Ground Elder

I had that problem in my garden. It was difficult to tackle without damaging the hedge as well, but in the end, I had the hedge taken out, gave it a good dousing of Roundup, and had a fence with trellis on top put in. It's made all the difference, as two years on I now have a fence covered in beautiful clematis and honeysuckle, lots of space in the border for perrenials, and the ground elder is not making a nuisance of itself - if I see any, I dig out the small shoots, and ensure I have vigorous ground cover there.

I seem to remember when I was young and fit (!), I dug the whole lot up, plus a lethal berberis that was sheltering it. My back has never been the same since.

Yes, it does seem that the only real remedy is to physically remove every last bit of it, and be vigilant afterwards!

There is an extra powerful Roundup available (Roundup Tree Stump & Root Killer). I had a patch start last year, every time it appeared I sprayed it over last Summer & Autumn. Touch wood it hasn't reappeared this year so far. Plants close by were unaffected, I covered them with polythene to make sure I did not accidentally spray them..

Yes, as pompa says it's easy to accidentally spray your precious plants nearby. I wander round my garden several times a day and if I spot any offending plants creeping in, I pull them out before they take hold.

Am trying to kill of weeds /grass on a small bank that runs the length of the garden so that I can plant it up in the Autumn. I put lots of old carpet on it over the early spring (not v. attractive!) to kill off some stuff then have done 6weekly sprays with Round up. Slowly get fewer weeds returning. My problem is ivy!

Digging and pulling up every little bit of root in early Spring when they begin to show up is the only way. Back breaking and hard work - but as mine grow in the flower borders, I can't use weed killer, and am very wary of using such strong stuff as RoundUp.

Thank you everyone - time to go get some Roundup TS & RK and look out some old carpet. Also to talk very nicely to the neighbours and hope they see the benefits of a new attractive hedge with clematis etc.

Being that it is near a hedge is rather difficult. A few years back we had ground elder spreading into the garden from the next door neighbour. Fortunately it was only spreading through a wire netting fence. I dug up all that I could find on our side and then along the fence I dug a deep trench so that I could place a line of thick polythene down below the fence. This stopped the pesky weed from coming through.

Providing you don't get any roundup on the stems or leaves of surrounding plants, they will be unaffected, it's action is neutralised on contact with soil, it onlt works though the leaves. I had 3 clematis right next to where I was treating, I used old 2 litre plastic pop bottles to protect the stems. I cut the top & bottom off the bottles and split them along the side, I could then clip then around the stems. Even though I sprayed within a few inches of the guarded stems, the clematis were fine and are growing well this year. I do believe that roundup only works on green leaves, hard wood stems are not supposed to be effected, but I have not risked that yet.

Roundup will kill hard stems if you paint it onto a newly cut face. So, for instance, if you have recently cut down a tree and you want to make sure it doesn't send out new shoots, you can paint roundup onto the cut face. You might have to do it a few times for full effectiveness. At one time you could buy crystals and dissolve them yourself (to a higher strength if necessary, e.g. for tree stumps) but I don't think you can get the crystals now. Elf n safety, I expect, or maybe just more profitable for the company to only sell the stuff in solution. Hmm, that seems the most likely to a cynic like me !