Horrible plant driving me nuts -help!

Could someone please identify this pesky plant for me. it's beginning to take over the garden. I have tried digging it up but it keeps coming back. Thank you.

 

Hi John,
Thank you so much for replying. it is indeed a thug. I spent weeks digging the beast up and all the masses of roots . I then hoped for the best and put some lovely turf down. Now they have decided to push themselves up through the grass - at this time of the year too! I still have a huge patch of them to clear but I have now lost heart and want to just get rid of them. I think they must be attracted to water as we are on a water table and used to have a well in the garden. I am definitely not into weed killers but I am very tempted at this moment. I have never used them before - how damaging to wildlife and the surrounding plants etc are they?
I am so glad you have identified them for me - I now have something to go on. Thank you.
And thank you so much for your welcome - thanks for having me.

 

I think you are correct about the water connection @myra saunders as I had it close to our little burn (See photo). I am presuming it has a much paler, almost white back to the leaves and a white root? It is indeed a horror. As @JWK rightly says it will die off if sprayed with the likes of Roundup but you have to keep at it and blitz any new signs of life after spraying. Pity you have turfed over the area as that makes spraying difficult and a really good way of irradiating it I sort of discovered by accident. I was putting down teram/membrane and bark chip on a bed which had some of this pest in it. I didn't know but hoped the membrane would be strong enough to not allow the weed to penetrate it and it was. 3 years on and not a sign of the horror. Could you stand to cover the area for a while with black polythene? and maybe by say July of next year it might have given up the ghost. Not exactly a nice look but you will get rid of it if it is starved of light. My sympathies that you have got it!

 

Hello, thank you for your very helpful reply. I have just come back in from the garden where I have been trying to dig some more up but the roots are so strong in this particular patch that I've given up today. Oh my word ..what a brilliant idea about the black polythene. That has given me such hope and it makes sense of course. That will be the first thing I'll buy this weekend. I suppose tent peg s would best to hold it all down. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

 

Hope I've been of help. If you have tent pegs well and good if not some reasonably heavy stones will do the trick. If you have large black bin bags you could cut them in half and use those, or anything else which is dark and waterproof will do the job. I use cut in 1/2 old compost bags which are usually black on the inside. The other thing which will work is old carpet. Not perhaps completely waterproof but will keep the light out which I think is the most important element to success. Good luck.

 

Thank you so much - you have been an enormous help. I was really beginning to despair as it has now decided to start coming up through our original lawn so it really will be all over the garden before long. Excellent advice and I will get started asap. So you think about 9 months coverage? Worth a try! I can't thank you enough.

 

Well I'm not sure that 9 months will do it. I thought if I said 2 years you might lose the will to live. Maybe do 1 section for say 9 months and then lift the polythene or whatever you have used and "wait and see pudding". If nothing appears by the end of Autumn then I'd lift the remaining covering. if there is any sort of growth then relay the covering and leave the rest for longer. Alternatively my only other suggestion is to move...this was something I contemplated after having spent days digging up what I could see of the b stuff only for it to return in what seemed days with renewed vigour.