You can cut elder back hard in Spring which encourages side shoots. I'd take the tallest shoots down to a couple of feet which will put energy into the lower stems and will for new stems to grow from the cut parts. Cut just above a pair of "eyes" which will become new shoots. If you look closely , you'll see what I mean.
The leafy green "ground cover" plant underneath is a nasty invasive weed. If your soil is very light and sandy , you could try to dig it out, but every single piece of root you leave behind will grow. I'd carefully use Roundup and any other product containing glyphosate, but you mustn't let it touch any other plants.
Maybe tackle the parts which are away from other plants for now . It comes into leaf early in spring so you can get a good go at it next year.
I might try to get rid of this by hand or maybe use the gel version of Roundup. Now that I know I have a Sambucus i really don't want to kill it off! There's quite alot of ground elder though so it might take a while to get rid of I'll give it a good go though.
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You can cut elder back hard in Spring which encourages side shoots. I'd take the tallest shoots down to a couple of feet which will put energy into the lower stems and will for new stems to grow from the cut parts. Cut just above a pair of "eyes" which will become new shoots. If you look closely , you'll see what I mean.
The leafy green "ground cover" plant underneath is a nasty invasive weed. If your soil is very light and sandy , you could try to dig it out, but every single piece of root you leave behind will grow. I'd carefully use Roundup and any other product containing glyphosate, but you mustn't let it touch any other plants.
Maybe tackle the parts which are away from other plants for now . It comes into leaf early in spring so you can get a good go at it next year.
Ok wonderful. Thanks so much for the advice. I'll get cracking this evening! what a wonderful forum this is!
I might try to get rid of this by hand or maybe use the gel version of Roundup. Now that I know I have a Sambucus i really don't want to kill it off! There's quite alot of ground elder though so it might take a while to get rid of
I'll give it a good go though.