In article , Nick Maclaren
wrote:
In article , Jim Lesurf
wrote:

[snip]

2) Trees. Mostly self-seeded from the park that backs onto our garden.

!+2+3 above means we've had a sort of 'green glade' for many years.
Nice in its way being shady, bushy, etc. However I am now keen to have
a lot of colour in terms of a variety of flowers. I've chopped down
some of the trees to get more light to the ground.

That is the first step in discouraging ground elder!

Ah! That is excellent news. I was just trying to get some more light so I
could see the garden and have more in the way of colourful flowers. Didn't
realise that reducing the shade would also help upset the ground elder.

I sprayed the ground elder with glyphosphate about once every 1-2 weeks for
about three months. In effect a repeated 'carpet bombing' regime. The
little boogers seemed dermined to survive, but I think I have 'discouraged'
them a bit. I plan to re-bomb soon, then after a week or so, start digging
and planting/sowing things.

The worst 'snag' has been that raspberries/tayberries (which we like) have
spread around the garden, and - to my ignorant view - their leaves look a
lot like the ground elder. I tried to avoid 'collateral damage' but I fear
this may not have been entirely successful. :-/

[snip]

I have some other specific questions/problems extra to the "freesias"
one, e.g. the 'failed bulbs' one I refer to above, but I'll post the
details in due course after I see what response (if any) I get to this
posting and the 'freesia' one... :-)

Well, if you were trying to get freesias to naturalise, you were taking
something on! Some of the native bulbs will fight ground elder (e.g.
(English) bluebells, which will strangle anything if they like the
conditions).

We already have a fair number of bluebells. (ahem, Scottish ;- ).

You are a long way north for freesias.

This is the kind of thing about which I am currently highly ignorant. At
present I am tending to proceed on the basis of "that looks nice and only
costs a couple of quid so I'll try shoving some in the ground and see if
they pop up." :-)

The problem is that when this works, great. But when it does not I don't
currently know if it was a hopeless choice, or if I should have done
something specific. However as I learn I am proceeding on the basis of
trying to get the garden to tell me what it will allow to grow, where. :-)

w.r.t. to the actual freesia thread I tried to start. It is now snowing
outside as I write this. I cleared the bed where I plan to put them, but
have not planted them as yet. Unless I get answers that tell me it would be
fine to do otherwise I will wait a week or two, and then plant them.

Slainte,

Jim

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