Living with Ground Elder

My neighbours very kindly shared their back garden ground elder with me (also their field bindweed in the front) for the last 17 years. Every year, I remove as much as I can from my borders, round up spray every new leaf that shows in the spring before my plants get going - but I am losing the battle, and its now in the lawn despite my best endeavours. I am now rethinking my strategy. Looking at the hedgerows ground elder grows - but does not seem to take over - the other plants grow through and over it.

Clearing my borders and leaving them fallow is not an option a) I could live with and b) that wouldn't work as the sharing will continue. Now what would happen if I just let it go and went with the flow. Is anyone else out there living with ground elder? Or has anyone out there won the battle, without laying waste to the garden.

 

Hi Fran
I really do empathise with you, having got the dreaded groudn elder stuff myself (with couch grass & sticky willy) We have the Romans to thank for it (as well as bloody snails!). Mine has also come from the neighbour's (ah bless 'em)& I find the only way to reduce it is to dig it up, being thorough, but fairly easy as the roots don't penetrate too deep (if you pull off the leaves alone, it quickly regenerates as the roots hold large food reserves) & then mulch the area heavily - although this isn't going to be practical in your lawn I guess. If you go "wild" & let it do its thing - flowering & setting seed- it will take over the whole neighbourhood. When you see it in the wild it is often growing with other thugs so they don't out compete one another. + are you sure its not cow parsley or some other umbellifer in your hedgrows?
Bind weed is a different matter as the roots can penetrate for several metres, I guess the only thing to do with it is persistently remove the foliage to try & weaken it,& mulch as much as possible, or I have seen people grow it up canes & paint on herbicide (not something I'd do, being a "greenie"). Don't let it beat you Fran - "Illegitimis Nil Carborundum"

 

Mmmm- I have never let it flower or seed - so I will follow you advise and defoliate when ever I can, and keep up my digging it out. Trouble is I dense plant, so there's only a few times a year I can get at it. I hoped to just keep it in check, but ....... Wel will keep on keeping on. <gg>

<"Illegitimis Nil Carborundum"> translation please. Reads a bit like don't let the b*** grind you down. Me I "per adua ad astra" - not sure I got that right <gg>

The Field bindweed in the front I gave up - after 18 months of hitting every green leaf (having removed my plants) with no success I membraned, and mulched, and its now a rose garden .

couch was easier - emptied a bed, removed every last trace and replanted. No doubt it will recurr. the joys of gardening But what a glorious day - there is no weed that could spoil it.

 

Yes tis indeed don't let the b******s grind you down. I think we all go through a bit of adua in the garden! But tis well worth it. Yes fab day today (after early rain - but I was hungover so didn't care - Theres nothing like being outside to get rid of a head full of jackhammers!) :eek:

[ May 01, 2005, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: Bayleaf ]

 

Oh i wish someone had the ground elder answer. Every gargen ive ever had has had bloomin ground elder. I manage to keep most areas clear by continually battling but I get the feeling that it is just biding its time for a takeover bid. Ive found that if you mulch heavily it doesnt stop it but it does make it easier to pull up because the roots dont have anything solid to hold on to. Keep fighting the fight.

 

Ground Elder? Dont think I would reconise that if I saw it.
Plenty of bind weed, couch grass, bitter cress and quite a few other things I dont know the names of though. I think everybody seems to have some weed or other that really does well in their garden.
Perhaps thats what we should grow, only plants that do well in our particular conditions, wouldn't half save a lot of work.

 

But oh so boring - some wild flowers I grow, cos they are pretty, like vipers bugloss, but the thug's, no I like my roses, and dahlias, and pinks and.........

 

bindweed in flower aint bad, if grown well that is. Everyones garden plants are a weed somewhere in the world, that is apart from the cultivars and varietys that probably wouldn't survive anyway.

 

I have battled with groung elder since 1989 when I moved in. I now have it under controle and am using the site for growing veg.We let it grow one summer as it got neglected no time to keep up with the gardening we then pulled and dug up what we could and made a pile It had been treated with round up but it only killed it off a bit. The we set fire to the rubbish.
I now regulary maintain this patch as I gro w veg there when weeding keep removing with a trowl any bits that start to show. It seems to worl lots of nice veg and litle elder but you cant neglect it i am afraid as it always seems to come back to haunt us sorry no permanent solution as yet.

 

Wouldnt it be nice if you could train slugs and snails to only eat the weeds?!

 

Wouldn't it indeed <gg> Mrs Cloudy, and thanks Slugbug, - the consensus seems to be keeping waging war on ground elder, so battle is resumed :-(

 

Hi Fran
The only way to beat Ground Elder is to never let it leaf up, I know it's continuous and tedious but...... Dig most of it up and then never let the the remnants leaf up for any length of time and it weakens it and eventually kills it, some time needed I'm afraid. But with it coming from next door you'll always have to be on your guard. Bindweed(convolvulous) You have to paint with a 50/50 mix of Round up and washing up liquid on every leaf you can see on a good dry day with no prospect of rain. Maybe more than one application may be needed. These ideas work, just how much you want to succeed. Hope this helps. Ray

 

I beat ground elder about 18 years ago when I moved into a house that was totally over-run with it. I dug 3 inches off the surface of the entire garden and put it into a number of skips. The garden was then rotovated and every last visible root was removed. Result - no ground elder for the past 18 years.
Dave

[ May 04, 2005, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: davemachin ]

 

Thank you, and yes, that could do it but Mmmm - the very thought of removing the top three inches of the border that borders my neighbour where it comes from, has my back and every other joint quailing a bit and to lose my roses and shrubs!. But if I can't keep it within bounds, then your advise, I will follow.

Thanks

 

Fran - just a thought - is there any possibility of sinking "root barrier" (such as is used for bamboo) along the boundary?