Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
Paul Kelly wrote:

IME nothing! The damned ground elder will swamp everything apart from real
thugs such as Japanese anemone!

In my experience, lots of things! Anything that is deep rooted and
can take the summer waterlessness caused by the ground elder should
be OK. But most of those grow rather larger than a couple of feet,
and are often trees or large shrubs.

Most things that can grow and ignore it are shrubs, but ISTR one of the marigold
family produces its own herbicide and is supposed to be able to take the stuff on
and win. I've not tried it myself.

I agree that growing anything surface rooted is a complete waste of
time until you have eliminated the ground elder.

Don't even think of digging out the ground elder unless you have the
patience of a saint and a back of iron!

I find it dead easy in a vegetable patch. It rarely goes down further
than 6" and is fairly obvious. It is a right pain in the middle of
herbaceous plants and shrubs, though, as well as where it can run
under paving slabs etc.

The odd bit breaks off and regrows. I find the best approach is a combination of
chemical hits with glyphosate about once a month and strimming after a fortnight.
The remains can be dug out and are so weakened that any bits you miss are unable
to regrow. Never let it get any decent leaves in sunlight and starve the roots
out.

Enough to clear herbaceous borders in a season. Just needs a steady hand to apply
the weedkiller. Or patience to go round lopping off all its leaves.

Compare it with field bindweed, which I have posted before is a New
Zealand plant that has grown downwards :-( Horsetail is similar.

Horsetail is much much worse. Moving house is the only solution to that stuff!

Glyphosate today.
Weedol on the same next Friday
Glyphosate on any green regrowth two weeks today.

Repeat!

Tedious, but not very time consuming and it works! You are constantly
promoting strong new growth of the type that will most readily take back the
glyphosate to the roots and just at the right time of the year too!

I find it one of the more resistant plants, and it seems to laugh
off my applications. But it seems to work a bit better as the weather
warms up - on ground elder, glyphosate seems to block the water
transport to some extent but not the photosynthesis.

Hit it regularly with slightly over diluted glyphosate. And hit any regrowth
after a couple of weeks. It doesn't matter whether you strim it or use chemical
attack the object ist to stop it putting any food into the roots.

As I understand it, you are recommending killing off the tops one
week after first application and then repeating the glyphosate.
Is that right? I haven't tried that, and will give it a go.

Starve it for a while and then dig out the remains.
On the edge of a lawn even repeated close crop mowing will get it.

I wonder if the type of soil plays a part. I have never found ground elder that
much of a problem. It can be defeated in only a couple of years. I find bindweed
and especially horsetail pretty much indestructible.

Regards,
Martin Brown