End of tenancy and garden

AnotherJoe · 7 July 2018 at 8:43AM

clear it one day and its back the next

Of course it isn't, so as elsien has said, just strim it down the day before you go.

FBaby · 7 July 2018 at 9:46AM

How do people on your street deal with it? It will be harder to manage if you haven't kept good maintenance of the garden. That was your choice as you were not required to do so, but ultimately, if the garden then doesn't look as it was when you moved, you can expect that they will request money from your deposit to put right.

Saying that you only have 3 days to do it right is not an excuse. As for concern that things will grow back (I doubt it will do so in 3 days), but just in case, take pictures on your last day with the date on them.

[Deleted User] · 7 July 2018 at 10:51AM

FBaby wrote: »

How do people on your street deal with it? It will be harder to manage if you haven't kept good maintenance of the garden. That was your choice as you were not required to do so, but ultimately, if the garden then doesn't look as it was when you moved, you can expect that they will request money from your deposit to put right.

Saying that you only have 3 days to do it right is not an excuse. As for concern that things will grow back (I doubt it will do so in 3 days), but just in case, take pictures on your last day with the date on them.

It will grow back in 3 days unfortunately. Not the bits pulled, but new shoots will be showing.

It is fast growing, rampant and very difficult to eradicate.

Marvel1 · 7 July 2018 at 11:26AM

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

Don't bother with the weedkiller - it won't work. Marestail has a tough outer coating that will not soak up the weedkiller. Pull it by hand that is really all you can do.

The damn plant is prehistoric and really hard to get rid off. I have been eradicating it from my garden since 2005 (by pulling / digging-up). I reckon another few years and it will almost be gone. The roots go down very far.

I can vouch for this, now having looked up images just now, I used weedkiller, killed some other randoms, but these remained fully green and I was like :eek: so what the hell is it. Only appeared this year.

agrinnall · 7 July 2018 at 11:40AM

I'd definitely try to make the argument that the mares tail must have been present when you moved in even if it wasn't showing (what time of year was it?). There's no point in trying to do any short term action, it'll have little or no impact. It's a long term job to get rid of it, and even then there's no guarantee of success. The chemicals that might have been a bit quicker have pretty much all been banned, certainly for domestic use, and most of them for professional use too. I'm in a multi-year fight with it using glyphosphate several times a year.

[Deleted User] · 7 July 2018 at 11:40AM

cjdavies wrote: »

I can vouch for this, now having looked up images just now, I used weedkiller, killed some other randoms, but these remained fully green and I was like :eek: so what the hell is it. Only appeared this year.

Want to be even more :eek:?

Find one of the plants in its fern like form.

Pull the plant in half. So, leave the root and bottom section in the ground and pull off some of the top growth.

Look at the bit you pulled off. It will have a 'spike' sticking out of the bottom. The plant left in the ground will have a hole. Connect the section you pulled off back into the main plant. The plant will now look as it did before you pulled it apart - and it will happily keep growing too.

For this reason the plant is known as the LEGO plant.

OP - pull by hand and then take a dated photo as suggested.

Smodlet · 7 July 2018 at 11:47AM

Keep anything herbivorous away from it! Nasty stuff.

Digging it out must be a hell of a job, apparently the roots go down five feet!

Davesnave · 7 July 2018 at 12:39PM

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

Thanks.

I don't like using chemicals, but in desperation a few years ago I tried Kurtail - it didn't really work .

Consistently pulling by hand has been the best method (but it has taken years).

Kurtail is best used with an adjuvant in a knapsack sprayer and more than one treatment is probably the norm. Apparently, many people do find it works.

I'm light touch. I don't have mares tail but I have bracken, which I treat every 3 years. Don't look to eradicate, just control; after all, something must like bracken!:rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention · 7 July 2018 at 12:40PM

Wondering how much of it there is?

Of course a different bet if the whole garden is riddled with it. But I panicked when I spotted a mini clump of it growing here a while after I got the house and darn stuff was awkward location too (ie in a crack in the cracked concrete path). I did manage to get rid of that some months back by trimming it down absolutely to the millimeter as close as I could get to the ground, then repeatedly pouring boiling hot water over it and then covering that bit of ground up for months.

I've taken the "cover" off recently and - touch wood - there's only "ordinary" weeds growing there now. Whew!

Margot123 · 7 July 2018 at 12:43PM

For every bit of Mare's Tail you break off, it will bush out and send multiple 'branches' up making it look even bigger!

Leave well alone and see what your LL says. If they complain, ask them for photos of the garden without it.......

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

End of tenancy and garden

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free