"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:38:20 +0100, "Spamlet"
wrote:
earliier stuff snipped
I have spent a fortune on glyphosate trying to kill Japanese Anemones and
evergreen alkanet: it is totally useless. All it does is turn green
weeds
brown and then they gradually turn back green again, so you are better off
just mowing.

S

Funny that but I've never known glyphosate not to kill whatever I
touch it with, apart from the mother-in-law who seems immune to
everything (I'm talking about "pure" glyphosate, not some product
that has it as an ingredient). Though I've never tried it on Japanese
anemones I must admit. Given the propensity of some varieties to be
super-invasive it may well be that the weedkiller isn't going as far
as it needs to through the "system".

Maybe my "trick" for marestail will do the biz for you. Background is
that I didn't want to bruise the blasted stuff before spraying it as
all those little bits break off and you're back to where you started!
Actually tried it for years without really achieving anything other
than a growing area of the stuff.

So I bought a pack of syringes from my local chemist, mixed up some
glyphosate double strength, sucked that into a syringe. Chopped the
marestail stems about an inch above ground. Inserted point of needle
into centre of each stump and delivered a reasonable shot. (Repeat the
dose about a fortnight later if the stem remains strong.) Result, no
marestail for the last few years. (My chemist takes back used syringes
for disposal.)

J

That is going to rather dangerous extremes! Generally quicker to dig up in
the long run. In my case the roots are into solid chalk and rockery stones
which are rather important for stopping the house falling down the hill if
they were to get too disturbed - they are also intertwined with dreaded
mahonia/berberis roots which are also indestructible: thrashed/paraffined
whatever. On the driveway I did achieve minor success for a while with old
engine oil and then covering with plastic and putting the wheelie bin on
top, but the anemones are flowering profusely again now and will no doubt
soon push down the reset concrete building blocks they pushed down before.

They *are* pretty though!

S