Help! dreaded horsetail...

[TheOracleAtSelfie]

I am quite new to gardening. We bought our first home last year so this is the first time I've had a garden to call my own and I'm determined to learn how to take care of it. HOWEVER the front garden (lawn and border) is infested with horsetail. Any green-fingered tips? I've tried to weed it by hand but it seems to be a hardy bugger and keeps returning

Watching with interest, I've never got rid of mine - easier to pull up when its little, thats all I know. Neighbour tells me its been around since prehistoric times but it was more like a tree then - we've no chance! here quite interesting...

Bad luck! I've been in my house over 20 years, and have never succeeded in getting rid of it. My front garden was infested, and I took rather drastic action in having it all block paved, but shoots still appear. I also have it in my back garden, and at this time of year it starts to grow quite strongly - the only thing you can do is pull it up relentlessly whenever you see it. Weedkiller (glyphosate) doesn't really kill it unless you bruise the stems before applying, but not easy to do in a border full of plants.
I did manage to get rid of most of the bindweed that plagued me, by digging out all the roots I could and constantly pulling up new shoots, but horsetail is practically indestructible!

Nooo. Ok. Looks like we're unlucky

Will continue my relentless campaign of pulling the bastard weeds out of the border, and doing what I can with the ones on the front lawn...

Wow! That's some commitment! Afraid it wouldn't work for us as it's all down our street so would just spread back

DH sprays with white spirit ( it breaks down the cellulose which is on the outside of the plant) and after half an hour zap them with weed killer. He only does this in the garden

Organic allotment - dig dig dig dig dig the bastard

Chickens do a good job on ours.

Tinkley wow I'm in awe of your knowledge! Sadly the neighbours all have it too so wondering if it's a lost cause... But might be worth a try. It's wretched stuff!

*Tinkly

*Tinkly

Shot that sounds more manageable - will try and see what happens!

We have this in our front garden and like you its in the neighbours gardens too. Our garden is ugly red chips which were there when we moved in and think the membrane is gone under them. I just pull them out and keep on top of it from a cosmetic view. Going to redo front garden with new membrane and thick layer of nicer gravel and hopefully that'll kill it off.

We had it and the only thing I could find on the Internet was to keep pulling out and depriving it of light. Started this about 4 years ago - just remove each bit you see every time you're in the garden. This year it's still there but so much less - just the odd shoot here and there. This is probably the slowest method but it's fairly easy and after first year it gets easier and easier. It's just a habit I have now when I wander about the garden when the kids are playing to do a quick scan of the borders to see if any of the bastards have popped up.