Solved Mystery Plant to Get Rid!

Hello

I'm hoping someone can help me please!

This mysterious plant has invaded my garden. It's aggressive and growing everywhere. I tried taking a thin layer of top soil off and that worked for a few weeks but it still grows back. My usually effective weedkiller does nothing to it.

Does anyone know what this is and is there an effective weedkiller to get rid of it please? Thanks.

 

Maybe liverwort
I get it on part of my drive.
I give it a light sprinkle of salt which kills it, but it does return weeks later.
You really don't want to put salt on your soil though - it has a devastating effect on the life therein.

Have you tried glyphosate? that should work, but you may need to trample on the liverwort first as its waxy leaves can prevent uptake.

 

Yes, I’d say liverwort too. But before you go spraying stuff around, maybe read about why it’s there in the first place…

Algae, liverworts and mosses on borders and containers / RHS

and what benefits it might even bring to the garden.

And what damage home made “remedies” can do.

 

Thanks for the reply Pete. My usual weedkiller contains glyphosate but that has had no effect on it. I'll try salt on a section of it though, see if that works. Thanks.

 

Hi. The soil around the edges of the garden. There's no trees or hedges. It's so comprehensively covered in it that you can barely distiniguish the soil from the grass. It's just covered in green. I don't think it's clay soil.

 

There's not much point throwing chemicals at it because its composition is not like that of plants that are killed by products such as glyphosate.

Try covering it with sharp sand and/or amulch of garden compost to remove the light and improve drainage as soil organisms work it into th esoil. It wn't improve overnight but will be more effective and cheaper than chemicals of any kind and better for your soil.

 

There's no point killing it if the soil is not improved as it will just come back.

Someting else to try is aerating the soil. This simple means pushing the tines of a garden fork in as deeply as you can and then pour sharp sand into the holes to keep them open and improve drainage. It's what's recommended for mossy lawns and should work for the liverwort.

Just have to remember to work backwards so you don't stand on the new holes and squish them closed before you've plugged them with sand which can be piled on at intervals and then simply brushed in.