I think I've got Ground Elder in my lawn

I am almost sure I have ground elder in my lawn, after looking up pictures on the net. I am going to check with a garden center though to be sure by taking in some of the leaves.

I've always wondered what it was and despite regular mowing nothing stops it and its spread over a large area approx 20ft/20ft and spreading. It came over from next doors garden through the privet hedge, there is really no grass in there now just the elder.

I feel that even if I do manage to kill it because its not controlled next door it will always creep through from there anyway and be in the privet roots.

I also have several trees directly in the area too, the elder grows all around under them. They are 2 laburnam trees, a 25ft magnolia tree, a newly planted lilac tree and of course the privet hedge all along the garden. I am worried in case any spraying might damage or kill the trees?

This has been creeping over the lawn for 20 years but I didnt know what it was so its definitely well established. I don't really want to dig such a large area out but just want tips on whats the best thing to use, the best way to do it and if theres any way to prevent it coming through from next door if I manage to kill it off at all and of course without killing the privet or any of the trees please?

 

Ground Elder is notoriously difficult to get rid of, I was told: once you have ground elder
you have it for life. you could try digging it out but the tiniest piece of root left in the
ground will regrow into a plant and the cycle will start again, it needs to be controlled
at it's source ie: your neighbour or you will be wasting your time clearing your garden of
the stuff. hopefully someone with more experience will be able to help??.

Pete

 

Last night I was thinking, I read somewhere about people painting each leaf with a strong weedkiller mixed with wallpaper paste. I know the amount I have is far too much to do that way but I thought could I mix a load up and litterally get a wallpaper roller and roll the stuff all over smothering it. Seeing as there is no grass left and nothing else there to be saved, all that would get killed would be the ground elder. I understand this will need to be done several times over? and I am quite prepared to have nothing there for 6 months or more because its got to be done. I really dont want to dig it out though because I feel the effort needed for this would take a long time and might harm the trees in the process.

Maybe if it kills it, to keep it under control from next door would painting the leaves with the wallpaper paste and weedkiller every so often under the privet work ok?

What I need to know is would this way be a good idea and what weedkiller will I need to use? To be honest I'm not considering organic for this as I know its going to be a tough job so I'm looking for the strongest killer possible? glyphosphate? or verdon? or is there anything stronger? Wilko have a 1ltr bottle of glyphosphate is this ok? I used to buy sodium chlorate from there for clearing paths but they stopped doing it, is glyphosphate stronger than that?

Can anyone tell me what ratio I should mix the wallpaper paste and weedkiller solution up to get the right balance please?

I don't suppose throwing loads of grass seed down where the elder is might overpower the elder and it eventually get choked out might work? probably wishfull thinking

 

You can get rid of Ground Elder Lady Gardener.
There's no point in trying to dig it out, any little bit left in the ground will just regrow. Weedkiller is the only way to go.
You can spray it with Glyphosphate (marketed as Roundup I think).
The Glyphosphate only acts on green foliage. It does not poison the ground so it will not harm your trees or hedge. You may have to spray the groundelder more than once.

Where the weed comes through from next door dig a ditch along there and insert some kind of non permeable barrier. That should stop it, but I would keep an eye on the area and treat any invaders with Glyphosphate straight away.
Good luck.

 

I've been looking at the glyphosphate and the roundup and theres different types and strengths, some are really expensive like the one on Amazon roundup ultra 3000 which is £39.98 for 1 ltr! compared to the one at wilko (own brand glyphosphate) for £10 for 1 ltr but if I need an expensive one I would rather just get it than just waste money getting cheaper ones that don't work in the end.

Will I need to dilute the weedkiller and will I need one of those pressurized sprayers? as I don't have one of those if so which would be best to buy? and is it worth spraying in the next few weeks or should I wait till next year now?

 

yes, you need to dilute the weedkiller Lady Gardener.
The difference in the price might be down to the strength of the glyphosphate and how much you need to add to the water, so the price might be the same in the end.
You can apply the weedkiller with a watering can and a dribble bar if you don't have a sprayer but I find a sprayer uses less weedkiller so is less expensive in the end.

