Ground Elder

Help please... apart from move house has anybody got any ideas how to get rid of, kill or weaken ground elder?

Does it thrive on poor soil? - can I feed it out?

Its in a busy border not easy to dig it out. Had hoped to mulch the shrubs etc but will this make the b****y stuff grow. :(

Nic S

 

Tell me about it - I got the same problem and have had for years - coming in from a neighbours garden. The best I have done is keep it within bounds - I remove as much of the root as I can from between plants in the autumn and winter - and then roundup every leaf that appears in early spring. Removing leaves continuously in the summer. This year I was not as diligent as I should have been and control I have not - and its in the lawn .

Its either that or clear the border and even that would only buy a little time cos its coming in from outside the garden. Tried that with the front garden with field bindweed also from my neighbour - kept if fallow for 18 months. Nah, didn't work. That garden is now a membraned rose garden, and not the herbacious bed it twas :( .

[ 13. September 2005, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: Fran ]

 

Yeh, me too! Keeping on top is the only thing. Perhaps a spray of roundup here and there!

 

:D I do roundup :D

 

I have found that if you mulch thickly the ground elder tends to be easier to pull up in big long chains of plants. They spread through the mulch because it is easier for them to send out their roots but it also makes it easier for me to pull them up. Apart from that Fran is right, the best thing is to be ruthless and remove any little leaf or root that you see.

Good luck

 

Gonna try that Mrs Cloudy and good for weed control too. I let it get away from me the last couple of years - so this winter will try a get some semblance of control back - and mulching combined with destruction of any leaf/root that appears, sounds good to me.

 

So it looks like the mulch may be in order...

 

Sorry to pontificate. But get one of those 5L cans of glyphosate with a water pistol attached, and go round at least one a week, and give a little squidge onto everything green that you don't want. Even bindweed retreats under the pressure. Do this for the rest of your life and you will win. Honest. And the soil won't be harmed.
Nik