What to do when invasive weeds have conquered the garden

[TenSheds]

And by invasive weeds, I mainly mean bindweed, goosegrass, sycamore, nettle, ground elder, some big leafy thing, and rosebay willow herb. We also have rampant foxgloves, ragwort and herb Robert but foxgloves are welcome and the others easily managed.

The garden we inherited when we moved in had a small lawn and the mix of non-native ornamental plants that I associate with suburban council planting. We are trying to replace this with a wildlife friendly kitchen and cottage garden. We've converted some beds to veg and herbs (in need of clearing and weeding now), but the previous owners made extensive use of weed stopper textile and chippings, which hides actual rubbish in places and is inconvenient when you want to replant.

Our garden is L-shaped with a lot of different properties adjoining, including some unmanaged land, so bindweed in particular encroaches from all sides.

The former lawn is now mostly moss and plagued with all the above leafy bullies. What's the best way to get rid of them and recover a useable green space? (We don't mind the moss, less mowing and I have hay fever, but grass with daisies and dandelions etc would be nice.)

There is only one thing to use on a garden like that.

Elbow grease.

Not helpful, sorry!!

Your garden sounds a bit like mine! Mine is a o.4 acre plot, house in the middle. Surrounded by arable fields, and a bit a waste ground on one side, that blows weed seeds over every autumn. Fields edging weeds, I.e. nettle, ivy, ground elder, grow over and under the boundary dry stone walls. Also horsetail is beginning to appear (endemic round here). Previous owner also put down fabric, planted through it and then put tons of stones on it. The weeds grew through it, and of course you couldn't dig through it. It's damp here so moss is rife in the grass, it's like walking on a sponge. So I have huge empathy for you.
if your weeds are coming from outside your garden, there isn't much you can do except,keep pulling them up. If you can get round your beds at this time of year and pull up as much as you can, (and sometimes you might needs bit of weed killer in really bad spots), then put down some cardboard after a good soaking, with a mulch on top, and that should see most of them off.
for the fabric problem in the end we got a gardener in to tackle it (we're getting too old!). Two hulking lads dragged off all the stones, removed the fabric and dug over and seeded the grounded with grass. We bought a scarifier machine to help remove the moss (you can hire them), but it needs doing twice a year. We do get daisies and dandelions in the grass (and toadstools!).
we've been here 20 years, still just about on top of it, but as some wisecrack said, a garden is a thing of beauty and a chore forever.

I've got all of those things in my garden and whilst they can be a pain, as you say you want to plant for wildlife perhaps look into all the wildlife those plants support, it's a good amount. Then you can keep on top of what you can but be heartened that the bits you don't get are doing good, bindweed left to flower is a great pollen source and some butterflies and moths need a sunny patch of nettles, the best advise I've heard re ground elder is to plant to complement it, we have Japanese anemones planted into ours and they look great together (can of course also be a thug but we love it!). Learn to work with what's there rather than cursing it all.. very gardens have none of those things and those that do are likely lacking in diversity. Also worth noting that nettles suggest a good nitrogen rich soil to work with.

Just start hacking and pulling them out, some will grow back and you'll do it again, less but still some will grow back again. Repeat till it's more manageable and you can take measures like weed control fabric or mulch on beds.

I spend a lot of time pulling weeds up. Some things I’ve planted have gone into battle with the weeds - in particular strawberry plants are fighting the creeping yellow buttercup and the periwinkle is fighting the nettles and winter flowering heliotrope. However, both strawberry and periwinkle are quite thuggish so you need to like them to plant them.

One option is to sacrifice a season, put plenty of weedkiller down and cover it all with heavy duty tarps.secured down tightly. A season of no light will make a big impact. I've done this with individual beds.

See it as a long term project and tackle it over time rather than trying to get it done in one year, or you'll kill yourself!

if I were to prioritise which weeds to focus in and get under control, it would be the brambles and bindweed. This is my 5th year of bindweed assassination and it still comes up, but each year it has got less rampant and thuggish. Charles Dowden who advocates dig-free gardening says realistically just keep pulling it up every time you see it, rather than expecting to eliminate it in one go which is impossible.

Brambles, very targeted application of Roundup on the roots can get rid of it quite thoroughly.

I can forgive little Herb Robert - I've even got a Flower Fairy picture of one! they are lovely in the hedgerow, and not too invasive. Nettles, I quite like the ones with the white blooms (different variety to stingers). Butterfly and moth lay their larvae on them so the caterpillars have food, keep them contained in a clump and cut regularly for fresh growth and they do have a place in the garden as part of a balanced ecosystem.

I genuinely wouldn't worry about the moss if you have all that going on.

I'd get a good fork and one of those weed removers that you stand on and wedge out the deep rooted weeds.

