Hi all,
In my small front garden in South UK, despite deep digging and
removing it before planting new shrubs etc there is ground elder
shooting up.

I try and dig down each time and remove the root as far as I can.

Will this weaken it over time or should I use a week killer that is
painted on the leaves? if so which one?
Mick.

In article ,
Mick wrote:
Hi all,
In my small front garden in South UK, despite deep digging and
removing it before planting new shrubs etc there is ground elder
shooting up.

I try and dig down each time and remove the root as far as I can.

Will this weaken it over time or should I use a week killer that is
painted on the leaves? if so which one?

Yes, it will, but I would also use HALF-STRENGTH glyphosate on
the leaves. After some time, they will die. If you repeat that
half-a-dozen times, it will kill it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 19/06/2013 05:56, Mick wrote:
Hi all,
In my small front garden in South UK, despite deep digging and
removing it before planting new shrubs etc there is ground elder
shooting up.

I try and dig down each time and remove the root as far as I can.

Will this weaken it over time or should I use a week killer that is
painted on the leaves? if so which one?
Mick.

Is it only in your garden, or is it coming from next door? If the
latter, you will never be free of it unless your neighbour's ground
elder is also treated with weedkiller.

--

Jeff

On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:57:27 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote:

Is it only in your garden, or is it coming from next door? If the
latter, you will never be free of it unless your neighbour's ground
elder is also treated with weedkiller.

That depends on how much there is next door. Glyphosate will take out
the plant for a several feet from (repeated) apllication point but
that's about all. If half the garden next door has you'll just have
to fire fight as it comes back or get co-operation from neighbour to
erradicate it there as well.

Digging will never get rid of it as there will always be a bit of
root left. Glyphosate two or perhaps three times a year will get rid
of it in a year or three.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:

Digging will never get rid of it as there will always be a bit of
root left. Glyphosate two or perhaps three times a year will get rid
of it in a year or three.

Not at all. You can get rid of it faster by digging, in places
where you can dig a couple of times a year. But you have to be
able to dig a foot down.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:46:53 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Mick wrote:
Hi all,
In my small front garden in South UK, despite deep digging and
removing it before planting new shrubs etc there is ground elder
shooting up.

I try and dig down each time and remove the root as far as I can.

Will this weaken it over time or should I use a week killer that is
painted on the leaves? if so which one?

Yes, it will, but I would also use HALF-STRENGTH glyphosate on
the leaves. After some time, they will die. If you repeat that
half-a-dozen times, it will kill it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

It is in what amounts to a big brick built pot, around 25 feet long by
6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, but when it was built in the 80s they put
clay in the bottom.

I can get bits of root out until I get to the clay, and it is filled
with plants now too.

At least there is no problem from anything next door, just the nightly
drunks throwing rubbish in it on there way home from the pub.
Thanks,
Mick.

On 19/06/2013 05:56, Mick wrote:
Hi all,
In my small front garden in South UK, despite deep digging and
removing it before planting new shrubs etc there is ground elder
shooting up.

Shame you didn't hit it with glyphosate a couple of weeks before digging
it out - you would have saved a some work. You can't kill it in a single
go unless you sieved the soil but you can severely weaken it.

The roots are thick and hold a lot of stored energy so you have to
persecute it mercilessly to get rid.

I try and dig down each time and remove the root as far as I can.

You only need to leave the tiniest piece and you have a new plant.
Digging also disturbs whatever you have planted there.

Will this weaken it over time or should I use a week killer that is
painted on the leaves? if so which one?
Mick.

Whatever you have going at the time and never let it have green leaves
in the sun without either hitting it with a weedkiller or digging it
out. If you have already hit it with half strength glyphosate then any
small bits of root that you miss will be less likely to regrow.

Combined physical and chemical attack will get it fairly rapidly as will
a lawn mower close crop used weekly in grass.

It requires tremendous dedication to eliminate the stuff entirely when
your garden backs on to a farmers field full of the stuff.

I have a modified golden syrup bottle loaded with glyphosate for spot
weeding in and amongst shrubs although it is the bindweed that gives me
the biggest headache rather than the ground elder.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Mick wrote:

It is in what amounts to a big brick built pot, around 25 feet long by
6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, but when it was built in the 80s they put
clay in the bottom.

