Ground elder / Goutweed eradication help
lk_levy
19 years ago
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tom_orrow
19 years agonbpen
19 years agoRelated Discussions
Poison Ivy? Or some type of ground cover?
Comments (11)Happy to! Hostas are tough, gardeners move them around regularly. I've not had Epimediums before, so somebody jump in if I say something that doesn't jive with those. A bit of reading about them says gardeners often divide them, so assuming they're like most perennials that gardeners move at will with good results. Does your yard have other 'flower bed' areas? If so, is the light exposure similar to this one? Is there space for plants to take up temporary residence there? If yes to the above questions, I would dig up as many of the Hostas and Epis as you feel like saving, move them to the other bed area. Shake off the roots when you get them up, to make sure you're only moving Hosta/Epi material, and not any of the goutweed roots. I would replant each one as it was dug, to reduce the time each one spends out of the ground (and working this way would allow you to take a break, for a minute or a night, or a week, whatever your schedule requires.) It would be best not to do this in the middle of a really hot day. Then rake the area where plants were removed as flat as possible, use weed trimmer to help get the weed foliage down/help flatten the area. Cover the shredded weeds and the ground with cardboard, overlapping the edges well, cover that with enough mulch to hide it. By spring, the bed should be ready for the good plants to be re-planted. After uncovering a small test area (if necessary, the cardboard may be decomposed by then,) where the goutweed was known to be thick to make sure it's dead, you can move the Hostas/Epis back, or start fresh with something else. If there is nowhere to move them, you could put the plants you want to save in pots for winter. Or possibly dig out half of the bed, move the good plants to that side and try smothering the other half. Furniture and appliance stores are great sources for soliciting large pieces of cardboard, just remove any tape or stapes before using them for gardening. Whatever is growing on a spot where I want to have a 'flower bed,' whether weeds or grasses, smothering is how I start all new beds. I'd rather wait than dig, and removing the top soil is counter-productive to having 'good dirt.' Smothering the weeds (and often grass) returns the organic material of the weeds/grass to the soil. I can elaborate more, if needed, in whichever direction you'd want/need to go....See MoreHelp me kill the Goutweed (Aegopodium)
Comments (17)We have it in our yard here in Finland. It grows everywhere here in Southern Finland, mostly on old homesteads and seems to thrive in even the worst soil. Previous home owners were only using the property occasionally over about a 13 year period and weren't doing anything to upkeep what had been a beautiful yard and garden. Goutweed is called "vuohenputki" here in Finland. I've read numerous articles about eradication and can only add that it's a nuisance and difficult to get rid of. Last spring we cleared a bed of it by pulling up every piece we could find. Results were pretty good. This year only a few popped up and it was mostly due to the rhizome being tightly compacted next to tree bases, etc. In some areas we recently used heavy-duty carton cardboard topped with 2 inches of topsoil which we intend to hand seed. No results yet on whether this will kill or impede the spread of the weed as we've only just done this. Our latest concern is getting rid of the weed that is everywhere else in the yard. I am opposed to using Roundup, but after lamenting the use of it, I broke down after realizing we could never dig all of it up as it is nearly everywhere on our 3/4 acre property. Sadly, roundup did nothing. Our next plan is to use a commercial grade polypropelene fiber fabric barrier. We've ordered 800M which comes on a large spool. It isn't enough to cover the whole yard, but will go a long way in the nearest parts to the house. We expect delivery of the barrier fabric in a week. Once we get it laid out, it too will get a topsoil cover then seeded. I don't want to see goutweed or any other weed in my yard again. I can tell you that product-wise, equipment-wise, etc is much different here than in the US. I think trying to solve this problem would be difficult anywhere, but here it seems even more so with such limited availability of product that is so common place in the US. For instance weed-n-feed, miracle gro, etc. etc. none of which is sold here. Even finding a rotary push lawn spreader would take a long time to locate, if at all. :/...See MoreHelp needed on problem: goutweed in rose border
Comments (9)Vicky, Eradication can occur, but it takes time, and you must be persistent. Do not dig it out. That only multiplies it. Do not till the soil. That only multiplies it. Every time you see a goutweed sprout, cut it back at ground level and discard in the trash. Do not dig it out. Be careful handling it, wear gloves that can be washed afterward. Do not compost it or toss it into the woods or over a hill side. Wash your cutting tools, too. This is actually a very easy method of eradication. It doesn't much energy, or long, dirty, weeding/digging sessions, just regular diligence. It takes regular walks around your garden cutting shoots at ground level. It does take a certain amount of time every week, and maybe for a couple of years, maybe more. What you are doing is destroying goutweed's capacity to feed itself by removing its leaves, killing it by starvation. What's nice about this method is the psychological victory you experience, and uplifted spirit restored, knowing that you are winning, albeit slowly, but in the end you win, goutweed looses! You will look forward to making your extermination rounds in your garden, knowing every shoot you cut back to the ground is one step closer to victory. If you lapse in your diligence, don't beat yourself up. Just recover your determination and pick up where you left off. Goutweed can come up so close to the stems or in the middle of clumps of choice plants and hide from you. Sneaky devils! Carefully cut them trying hard to leave your choice plants uninjured. DO NOT DISTURB THE SOIL. Just know goutweed shoots will try hard to pop up again, but each time they do they are weaker and weaker until they disappear. This is my solution to your dilemma. One that works. There are cases of gardeners who have been combating goutweed by digging it out religiously for thirty years and have made no headway. Moses...See MoreDISASTER! MAJOR HELP NEEDED!
Comments (24)Persistent, systematic chlorophyl denial is a good way to do these plants in. I first became familiar with bindweed when I volunteered at a newly started food pantry garden. It was rampant throughout the grounds and had survived very well the tilling of the soil to clean out the weeds and set up the fields. I became by default the bindweed remover and by definition had to use organic methods. It is now almost gone from the main beds, and I am now working on side areas. Here is what I know: These plants with diabolical roots systems all need to feed themselves by leafing out. The secret is to disrupt this process (chlorophyl denial). If you have 10 or 15 minutes a week to devote to this process you will be quite effective (much more useful than a one time massive clean up effort or efforts widely separated in time). I selected a spot in the garden and at the end of my first session, I had a kill zone. No bindweed was allowed to come up in this zone. It was immediately yanked no matter how small it was. No food for the roots. The original territory could be covered more quickly each week because the bindweed was thinning out. So I systematically expanded my zone of chlorophyl denial. I learned to ignore the bindweed romping through adjacent spaces because I knew I would be killing it off in a while when I reached that point. I would have done something if it started to flower and set seed. Every week, I start my inspection in the original spot and then move along the same route. This is quick until I reach the new area. The lot on which this garden sits is loaded with invasives all around the edges: Garlic mustard, porcelain berry, swallow wort, bamboo of some sort. As I work in my newest area along the edge, I am coming across what looks like stubs of bamboo. I strip any leaves I see off these as I go along. That should work. In my garden at home I chopped down a burning bush and had a problem with re-sprouting, but I kept cutting these off before they developed much of a leaf system and now no longer get sprouting (although I am still dealing with seedlings and think that I may have some re-sprouting at distance points along the original root system.) In full disclosure there are other pest plants in my yard that I have not yet been disciplined enough to get rid of using this method....See Morebrian2cv
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