Mare's-tail! Help?

[curtainsforme]

Any advice on how to rid ourselves of this awful weed?

You won't be able to totally. The roots go down about 12ft and its been around since the the age of the dinosaurs, so not even an ice age will kill it. All you can do is keep pulling especially whilst they're small.

We have it in our allotment 😒 but fortunately not in the garden. You could nuke it with high strength weedkiller but it will fight back. You also need to be careful how you dispose of it as it'll spread. It can still break through paving stones, gravel/membrane, concrete.

You need an expert tbh

You can’t get rid of it. Just have to keep on top of it.
Chickens are pretty good at it though.
Our allotment isn’t too bad now with chickens (and my Dad!).

We have it. The best thing we did, was have more lawn area, as the constant mowing eventually weakens the weed. We have virtually no horsetail on our lawn now, though we still have it elsewhere. I think a certain amount of acceptance is required.

I have it on my drive, it breaks through the tarmac. I have holes all over my drive now because of it. The only thing i do is to pull up any bits i see, does seem to be less of it over the years but still annoying. None on the grass though.

Next door has loads in her front garden (which is where i think it came from) but she isnt bothered by it and lets it grown riot in her garden.

All you can do is constantly cut it to grind level. Most weed killers don’t work as it has a very primitive way of taking it in and transporting it to the roots!

Sorry I forgot I had even posted this. It didn't come up in my 'I'm in' threads either. DH mentioned the garden and I realised!!

Thanks for the advice. It's actually growing through our gravel driveway, which has thick tarpaulin underneath too. We were going to concrete or slab it but I don't see the point if the stuff is going to keep coming back. It's been there for years but gradually getting worse. I pull it and put weedkiller but it's so bloody hard to keep on top of

She needs it to keep the flies away, so it would be cruel to get rid of it 😡😡😡!

There was a question on Gardeners' Question Time last year (I think) where this question was asked. The answer? 'Move!'

My allotment is covered in the bloody stuff. I just remove it every now and then (it grows way too fast to get when it's small!).

Did @Heathercob get the wrong end of the stick?!

I can't even work out if it was an attempt at humour gone wrong or if she genuinely thought it was about a horses tail

It seems to thrive in poorer soils - we had it in the garden if our old house. Where I had improved the soil and planted new stuff, there was definitely less of it. You used to be able to buy a weedkiller called Kurtail that dealt with it, controlled it rather than eradicating it, but it was banned a couple of years ago.

I belly laughed at someone thinking this was about an actual horses tail 🤣🤣🤣

@wowfudge, not in our case. We have amazing soil at the allotment. And a mares tail farm! 😩

We had a real problem with it in our garden one summer. Next door's gardener told us to spray it with weedkiller, but ALWAYS crush it flat before spraying.He said just pulling it out won't get rid of it. It worked. Now we go round searching for it each spring, and it does still surface, often hiding ! Crush, then spray, works. If you don't like weedkiller, we've found pouring boiling water on it works, too.