Gardening without weed killer - am I wasting my time?

[TyrionsNextWife]

I have a large garden that was overrun with ivy and brambles, I’ve spent months clearing them and I’m making good progress. The problem is, everywhere’s now being taken over by things like ground elder and dandelions. I’ve been clearing them by hand but I don’t really think I’m getting anywhere and there’s a lot of ground to cover!
I’m wary of using weed killer for a couple of reasons - firstly there’s loads of beautiful plants dotted around that I don’t want to damage, and more importantly my gardens full of bees and other wildlife that I don’t want to kill or scare away.
I don’t care about perfect flower beds and manicured lawns (it’s very much a country cottage type garden) but I do want to keep the weed so under control.
Any ‘natural’ suggestions or do I just have a choice between weeds or roundup?

I've had ground elder. Just keep digging it out. It goes eventually.

I dont use weed killers- just keep weeding. My garden thinks it's a field really so just need to keep at it.

If you're left with Ivy stumps after your digging (if you've controlled your ivy and bramble you've done the hard bit, I think, credit to you!) you can drill holes into them and pour in salt, we did it with some weird ash stumps and it was very effective.

Dandelions won't ever be too bad unless you forget to nip the flowers off (either as they appear, or before they seed if you want to leave them for bees first). Ground elder is hideously persistent, we tried to keep digging it but there were patches that were hard to get to that we chose to roundup in the end to stop that being the source of the spread. But it's not as physically demanding to deal with as bramble.

I’m so glad to hear I’m not fighting a losing battle! After spending all winter clearing the ivy, I had loads of huge flower beds that I had big plans for but the ground elders claimed it all in a couple of weeks

I’m going to use the cardboard method for the big patches and keep digging the smaller areas by hand. I’ve hammered copper nails into the ivy stumps, don’t know if it’ll work but worth a try......

Thank you for all the comments and advice, it is very much appreciated!! This is the first garden I’ve had as a grown up, so I’m taking all the help I can get

@Heyha please don't risk your health with Roundup, see the link above, it causes cancer.

Just. Don’t. Use. Weedkiller. Ever.

Can’t use weed killer as we have bunnies, I go round in the morning and dehead the dandelions and give them to the buns. Don’t mind a few in the grass

I garden 99% without weedkiller. In some places I spot spray for weeds that just come back or I can't get to dig up.

It's a compromise that works for me.

I have a lavender border I planted 11 years ago. Spotted a bit of acanthus trying to come up in the middle of it yesterday. We spent weeks digging that up before the lavender went in and it was 11 years ago. And still the bastard doesn't die. That gets sprayed. As do things like mammoth thistles.

Otherwise I find having very low standards and a lot of mulch helps.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5515989/
Scaremongering people who use maybe one bottle of amateur strength glyphosphate per year only works if they haven't done their own reading 🙄

Totally agree about not using it round pets and kids of course, they are likely to play in it and lick it. But if I decide that it's the rare occasion I need to use a few squirts I think I'll take the risk- we did actually lay cardboard mulch over the top of the ground elder to help.

What's a few bits of ivy or elder to removing the bees? Oh and the birds, The weedkiller manufacturers will say anything to stop them being taken out of the shops.

Read Bob Flowerdew and Geoff Hamilton if you want good advice about controlling weeds, which are only plants where they're not wanted anyway. Please save the world.

The birds and beautiful wild flowers are returning here (in France) because they have banned the nicotimide spraying.

Nicotinide is a pesticide, not a herbicide.

I would love to know how to keep large areas of patio free of weeds without chemicals. I'm a bit concerned about how it can be done, to be honest. I have a lot if bricked area too, which can start to get weedy. Hand weeding all that is just too much.

@ticketsonasalenow makes an excellent point... And if you care to look at actual research papers and the process of how they get published then weedkiller manufacturers can't 'just say anything'. Well, they can, and they do fund some research of course, but if scientific literacy is so bad that people don't understand that a pesticide won't kill a weed then what hope is there of getting people to read and understand peer reviewed scientific literature? Forgive me if there's an indirect argument being made there (because there is one, a good one, more plant biodiversity should in turn mean more insect biodiversity, if they aren't being knocked out by pesticides).

@sunonthepatio you might do well with one of those little garden flamethrowers if you're talking patio and bricks

I won't use chemicals in our garden anymore.We have a bee hive and visiting hedge hog.So I let the bottom bit hidden behind a small hedge get scruffier and let some nettles and dandelions grow in a small area.Great plants for insects.I have found burdock with really bug tap roots the main problem and this spring have spent hours digging it all out.Then I have bought Strulch-mineralised straw - to mulch and suppress weeds.I put some on my big herbaceous bed 3 years ago and it lasted ages and really kept the weeds at bay.It's been quite a project in any spare time over weeks,but very rewarding and accompanied by a robin who came ever closer.
Also planted lots of bee friendly ground cover plants to fill in the gaps.

I'm still grubbing stuff up and hoeing after many years; weedkiller is just too nasty and some weeds are necessary. I do a morning potter with a cup of tea and pull out what I can, then have a mad hoeing session, abetted by the dog.

Thank you @Heyho.

tickets I know that, but sadly they all indirectly kill wildlife. I have a big garden, a lot of it has trees and large shrubs that I cut\strim round twice a year, That makes it easy to maintain and encourages the wild life.. Since going organic the garden is full of butterflies bees etc. etc.

On the few beds near the house I use ivy as a ground cover, the birds love it. I have to use plants and shrubs that have 'presence' That rise above the ivy, which keeps back some of the smaller weeds.!!

Currently digging up ground elder as the bastard started spreading. Vile stuff to deal with. Loosen up the soil with fork(not shovel as you break the roots) and pull out all tge roots and rhizomes. Good luck, it’s possible(but hard)

You can eat young ground elder apparently. I use nettles in soup sometimes, I haven't got ground elder, but I LOVE my elder trees, the blossoms make lovely cordials and wine. The berries make a brilliant syrup for colds and flu!

If you keep cutting\mowing the ground elder, every week if you can do it. That'll kill it eventually!

@AbsolCatly one of the geraniums inhibits ground elder. I think it’s Geranium macrorrhiza. I’m away at the moment so can’t look it up.

I got rid of 12 m of brambles at the bottom of our garden. Cut them
Back to the ground and the roots are easy to dig up. I’ve only a little ivy, but I can control it quite well by just pulling it up.

We had a whole year last year of just weeding weeding weeding to get ours sorted. It’s largely there. Next plan is planting stuff and putting membrane and bark chips down to keep it from coming back.

We have a large garden and have never used weed killers. We just keep on top of them and tend to pull them up as soon as they appear.

I never venture down the garden without automatically pulling something up. Bloody goosegrass and herb Robert at the moment.

I have a special area for brambles because I love blackberries!

The thing is every "weed" has an insect that specifically likes it to lay eggs on or whatever, they are often beneficial insects which eat greenfly off of roses or whatever. Iam learning to love weeds.

I use organic weedkiller which is made from the same stuff that occurs naturally in geraniums. It's not as effective as roundup etc, but I'd happily take that over damaging the planet. m.greenfingers.com/p23732/neudorff_organic_fast_acting_weedkiller_750ml.aspx?campaign=426022100&adgroup=52045759637&keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjw7_rlBRBaEiwAc23rhjjvS-IIZgxEhcBOYHPibqIF2g6Ube4q0XcLW_aiho7hQZ6UDxx5IBoCMOEQAvD_BwE