I can get bits of root out until I get to the clay, and it is filled
with plants now too.

That's ample deep enough - it's doesn't regrow well from deep
roots (unlike bindweed) - but the plants are an issue. I would
use glyphosate, but I really do mean half strength.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

If you have a lawn next to the bed, it will be in the lawn and spread back from there.

Although you can't get rid of ground elder by digging it out, you can reduce it from a big weeding problem to a small weeding problem by one year's hard work. Keep your eyes open and dig it out within a week or three of it resprouting, and there will be a lot, lot less of it next year. You just have to keep vigilant for ever after, but it will remain a small problem. But ever neglect it and it will return to being a larger problem. After all, weeds are always with us, and I'd rather have ground elder than some others.

I've got ground elder in my lavander hedge and weeding it out shreds my fingers.

In article ,
Mick wrote:

It is in what amounts to a big brick built pot, around 25 feet long by
6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, but when it was built in the 80s they put
clay in the bottom.

I can get bits of root out until I get to the clay, and it is filled
with plants now too.

That's ample deep enough - it's doesn't regrow well from deep
roots (unlike bindweed) - but the plants are an issue. I would
use glyphosate, but I really do mean half strength.



What do you mean by "half strength" 50/50 mix from neat or double normal
water added?

Mike

In article ,
Muddymike wrote:
In article ,
Mick wrote:

It is in what amounts to a big brick built pot, around 25 feet long by
6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, but when it was built in the 80s they put
clay in the bottom.

I can get bits of root out until I get to the clay, and it is filled
with plants now too.

That's ample deep enough - it's doesn't regrow well from deep
roots (unlike bindweed) - but the plants are an issue. I would
use glyphosate, but I really do mean half strength.

What do you mean by "half strength" 50/50 mix from neat or double normal
water added?

The latter. Or use half the amount of concentrate for the same
amount of water :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

echinosum wrote:
Although you can't get rid of ground elder by digging it out, you can
reduce it from a big weeding problem to a small weeding problem by one
year's hard work. Keep your eyes open and dig it out within a week or
three of it resprouting, and there will be a lot, lot less of it next
year. You just have to keep vigilant for ever after, but it will remain
a small problem. But ever neglect it and it will return to being a
larger problem. After all, weeds are always with us, and I'd rather
have ground elder than some others.

I have a problem with ground elder (and creeping buttercup) because the
young leaves of both look similar to strawberry leaves. :-(

wrote:

I have a problem with ground elder (and creeping buttercup) because
the young leaves of both look similar to strawberry leaves. :-(

Don't talk to me about creeping buttercup!

Last year I tried digging it out, but my lawn ended up looking a bit
like a rugby international had just been played on it. This year, I've
dug less out and am trying a chemical approach. I can't remember the
name of the weedkiller off the top of my head but it will be 2,4-D
based as per various website recommendations.

--
Chris

On 20/06/2013 08:56, Muddymike wrote:
In article ,
Mick wrote:

It is in what amounts to a big brick built pot, around 25 feet long by
6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, but when it was built in the 80s they put
clay in the bottom.

I can get bits of root out until I get to the clay, and it is filled
with plants now too.

That's ample deep enough - it's doesn't regrow well from deep
roots (unlike bindweed) - but the plants are an issue. I would
use glyphosate, but I really do mean half strength.

What do you mean by "half strength" 50/50 mix from neat or double normal
water added?

More dilute - the objective being to have a slower kill rate and let the
poison move further through the roots before it kills the top.

I reckon a combined attack chemical and physical is worthwhile YMMV.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

yes, it's interesting the way plants that don't really look alike can seem so similar when they're entangled in a bed and you're trying to make a reasonable rate of progress with the weeding. I don't have ground elder, and I'd find it hard to confuse buttercup with alpine strawberry, but I find buttercup amongst hardy geraniums can get lost. Another pair is enchanters nightshade and dog violet - even the the leaf bases are completely different, the colour, texture and level of matte-ness is sufficiently the same for it to be easy to pull up the wrong one. It's not until the enchanters nightshade has put on about 6 inches of vertical growth that it starts to look obvious.