I'd remove all the ragwort first, with the stand on weed remover. Be diligent about this.

I'd loosen the soil under the bindweed with the fork and dig it out as your main priority and hoe off all the others down to the ground.

I'd then spend this year on keeping the veg beds weed free and full of veg.

Mind you, what some people regard as 'invaded' I see as just a normal garden so it's hard to say without a photo. But the ragwort and bindweed would be my main targets to get the roots out.

Nettles, I quite like the ones with the white blooms (different variety to stingers) Not just a variety of the species. Completely different family!

Nettles are in the nettle family, with 3 nettle species in the UK, plus Pellitory of-the-wall. The white flowered plant with similar leaves is the Dead nettle, in the Dead nettle family which includes a lot of UK wild plants as well as most of our herbs - mints, marjoram, oregano, savory, lavender, rosemary, sage, plus Monarda, Phlomis etc.

So “less related” than apples and roses (which are in the same family), apples and crab apples (both genus Malus), or Bramleys and Golden Delicious (varieties of the same species Malus domestica)

@AlisonDonut Why would you target the ragwort first?

I thought I'd answered this earlier but it didn't post. I get it out because it is highly toxic to animals. It's one of those things that I just cannot stand, after spending years looking after a community garden and having to remove those and foxgloves due to toxicity.

It's also the main food plant of the cinnabar moth caterpillar, and it is a native plant, not an alien invader. It's generally not taken by animals while growing because of its bitter taste. It's not particularly invasive, so although I don't find it particularly attractive, I wouldn't target it first unless I was gardening next door to grazing land.

Keep mowing.

Yeah, I know. I've done qualifications and run gardens and been head gardener and was once running 14 different vegetable growing spaces. I still removed all the ragwort and foxgloves.

If left to go to seed it very much is invasive. I've had neighbours who have left it to go to seed and i've then spent years removing it, both at my old house and my allotment. I find it is best tackled head on the first time you see it. The moment I see that first leaf I get it out.

I'm not finding it invasive in my lawn. I had three tiny plants 10 years ago, I haven't done anything, I still have 3 tiny plans. More invasive if seeds can get a purchase (thinking now about experience on a NNR), but there are worse things. And while I am happy to root out introduced invasive problems, I'm not so happy about declaring war on natives.

Ok don't then.

Wow, thanks for all the replies! We had quite an industrious day yesterday, clearing the veg beds and making a start on the ex-lawn. I think cardboard will be the way forward, I've heard this suggested on GQT too. I'm trialling some wildflowers in the voids left by weeds removed and on bare patches and we'll see how that goes.
There are nettle patches around a stump and at the edge by the bug hotel, but I didn't want them where I would be sitting! Similarly, I do quite like bindweed in a hedgerow and we have plenty of ivy around - but they have no place in a lawn either. The ragwort was covered in caterpillars last year, but am hoping to confine it to one deliberate patch, where there will also be teasel and sunflowers. I'm happy with the creeping buttercup, it grows where nothing else will. I already have strawberries and brambles are manageable: free food!

Cardboard useful weed suppressor but can be v v slippery when wet

My garden was like this after we moved in and didn’t tend to it for six years. The amount of ground elder was insane, add to that a huge amount of green alkanet and bindweed.

It basically took a lot of digging and pulling to get on top of it. There seemed to be no shortcuts, as I also had a lot of shrubs which I didn’t want to sacrifice. At one stage I had three brown bins, all full every fortnight, and I’d also beg up and take to the tip in between.

It was well worth doing though, and remembering how hard it was is such an incentive to keep on top of it especially in April/May when it all goes nuts.

Pick the things that really upset you/stop you from growing things you like, and target them thoroughly, pulling up new seedlings and planting things you want in the space. Learn to love the rest of it and work round it. My garden is a combination of wild and cultivated stuff, but my major bugbears are dandelions, docks and shining geranium - they obliterate everything in their path - so I concentrate on controlling those while planting around the garlic mustard, herb Robert, plantains, toadflax and cuckoo pint.

If it's that bad I'd be tempted to cover all the beds with weed suppressant fabric or cardboard for this year to try to get rid of the worst.

A lawn can be rescued very quickly - you can either do it the elbow grease route and follow the instructions in The Lawn Expert book in the Garden Expert series.

Or you can pay a lawn company to do the lot for you.

I've done both and the latter is far easier and not necessarily that much more expensive once you factor in all the stuff you need to buy and your own hourly rate

Oh, loving the Japanese Annemone idea! We do have some in our ground elder, but just one or two, I had now idea that they both powerful spreaders, so will encourage that, thank you! And ground elder is edible, the young shoots are ok taste wise, - if Armageddon strikes there is plenty of food in the garden, haha. 😁