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Ground Elder

polly_appolly_ap Posts: 59
in Problem solving
Hello.
can anyone please advise what is the most effective way of killing ground elder. Thank you.
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Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Dig out, weed kill, repeat, repeat again.

    it is a difficult weed to get rid of and will take time.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Glyphosate worked on one patch I had, but what to do when it's growing in your flowers?
    I've just been trying to dig it out of a patch of montbretia. It won't work anyway because it's coming from under next door neighbours fence and she (elderly lady) never weeds her garden. It's full of delights, such as bindweed, nettles and willow herb. She likes the dandelions as her tortoises eat them.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Dig and sieve the soil, and you still won't get it all, or weedkiller, whichever way you go you're in for a long fight, but it can be done.
  • alfharris8alfharris8 Posts: 513
    Horrible stuff 😫 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I’ve got a garden full of it,  I used SBK. Painted on the leaves so could get between the flowers,  so far,  nothing!  ‘Tis flowering beautifully 😀
    I think the only way is to dig it out in the spring, before the plants are up,  but you have to get to the end of the root, sometimes more than 18” long,  if you leave a bit it will grow.  Tried glyphosate a year or two ago,  it only worked for that year, back next. 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • polly_appolly_ap Posts: 59
    Thank you for your help. Sounds like we have a lot of work to do 😀👍
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    You sure have,  on the other hand,  if I have nothing else to do I find it very satisfying to just sit among the flowers and dig it out,  it’s not that deep. 
    Unfortunately it’s not often I have nothing to do. 😀
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Just a thought.  If it’s coming through from a neighbours garden or under a fence,  you can dig about a foot down and place strips of compost bags or similar down the trench,  it will keep it from travelling in. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Good for eating.
  • didywdidyw Posts: 3,573
    We had a massive load of ground elder along the back of a border and, in an L shape to it, the main lot against a fence.  We were lucky though - having had builders in over an extended period of time, the garden needed a complete overhaul and with lockdown and fine weather I was able to make it a major project, following all the roots and digging them out.  In fact it became something of an obsession as I tried to get all of the fine hair like roots too.  It worked - to an extent.  I still get bits of ground elder popping up but it's no problem to just weed those out.
    One thing I noticed - the roots smell really nice!  And you can eat it when it's young, as a salad leaf but all we did was taste it, thought it was all right but never actually got round to putting any in a salad.
    I did see a picture of a garden where the owner had decided to simply live with it, planting things like foxgloves with it.  
    Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
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