One about weeds

In my first garden related blog post which you can see here!, I spoke about my battle with ground elder in my own garden and earlier I was having the same battle in my customers garden so I thought I'd share some thoughts.

Firstly here's a photo of a plant that I dug up.

You can see the long root which makes ground elder the pest it is. There's no good just pulling it out because all of the roots need to be removed and there's an awful lot of them! You'll never get 100% of it the first time no ones perfect but if you can get 90% the first time a 90% of what left the second time and so on in a reasonably short period of time the problem can be managed if not completely eradicated.
I wouldn't bother with weed killer it will kill the leaves but the plant will simply retreat to its roots.

The second weed I encountered is not really a 'weed' I'm sure some consider it a plant but I find it a nuisance. It is a large grass plant with sharp leaves. It will become very large and seed prolifically around the garden meaning before long you will be overrun with it.

So my advice get is to get rid when they are small because if they are big you'll need a pick axe. If you like grass plants well I've got a few suggestions that will look nicer and not take over. Firstly if you have a large garden go for stipa gigantea or m&s anthias zebrinus (the stripey one) interestingly [I hope] the stripes are caused by a virus, don't worry it doesn't damage the plant or spread.

If you have a smaller garden try hakonechloa aurea or stipa tenuissima which is very tactile.

But most importantly dig them both out before they take over.

Michael