Killing off Wild Garlic

[TiredGardener]

I have wild garlic all over my yard. In the grass, tangled in with my tulips and daffs, around the roses, in the side walk. Literally everywhere it can grow. Pulling it up is not working, and from what I'm reading, it usually doesn't. Roundup is supposed to work, but I prefer a more environmentally friendly option.

Around the roses I put down a weed barrier and some mulch over that. It went through the water holes in the barrier and is just as strong. At least the other weeds are gone. I can't do that in the yard, even if it worked for the roses.

As for eating it, I prefer to eat the ones that I grow just for that purpose, I want to have a pretty yard as well.

Anyone have any good ideas?

Thanks,

Jason

-- Start living a sustainable life. Start making a difference now!

[Val]

Wild garlic is one of the "cockroaches" of the weed world, even more invasive than wild onion. The weed cloth allows light to pass through, that's why the garlic isn't slowing down. Pulling and digging only encourages division of the bulbs. A thick mulch of newspaper over a period of time will eventually get rid of it but it's most likely not going to happen in a few years. All you can do with that growing in the lawn is to keep it cut as low to the ground as possible and over, again, a period of time it will eventually weaken the plant enough to die off. Wild garlic is tougher than wild onion to eradicate since the garlic spreads by both seed and bulb division. If you don't want to bring out the big guns and use an herbicide you have your work cut out for you for quite a few years to come. Carry with you always an old pair of scissors when in the garden and when you see the tell tale signs emerging from the soil or lawn CUT them off at below ground level. Squelch the urge to pull them out and never let it go long enough to flower. Think of it as a quest.

Val

[Bill R]

from my gardening beds and that works fairly well there. For stuff growing in the grass I just keep it trimmed and it really doesn't bother me. Around sidewalks a good organic solution is 5 percent vinegar (not the "watereed down" stuff). It is a good idea to trim it before you spray it so that the surface is broken and the spray can penetrate.

[beecrofter]

Roundup is probably the most friendly choice you have, a method of spot application that works is a rubber glove covered with a cheap cotton glove dipped in the solution, pull your roundup coated glove over the weeds to coat them.

[Billy]

[Sheldon]

A precision Roundup application will eliminate those plants that are growing now but new ones will return from the many bulbettes still in the soil. I suggest you have your soil tested and amend it, it's probably more condusive to growing garlic than lawn grass... if you see any mosses growing in your lawn and/or anywhere nearby that is a good indication that your soil is more amenable to garlic than lawn grasses. Also over fertilizing can encourage all sorts of weed growth by weakening the lawn grasses (many people think if a little fertilizer is good then a lot is super, not). And sticking to a regimen of keeping your lawn properly watered, mowed, and aerated will do much to erradicate all weeds. Very first thing is to have your soil tested, especially from areas where the garlic is most pronounced. I bet you find out that your soil is too acid... it will need a good application of lime, and a deep plug aeration can't hurt.

[Sheldon]

Roundup works well if you apply it carefully. But wild onion/garlic will return unless you do some testing to discover why it's growing there in the first place. Have your soil tested and amend it to correct it's Ph. Also you may be over fertilizing and not watering your lawn properly. You very well may be doing something that is hostile to your lawn grasses but encourages those bulbs. A well established healthy lawn should annialate many weeds, especially bulbs. You also need to stick to a proper mowing regimen. I don't know where you are located but it doesn't matter, nowhere in the US are lawn grasses native. Lawns are difficult and require a lot of care because they are composed of plants that don't want to be there. First step is to test your soil.

[TiredGardener]

Thanks, I think this was the most useful response. I'll swing by the garden center now that I'm feeling better and pick up a soil test kit. I'll also read about applying lime. I bet I'm a little early in the year for that, even in mild Oregon.

I'm more worried about it in the future. We have lived here a couple years now and are starting to work more heavily on the yard. It is awful. When we moved in there were weeds higher than the roses. Grasses, vetch, cosmos, and the garlic (bulbets in full bloom) sitting there choking out these wonderful roses. We have gotten most of it under control, but are still fighting the garlic (corn gluten, the weed barrier and digging). There were even bulbs planted among the rosed (tulips, daffs, iris, lilies, and more). They were moved (next is digging up the ones left in the yard).

I want to get the garlic under control this year, so that I can lay down some grass in the yard. If amending the soil will help, I'll do that. It sounds like maybe if I do what is right for grass it will not completely rid me of my pest, but will keep it under better control.

And as I said, Roundup will not be used until all friendly options fail. (I have faith that if I stick to Earth friendly methods, I will not need poison, and my garden will be better for it and healthier)

Jason