too short..

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    I think removing as much as possible and then covering it would be the best way. If you can get a lot of the roots out then it won't have the energy stores to last as long without light.

    I don't use weedkillers either and do have some green alkanet but I just pull it up when it appears where I don't want it. It looks nice where it is and hasn't yet (famous last words), became a nuisance with this method.
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