Ground elder

Fay

Hi everyone
It appears we have rather an invasion of ground elder, eek. Having looked it up it sounds a nightmare to get rid of so I was hoping for some advice on it. Firstly I have some pictures of it as I'm not sure if both are ground elder, but in different stages, or if they are two different plants.

Here is what we have been told is ground elder


And here is another plant that looks like a possibly older version of this, but has furry stems and leaves-so I'm not sure it is the same?



I'm hopeful that the second isn't ground elder, as here is the bed currently being invaded by it..and as you can see it has a lot of mature trees and plants in it


and this is the bed I'm worried it will invade, which is very densley planted and has the second plant in it already


Having read about ground elder the best solution is to dig out the bed, wash all the plants down that are in it to try and remove all traces of the elder and re-plant. But as you can see from the pictures, it would be impossible to remove some of the plants from the bed it's currently invading, such as the pear trees, camilia etc as they are too big and established. So does anyone have any tips for managing ground elder and how I can try to at least control it?

Thank you

RAS

The second plant is Japanese anemone

the top one is ground elder. The Romans reputedly introduced it as a salad herb. Personally I do not like the taste; even quite small and young leaves taste a bit "fishy".

stumpycat

When ground elder gets in amongst plants I stalk it with my trusty gardening screwdriver - you can pinpoint the roots of individual plants and track along the runners to the next one.
If it's really a problem, or you cant get to it (I have a patch growing amongst rocks under a hedge :mad:) then I use glyphosate mixed up with wallpaper paste & water. I paint it on with a paintbrush, wait a week or so then re-apply. It can take a few applications till it's well dead though!
Good luck!

Fay

Thanks guys-RAS I certainly don't fancy eating it, especially if it tastes like fish!

stumpycat, I think I will try your second method on some of the harder to reach patches. I spent 4 hours last week removing as much as I could from about a meter area, but there is so much that I'm sure it will be re-populated very soon!

splodger_seedswapper

yep top pic is ground elder

it has long running roots to it - and like bindweed and couch grass etc - if you break a bit off - it will grow again

i have worked in gardens that have been plagued with it - and the only way to try and keep it under control - is to lift everything out of the bed, take out the ground elder root then replant everything (making sure that there is no root left in the other plants root balls (ground elder will hide everywhere)

on the plus side - ground elder is more susceptible to weed killer than many other weeds - so you could consider spraying it.

if they are lots of other plants in the bed and you are worried about spraying them too (or you have kids / pets) spray a good dose of weedkiller into plastic bags then fix the plastic bags over a bunch of ground elder leaves - tie bags to stop them blowing away - although this is fiddly - it does work very well for small beds which are heavily planted.

if you can't be faffed with using bags - and want to spray - try taking the bottom off of a few plastic plant pots - or cut up some plastic bottles or something - to make little confined areas for you to safely spray into (just fit the ground elder foliage into the pot and give it a good squirt)

it is always best to spray weedkiller on a calm day (no wind or rain) and with full sun - as the sun will help to scorch the weed foliage

Fay

It certainly sounds like I have got a long job on my hands to try and remedy this. In my plant identification thread Dave has just identified that I might also have bindweed-boo!

RebekahR

I have couch, bind weed and the ruddy ground elder. I am on a never ending fight! And the bind weed comes under the fence from one neighbours and the !!!!!!! elder the other. Sigh ...

lostinrates

Fay, take heart, I'm tackling this too. My situation is slightly different as there is little hereto save, but there is SOME studd I want to save here. we're doing it a bit at a time, digging over carefully picking out everything we can and then sieving the soil as it goes back n the bed. Its not fool proof there are a few coming back but we just grab them where we see them (its easiet to take three off a patch than deal with the whole patch.) I'm also planting things and sowing annuals as I go hoping to provide some competion for free space...empty soil WILL b refilled with some weed inevitably.

splodger_seedswapper

i have ground elder in my garden - and that is easy to take of compared to the :eek:horse tail :eek:that i also have to contend with

Lotus-eater

RebekahR wrote: »

I have couch, bind weed and the ruddy ground elder. I am on a never ending fight! And the bind weed comes under the fence from one neighbours and the !!!!!!! elder the other. Sigh ...

Yay! me too

If you let it get to you, it will drive you insane

stumpycat

I have ground elder & couch grass in the front garden, bind weed & horsetail in the back and ******* yellow poppies with roots like parsnips everywhere. :mad: