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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

Ground Elder kill it to death or learn to live with it.

31 replies

Pipbin · 08/03/2015 09:18

It completely dominated one bed last year that I hadn't yet got round to planting. This year I have dug the bed over and there is nothing planted there at all. In fact I have three beds with nothing in the but bastard ground elder.

I know that I could cover it with plastic for years and hope it dies off but I want to plant there this year.
I understand that the sodding stuff will grow back from the tiniest bit of root.

I'm thinking of doing the full 'belt and braces'. Dig through and seive out the roots as best I can. Then come back to it a week later and fuck it up good and proper with some weed killer.

Thoughts?

OP posts:
aircooled · 08/03/2015 15:41

Just keep digging. Grow annuals in those beds this year so it's easy to clear them and the ground elder in the autumn. Then dig again in the Spring...

Holdthepage · 08/03/2015 15:44

I weeded & weeded ground elder until there was no trace of it, except that 2 years later it was as bad as ever. Weed killer was the only thing that got rid of it.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 08/03/2015 15:48

I moved house. It's the only way.

Holdthepage · 08/03/2015 16:38

I also moved house, I am now plagued with Mare's Tail!

PrincessPilolevuofTONGA · 08/03/2015 16:40

I'd keep a squirty bottle of glyphosate (sp?) next to it and give a squirt each time I passed. Bastardised stuff. I am similarly plagued by bind weed.

Original poster
Pipbin · 08/03/2015 19:20

I'm not moving. I love this house.
We back onto a park and our neighbours gardens are completely unkempt so even if I get rid of it I expect it will come back.
I dug a load of it out today but I think weed killer might be the way to go.

OP posts:
MyNightWithMaud · 08/03/2015 19:28

We killed off our ground elder (which was extensive) by covering it in black plastic for a year. We have occasional incursions from next door, which we zap with glyphosate. It may need more than one application per year, and trampling on the leaves so they absorb more helps too.

Original poster
Pipbin · 08/03/2015 19:34

Every bed was covered in black plastic when we moved in. I left it a while then pulled it all up. Now ground elder.
I think a flame thrower might work well.

OP posts:
EdithWeston · 08/03/2015 19:42

We hired a flame thrower (lock the DC in the house) annually. Over time it weakens it.

MyNightWithMaud · 08/03/2015 19:56

And of course you could eat it. That's why the Romans introduced it in the first place.

CoffeeBeanie · 08/03/2015 20:48

We have a garden full of it. At least I now know what all the black plastic sacks in the garden were meant for and we haven't bought a mass murderer's house
I wonder if it is tasty. Maybe I can start an online business selling ground elder cake.
Flame thrower sounds like fun, too.

zoemaguire · 08/03/2015 20:53

Eat it! It is v tasty. You could think of it as a useful perennial!

mousmous · 08/03/2015 20:57

it's tasty, a bit like spinach.
raised beds on top of existing beds is an option.

SonT · 08/03/2015 21:10

I've cleared a wood of about 50m x 50m of it. Only way is glyphosphate. Industrial strength (roseate 36) in a 5l sprayer. First year with two applications, second year was one. This year I'm sure there'll be at least one.

Patience and Agent orange is basically the only way.

Original poster
Pipbin · 08/03/2015 21:17

So am I right in understanding that glyphosphate goes into the root and kills it mostly to death?

OP posts:
Original poster
Pipbin · 08/03/2015 21:19

Looking it up it seems its going to make me obese and infertile. Good job I'm both of those already!!

OP posts:
Greenrememberedhills · 09/03/2015 21:58

The key thing is to spray when it is in active growth, and reapply a couple of weeks later. It's most effective when the leaf is growing fast as it is pulled down into the roots.

Original poster
Pipbin · 19/03/2015 17:38

Well I sprayed it on Saturday and the ground elder just looked at me and said 'is that the best you've got'. It's still looking very healthy and happy.
I did use regular Wilkinson's weed killer. Should I have used something with nails in it?

OP posts:
CuttedUpPear · 19/03/2015 23:41

RoundUp is the brand you want.

Obese and infertile? I've used it for years and I'm neither.

CointreauVersial · 19/03/2015 23:48

Glyphosate. It's the only language bastard ground elder understands. And bindweed.

RoundUp is the original brand, but it's out of patent now, so generic Glyphosate will be cheaper and just as good.

Original poster
Pipbin · 20/03/2015 07:51

Well I got the Wilkinson's one as it contained the same amount of Glyphosate. Is there a more serious version that round up do?

OP posts:
pumpkin93 · 21/03/2015 12:53

weedkillers only work for a short while and if you're growing veg your veg is going to absorb it. I found best way is dig out as much as you can. find out if the weed likes acid or alkaline soil and then treat your soil to make it the opposite. and then plant things that like that soil

Original poster
Pipbin · 21/03/2015 13:16

There is nothing else growing in the beds at all at the moment and I'm not going to be growing veg. I've dug up a fair amount but I think I was just a bit disappointed by the weedkiller. I was expecting to get out there this weekend to see some dead looking plants. As it is they seem just as healthy.

OP posts:
IanHaigh · 03/06/2015 13:57

Does anyone still have a ground elder problem? I am looking to trial different types of RoundUp against ground elder and will pay to try and kill your ground elder!
Thanks, Ian

shovetheholly · 04/06/2015 15:42

I definitely, definitely wouldn't cultivate it! It'll spread everywhere! I would consider eating what I rooted up.

High strength RoundUp is effective and a last resort, but do bear in mind it is also a probable carcinogen and treat it with due caution:

www.panna.org/blog/roundup-cancer-future-food