Help needed with invasive Plant at Hospice

[Rich Taylor]

Can you please help. I work at a local hospice and am getting a majore problem with oxalis taking over in the bedding schemes every year. The only way i can see to control it is to replace all the soil in the beds but that would be to costly to do as we are a charity and the money is better spent on patient care.

Is anyone else had this problem and how did you sort it out. Is there anything i can spray to control the problem..

Thanks in advance for any help

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[despen]

R> Can you please help. I work at a local hospice and am getting a majore

Google for "oxalis control".

Looks like a difficult weed to control.

I think I'd go with black plastic.

Put black plastic over the bed, cut holes for a few plants, cover the rest with wood chips. The oxalis that doesn't reach the light should give up in a year or 2.

Pulling and Roundup won't work.

[lannerman]

Hi Rich, In the past, I too have encountered this problem with several gardens and whilst glysophate (roundup) will knock them back, it doesnt irradicate it. You dont say what sort of area is involved but I would imagine that being a hospice, its fairly substantial !! Anyway, a method I found to be fairly successful is to clear the area of any low growing plants, leaving any shrubs and carefully lay mypex sheeting down to cover the soil, ensuring that the edges and around the shrubs are neatly covered as best as possible !! This needs to be left for several seasons to allow all the little bulbules to try to grow, fail and then die off. You will have to cover the mypex with bark so that it looks presentable and the cheapest way to do this is to contact any local tree surgeons who often are pleased to have somewhere to dump thier chippings. Obviously doing it this way, you will have to do each bed as these chippings become available !! I think, whilst this is not ideal, it does work and will be much cheaper than replacing all the soil and actually will reduce the maintenance required to the beds. Eventually you can introduce some groups of low shrubs and the whole thing will look quite good and hopefully oxalis free.

best wishes Lannerman

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[gloria.p]

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[gloria.p]

Oxalis is a horrible weed to try to control. Digging it up, unless you get the largish whie seed at the base of each stem, is futile because the seed will soon send up another stem. Pulling usually gets just the leaf and stem.

When those pretty little flowers form, seed soon follows and the plant will "spit" the seed for a wide radius (10 feet or more.)

Any kind of plant in the vicinity that you may try to transplant will carry the oxalis seeds with it and infect someone else's garden.

Even replacing the soil won't do the job unless you dig down far enough to remove all the seeds, If not, the plant will soon recover and sprout again.

Do Google "oxalis control" to see what kind of chemicals are available in your area. It will probably take an entire season of applications to rid the site. We have been struggling with it for years, both in our flower and vegetable garden and in the lawn.

gloria p