I've searched high and low with no success!

Of late [past month or so] I have discovered the following sprouting up through some good quality weed barrier which has a good inch or so of slate aggregate laid down also! It appears randomly. I've now noticed that some is starting to sprout from our upper lawn, maybe three or four sprouts so far but I know there'll be more.

Anyone any ideas as to what it is and what I do to get rid of it?

 

Some sort of Asparagus?

 

Asparagus, I suppose so but I'm sorry to have to say, it looks remarkably like the curse of the gardener, Marestail. Some call Horsetail. A plant fossil from the jurasic and the very divvil to get rid of. Sorry to bring such bad tidings. Cheers, Tony.

 

Tony is right

 

Yes, Marestail, they are very deep rooted so no chance of digging out. To get rid of it you need a little drastic action. Bruise the leaves / stems then paint with Glyphosate - you need to bruise the stems as they are hard and shiney and will not absorb the herbicide otherwise. Be careful when handling the plant as it has sharp sillica inclusions on the surface. (In former times these plants were used as pot scourers because of their abrasive nature) - The ones coming up in the lawn will probably die off with regular mowing.

a-a

 

Typical. We move from a house with Japanese Knotweed to a house with no garden and now we've moved from there we have this stuff!

Having looked it up on the internet, it is the same as I suspected [but neglected to mention] that grows up a bridleway at the side of our property.....quite some way away from our rear garden though! I didn't mention it as we've only seen the stuff out the front in full growth so I wasn't sure and didn't want to confuse matters.

Jurassic someone mentioned and that's exactly what I thought when I noticed this stuff up the bridleway when we moved in at the end of last summer.

I shall strim to break the stems and treat with Roundup for a while to see if that alleviates the dreaded stuff. The stems that keep growing through the aggregate isn't too much of an issue as it's just as easy to pick them out breaking the stem. Every time I go out I have a quick gander to see if there are any more to pull out but for the past few days there have been none.......until finding some on the recently cut grass.

Attack, attack, attack then!

Cheers for the ident.

Just one other question regarding this stuff;

Would it have a negative effect on a lawn in the respect of taking nutrients from the soil and bringing on patchy growth because our upper lawn was freshly laid just prior to us moving in and has, of late, become rather patchy?

 

the weed killer will be most effective you don't strim them just bruise the leaves and then apply

 

I worked in a garden that had them .... the weed was between existing perennials, so I had to be very carefull with the weedkiller

i put a rubber kitchen glove on one hand .... then, over that I placed a cheap woolen winter glove

spray roundup into the palm of the woolen glove while it is on your hand .... rub that against the weed .... job sorted .... took 10 days before they eventually started to die

when the job was done, I disposed of both gloves

they have not regrown in 3 years

 

My thinking was that strimming the tops off would open the stem to allow the weed killer to get in. As it is sprouting through the grass I will be cutting them anyhow, no way to avoid that.

 

I read in a old gardening book they used marestail to scrub out pans in the kitchen in Victorian times somthing to do with silica ? (corect spelling ) ?

Spruce

 

Thats right Spruce, the Silica Tetrahedra, Si04, most common compound in the Earths Crust, hardness 7 on the Mohs scale, ideal to make a metal polish from

 

Is this another one you have been waiting on to tell us all im imprest

Ziggy


Spruce

 

Thinkin about an "Ask Ziggy" thread

Don't think I could match "Ask Elvis" though, he amazes me

 

Your knowledge is scaring me

 

We could have Ziggy VERSUS Armandii now that would be fun on a wet Bank Holiday
Monday oooohhh like next Monday for example.........

Spruce