Another weed ID thread

Hi all,

I've bought a house with a garden and am in the fun position of trying to get the weeds back under control after previous neglect.
There appear to be two persistent kinds, the one mixed in the grass appears to pop up from any tiny bit of root left behind. The second is growing under my hedge and looks to spread fairly widely quickly.

Thanks in advance

 

1) Ground Elder, a weed

2) Perhaps not a weed, might be something like Perennial Cornflower.

 

Thanks for the speedy reply, I'll make a start on the ground elder tomorrow but it looks like it'll be an never ending battle, thankfully it hasn't spread too far. I'll let one of the Perennial Cornflowers grow to see what it becomes and tackle the rest along with the dandelions for the time being

 

The second one looks like Lychnis coronaria, a pretty but invasive self-sower. It's OK as long as you yank out all the unwanted seedlings. Repeated hits of glyphosate are the only way to tackle ground elder. If it's growing in amongst treasured plants, paint the GE leaves with diluted glyphosate using an artists paintbrush, or stroke the leaves with the gel on rubber gloves.

 

I agree with Scrungee on these two. I have the centurea montana in my garden and it pops up at will. I like it, very hardy and handsome flowers and a very long flowering season. I keep it dug out to avoid it spreading where I don't want it. Not too troublesome. Though perhaps not everyone will want it in their garden.

I had ground elder in an ex-garden. I tried everything and I was resigned to just controlling it in the end as I could not get rid of it (though I'm not the most thorough gardener!). After digging and digging for years without much of a result except periods of time when it was less evident (but still lurking) I found the systemic paint-on sort to be the best.

You have my sympathies on the elder and hope you are more successful that I was. Good luck!

 

I recall someone, can't remember who, saying that if you give the ground alder a beating with a stick before you spray it with weedkiller, it's more effective because it take more up.

Makes sense.

 

Hah I certainly like the idea of giving it a good bash, I hunted along the hedge and ripped out everything I could and dug out the plants and roots where it was mostly set in. When it re-appears I will take much joy in bashing it before trying some poison.

I'm thinking I'll plant up the other areas where I've not seen any signs so when it re-appears I can dig out as much as possible and worry about planting it up properly another year.