Weed Crusade!

[princeofpounds]

Hi all,

first time posting (and my first garden too!) so hope I have the right section for this query.

I took the garden over from the previous owners of the house and everything looked fine over winter and in early spring.

But over the last few weeks I've had a really pervasive weed take over my beds. I didn't tackle it right away because of the rain, but I've been trying to clear it out for hours today.

It's proving really difficult because it has soft stems and when I pull it up it doesn't bring the root with it 90% of the time. When I do try to get down and pull the roots out, I can normally get a section but it snaps and I'm sure I'm leaving plenty underground even if I'm really diligent. It's also been growing tangled up with plants I'd like to keep.

Picture attached. It's a ground cover plant and grows 10-20cm high to give you an idea of scale. It seems to be spreading by sending out roots laterally, and new leaves and fine roots spring from the nodes every few inches.

What's the best way to deal with it? I have a horrible feeling that it's simply going to grow back from the fragments of root system left in the ground. I'm prepared to nuke it with chemicals if that is what it takes, because there's no way I can spend 8 hours a month dealing with this!

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[mj]

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Just 8 hours a month? Welcome to gardening. If you don't enjoy it weeds and all you are going to be very disapointed. I covered my gardens with black plastic for the winter thinking that would help me this season and it has but there is still this nasty grass trying to take over. It is the nature of the hobby.

[Jeff Layman]

It's ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria). See here:

[princeofpounds]

Thanks so much, that's the one. I'd looked through a guide and wondered about ground elder but the picture didn't looks similar enough - but the pic you link to leaves no doubt.

Googling it, sounds like a real pain. Still, at least I have an idea what I'm facing now...

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[Jeff Layman]

Just keep hitting it again and again (at 2 - 3 week intervals) with glyphosate. Don't pull anything up - you want maximum leaf exposure to the glyphosate. Hopefully that will deal with it, but if it's spreading from a neighbouring garden I'm afraid it will keep coming back. You can always try having a word with the neighbour to see if they will let you spray their plants too.

[Billy]

Anything else growing in this area? Glyphosate isn't selective in what it kills. If is your only recourse, and there are other plants in the area (or you want to plant soon in that area), you may want to consider painting (cheap brush, and a plastic cup) the glyphosate on, rather than spraying. Definitely, don't use it around edible plants.