Ground Elder – help!

[FrenesiGates]

We have just moved house and the garden when we viewed was beautiful and well established – the previous owners were supposed to keep the gardener on and ensure the garden remained in good condition (as there was some time between exchange and completion). It seems that they have been fairly lax and one garden bed is completely over run by ground elder. I'm a new gardener and have been reading up on it and was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to eradicate it without having to dig up the entire garden bed (it's large with a lot of established, large plants and dense grasses). I guess it's been there about 7-8 months (possibly a bit longer)

I spent a day on the weekend trying to get out as much as possible (including roots) but just wasn't able to get to the roots when it was growing through the established grasses plants. I'd quite like to avoid sprays / chemicals if possible. Any tips or ideas hugely appreciated!

You are stuck with it I’m afraid. It’s a sodding nightmare. We had it in our previous house and couldn’t get rid of it. Moved two and a half hours away and it’s followed us! Well not really but it’s coming in from our neighbours garden now.

Following with interest. A neighbour mentioned that if we get it down to manageable levels we rub pesticide on the leaves and that takes care of the last of it, though I’m not keen on it (nor have I got it down to manageable levels).

@Peridot1 @7Worfs Thanks! I kind of feared this might be the case... I'm going to give it a good go trying to pull it out and dig up all the roots.. but I think it might just come back. I know a few people recommend rubbing glyphosate on the leaves, but I'm a bit nervous to use it as it has such a bad rep and as you say it needs to be at manageable levels. I'll be so upset if I have to redo the entire garden bed.. It's huge and has a lot of really established tree ferns in it that I'm not sure would be very happy being dug up..

I have this in a 10m border (which is mainly rose bushes and peonies). We've tried:
1 Weed killer
2 Digging every last bit of root out that we can possibly find, including pulling out all the plants and detangling the GE roots
3 Putting down weed control fabric and then bark chips on top.
With all methods it came back as it's underneath the long path beside it as well! In the end we decided to get as much root out as possible then go out every day and pick off any new leaves. I intend to do this until it's dead. But I realise it might outlive me!! Dreadful stuff.
I've planted lots of campanula and cottage geraniums underneath the roses in the hope they'll spread.

It won't just have been there for 7-8 months, probably just the previous gardener was keeping it under control. If you pull off the leaves each time you see them, it will gradually become less obvious but I think it's impossible ever to completely get rid of it.

Digging it out seems to give it a new lease of life. The roots are so deep and if you leave the tiniest piece it grows back. I do a combo of cardboard/bark (makes me feel better to not see it), and pulling leaves off.

36 years I've been battling with one very persistent ground elder clump in my front garden. Thirty six ruddy years. Just when I think I've finally anhiliated it, up it pops again, taunting me.

Very very difficult to eradicate I’m afraid as each tiny bit of root left behind will grow. The only way I’ve got rid of it in a border is to dig out every scrap and keep coming back and do it again. That’s almost impossible with established plants in the way so where there are shrub borders I do leave it and ‘enjoy’ it as a ground cover plant.
Do use a bit of weed killer if you need to. I know it gets a bad rap but apply it on a hot sunny day where it’s going to dry quickly. If you are only using a small amount it’s not going to do you any harm. It’s not like you are using them every day like some people do for their job.

@Yamadori 36 years?! Ugh it sounds like I'm in for a loooong battle. I'm quite upset as it's the garden bed at the front entrance and the garden was one of the things we loved about the house – but they really let it go after we exchanged it seems. We've had to remove a lot of hedging that had some kind of fungal disease, there were two dead trees we had to pay to have removed, and now the ground elder (which sounds like it will be a neverending issue!) I'm dreading what else is going to come to light as we start settling in...

Agree with the others. I am trying to pull the worst of it, plant things that will at least stand their ground with it, and accept that it's ground cover! I think it's fine.

It will have been in the garden for ages and the gardener will have been managing it.

We bought a house and the old gardener left this autumn and I note how much ground elder is popping its head up in various parts. The gardener has covered it up with woodchip and it just reappears eventually.

I’ve been digging bits out but with more success in some places than others. Where it is well established under ground then it really is hard to get rid of. And it’s tangled with roots of another plant.

Going to try targeting with weed killer next.

Round Up is the only solution. I don't use weedkillers on anything else at all, but ground elder is in a league of its own.

You have to learn to love it. It’s great ground cover and has pretty white lacey flowers. Don’t pull up the roots, they grow back twice. Just try and suppress it by getting rid of the leaves as soon as they appear as often as possible. I’ve tried Round Up but it didn’t touch it.

Have discovered it's roots are not that deep, so now experimenting with a deep narrow trench which I will slot broken paving slabs into, to stop it advancing.

Our tortoises eat it for us.

I tried every other solution known to man and gave up after 6yrs. Dolly and Jean keep it down to a minimum.

I don't think you can blame the previous people or the gardener - it just is what it is.

What you need to know about ground elder is that it loves having its roots broken or disrupted. Whenever a root breaks, the plant gets a signal to grow lots more roots from that point. If you leave a tiny bit of broken root in the soil as you pull the rest out, ground elder thinks 'yay! Someone loves me! Time to grow another big plant!'

This is really different from lots of weeds, where it's ok to just get most of the root out. IME, the best thing is to pull the stems, gently, so that a self-contained clump of roots comes with. Keep doing it all the time. This weakens the plant. If you try a wholesale crusade, and dig the whole area, chances are you will only spread tiny sections of root, which will joyfully begin to grow again.

You can eat it! (Before it flowers) https://www.wildfooduk.com/edible-wild-plants/ground-elder/ it’s really nice in spring salads!

One thing that helps is not walking on the soil so you can pull long roots out. I use a small fork trowel to loosen the soil. Also a layer of bark, then it spreads easily under the bark but is pulled out in long strands. My neighbour had back problems and now it is all over the place and they're resorting to weed killer.