Wild garlic!

Morning all
as a "first poster" I am not too sure about protocol, so I don't know if admitting to being not particularly organic is going to get me some verbal reproach or not, but here is my question. In order to simplify life for my recently widowed mother, I covered a section of her front garden with an average quality membrane, and covered this with a decorative pattern of coke and flints (in order to re-cycle some of my fathers "never chuck anything away "legacy)..This actually looks quite effective, especially in moonlight, HOWEVER, a significant quantity of wild garlic had proliferated in the previous scrubland, and this alone is growing THROUGH the membrane! short of lifting the whole lot and starting again, is there anything short of napalm I could use/do to restrict this growth. Any help would be gratefully received.

The chatham tangler

 

We get loads of wild garlic, I am surprised it has come through your membrane. I spray ours as if it gets a chance it can take a hold. I would wait untill spring though now.

the wood next to my friends house is absolutely covered in garlic in the spring and it looks fantastic, just like snow, but I would not want it in my garden!

 

Membrane is pants! It's a fad brought in by telly gardeners as the be all and end all of ground cover, even the thick, black 3mm plastic stuff. Wild garlic and other wild flowers have tiny fiberous roots that will take hold where there is the littlest bit of dirt, such as what you've laid down. In between your bits of coke and flints will be pockets of moisture, air and nutrients where wildflowers will grow. Any tiny nicks or holes in the memrane will allow the wildflower roots to grow and anchor into the ground beneath. Pulling or spraying the wild garlic is your only option without having to undo your hard work itself. In future, if you want to supress wildflower invasion then use a heavy layer of mulch a good few inches thick instead.

 

thanks for the replies......yes, I am still naive enough to be taken in by unrealistic tv "quick fixes", and I should have known better!......both of you mention sprays....any one stand out as likely to be more effective? I dont know if you can recommend brands on the forum, but a generic name would be good enough....like in Pharmaceuticals, its the active ingredient that counts, not a fancy name!
Thanx again

 

Roundup is the one to use, but you need to do it when the plant is in active growth OR when the plant is taking nutrients from the leaves back down into the bulb. With wild garlic expect it to be a long term project though!

 

Roundup, as Palustris says. Kicks butt. Depending on how heavy your infestation is it may take repeated applications to get it done. Back in the day we used to use paraquat- but that's been banned now due to it's indiscriminate killing of anything - plant or animal. Worked well tho! :D

 

so napalm IS out of the question, then
:dh:
seriously.thanks for the responses

 

I like wild garlic. In my opinion it's flower brings some welcome cheer early on before most other stuff comes through, and you can use the leaves in all sorts of dishes.