And yes, it would be worth treating the weed now, they will still be growing strongly with plenty of foliage to spray.
It's all down to you and your budget.

 

I must admit I have spent the whole summer and spring fighting a battle with Ground Elder and I admit it I am winning.

The technic I use is a combination of digging and weedkiller. The problem I find with the Weed killer alone is that ground elder spreads by its roots so whilst you can spray a bunch (even with Roundup) a new root and branch has grown before the original root has died.

What I did there was:

1. Spray as Alice has suggested.
2. Wait a couple of days or so and then dig out the roots (all roots and not with a spade but a little hand trowel so you reduce the risk of small bits left, but don't get paranoid over bits left.
3. About 5 days to a week later go back and you will see the fresh shoots of ground elder from the bits left in the ground. I again use a hand trowel to dig down and remove the shoot and the root from which is sprang.

I now have ground elder free area's that have been so for 3 or 4 months now.

It is a painfully slow process, even worse if you have the ground elder growing between the roots of healthy plants (which it likes to do).

 

Do you think the ordinary roundup concentrate is ok rather than buying the roundup ultra concentrate as the price of the ultra is £40 for the same amount, is all the difference that I'd need to put more in of the ordinary concentrate?

 

I must admit I buy the ready missed 3 litre spray from B&Q or anywhere else which costs £9.98 and works fine and does a very large area.

You can also buy 3 bottles of the concentrate from B&Q which makes up 3 litres each and use the empty 3 litre sprayer again.

So for £20 you should get 12 litres of spray including the sprayer.

 

I found a roundup concentrate 540 size (the ordinary one) quite a bit cheaper on Amazon, I got it for £13.20 including delivery. It says it does 27 watering cans worth so not sure how many sprayers that will do but I was thinking of putting a bit extra in anyway as hoping it might work better stronger. Then I plan to respray it but as it needs the leaves to take it to the roots I suppose I have to spray when new leaves appear?

I still feel I'd rather spray more often than dig anything up because of the trees around there plus there are a lot of big roots so doing this would be really hard if not impossible in parts so I'll see how this experiment goes for the time being.

I've ordered a 7 ltr hoselock killaspray, thought I'd get that size as it actually takes 5 ltrs of water so if I want to use the ready mixed 5 ltr refils at a later date its the right size.

We are having a lot of rain at the moment though so hoping it will be ok to still do it

 

I bought a 4.5 litre sprayer of roundup (ready to use) for about £20,
it goes a long way and you can buy refills to fill up the sprayer for
under £20. I hope you get the ground elder under control soon.

Pete

 

The reason I avoided the ready mixed sprayers of roundup is because I want to try and give it a bit more of a concentrated spray, its been spreading for about 20 years so it will probably need it

 

Ladygardener, there is no point in making the concentration stronger than the manufacturer advises (in fact it is illegal))
It works at the strength recommended and any stronger mixture is just a waste of money.o

 

LadyGardener, ready mixed Roundup will kill everyything it touches.
no need for a more concentrated dose, you might need to respray
to get any that was missed by the first treatment. choose a calm
windless day to spray, it will avoid drift.

Pete

 

I have used the roundup today I mixed it up to what it said for bindweed 30ml per ltr as it didnt give a guide for ground elder on my roundup bottle, I do have some thistles and tougher weeds that it says 40ml a ltr but I'll do the separately.

I don't know if I oversprayed the areas but I kept having to refill my sprayer and I've used the whole 540ml bottle I've just had to order some more. It said on the bottle that 1 ltr of water mix should do 20 square mtrs but I have only done about that much using the whole 540ml bottle. I put 150mls roundup to 5ltrs of water in the spray if I've worked it out right? It just doesnt feel as though any lighter a spray would work, should it be a really light spray?

I havent managed to do all the areas I wanted to because I ran out of roundup but the ground elder is everywhere.