Manes tail help needed!

[Selkiesarereal]

I am looking for suggestions on what I can plant just now that will cover the ground and block out the rampant manes tail.

We have clay soil and there is no chance of simply digging it out as it’s right across an established bed so looking for solutions to block it.

Over the years I have been trying to create a cottage style garden and each year add to it so plants that would fit in with this, like clay soil and a wet Scottish climate are required.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I can’t suggest how you’d get rid of the weed, but Roses like clay, hydrangeas and Bergenia like damp conditions. Fatsia Japonica might survive, as might Gunnera.

Thanks, I shave said that I have roses, azalea, geraniums, fox gloves, astilbe and others that I have forgotten about until they come up again but any bare bit of soil quickly becomes thick with the stuff so need plants which will grow quickly and beat down this horrible stuff!

Absolutely nothing will block mare’s tail, it will even fight its way through concrete, so there are no plants that could help (I wish there were, ‘cos I’m plagued with the bastard thing!) it finds its way through the centre of shrubs and perennials, making it really difficult to eradicate.

There is a weed killer - Neudorff Weedfree Plus - which claims to kill it, and is not glyphosate based. It contains pelargonic acid ( derived from pelargoniums) and maleic acid hydrozide. I bought some last year, and it did give some control over mare’s tail coming up between patio slabs, but impossible to use where it infiltrates plants.

Oh dear, I had hoped that there would be a magic plant that could outsmart it! Because it’s right through the flower beds I cannot use weed killer and after spending the last 3 summers just trying to contain it I had high hopes for this year.

It really is evil stuff.

Because it’s right through the flower beds I cannot use weed killer
I had mare's tail and tried to get rid of it by chopping off the greenery and hoping that lack of the photosynthesising part would kill it off. No such luck. In the end I resorted to glyphosate. You can paint it onto a particular plant rather than indiscriminatingly spraying everything.

Thanks for this, I will check it out!

I am just coming back to this thread to double/triple check that by painting on glyphosate it will not harm all the surrounding plants including the strawberry bed?

I really hate this stuff!

No glyphosate only effects the plants it touches so protect them from contact and they will be fine.
Mails tail is a prehistoric plant and has a waxy like surface. For the best results when you sing herbicide you need to crush up the stems a little to break the waxy surface so that the herbicide can penetrate.I would mix the herbicide with something to help it to stick the the plant surface so either mix it with wallpaper paste or other starchy substance. And it is going to take several treatments to make any real impact on it.

Brilliant, thanks as it is right through the strawberries and established flower beds just don’t want to damage them and now that the spores are appearing it has reminded me that I need to ale action!

My parents suffered with this for years.

Dad bought one of those butane flame weed guns. Helped hugely. Blast the buggers when they're small. Eventually they do stop, it took years but they don't have them much at all now. Occasionally one but dad just nukes it. Its chemical free which is a bonus if you still want to plant

Improving the soil can help and will help other plants thrive. We had the bloody stuff in our old garden and used a specialist weed killer but you have to leave it well beyond when the spikes look to have been killed off so the weedkiller gets into the rhizome root system. Horrible stuff.