Murder on my mind.....

We have loads of celandines but they're nothing compared to Fen nettles!!

You could use glyphosate but you'll have to be careful if your borders are crammed. Try painting the clumps with glyphosate gel which shouldn't affect any other plants.

I have just bought my best weed zapper ever. It is a long electric wand that gives the weeds a thermal shock of 600c. It has a round cover on the end and you put that over the weed and it just frazzles away. You have to have a long extension lead, but it only takes a minute to heat up and cool down. Not cheap at 85€, but in a large organic garden it is just brilliant.

That sounds useful Mamie does it destroy the roots too and what is it called please?

This is it Aka, but I can't find anything similar in English
www.primavera.fr/agence-de-relations-jardin-berthoud/agence-de-relations-presse-jardin-desherbeur-electrique.htm
It seems to take out the smaller stuff in one hit and the larger weeds need a second blast. I have only had it a month or so, so long term, I don't know.
I bought it in our local garden centre.

Here in English (of a sort).
www.berthoud-store.co.uk/-101137--318--a.htm

Wow, Mamie that sounds amazing! I really, really want one! It looks like I will have to wait until I am next in France. I found it on French Amazon but it costs 170€ there.
merlotgran thank you, the glyphosate gel does work, but just as back breaking as digging. And the ground is sodding sodden. I feel for you with nettles though, my other deep rooted problem is bindweed. I know I'm just whinging really and the only real solution is to get on with it. Whine, whine, whinge, moan. 'Twas ever thus.

Just be glad you don't have Japanese knotweed to deal with (eight years and still working on it, though have shrunk its activities at least) and Himalayan Balsam. We have a whole lawn of lesser celandines. Lovely wee flowers, but I don't have proper flower borders so I don't mind where things grow.

That burning wand sounds great, mamie.

I love the bright gold of celandines, but buttercups are just too invasive. However, both are relatively benign compared to mare's tail (equisetum) and sticky willie, both of which are a plague in my garden. At the moment the wretched Spanish bluebells are also rife - but I have plans for them involving glyphosate mixed with wallpaper paste.

annodomini talking of Spanish bluebells is it easy to tell the difference? I think the English ones are more delicate but as I only have one version its not easy to know which I have .. if they are the Spanish ones I might just dig them up and replace with the English one. thanks

tanith Spanish bluebells are upright and don't have much scent, whereas English bluebells droop over and have a strong scent.

A good trick I've recently heard of to get rid of bindweed/convolvulus is to trail it up a cane. When it overhangs put the overhang in a plastic bag and treat it with glyphosphate gel or spray and seal the bag. Doing it this way prevents the weedkiller from going on other plants and, best of all, it saves on backache!

I love the celandines, too, and am tempted to add them to the garden, but I'm wary as I know they can take over. There again, they're great groundcover . . . .

Facts about bluebells and how to tell the difference between native and non-native.

I like Spanish bluebells.True, they have no scent, but you need a good nose [or a huge garden full of the English variety ]to really appreciate the scent.They are stronger plants with larger flowers. However, it's wonderful to visit a real 'bluebell wood' in Springtime I must say, magical really.
Sounds like we all have regional nuisance weeds, the zapper sounds great so may look into that.

I have lots and lots of wild garlic, impossible to get rid off. The more you dig it out the more it grows. Pretty as is is amongst the bluebells.

Thanks for that link Mamie

tanith, the English bluebells are more delicate and have narrower leaves. The Spanish ones, by contrast, are big bullies! I would love to be able to dig them out but the bulbs go incredibly deep and I'm not as strong as I once was.

I also like the Spanish bluebells . Add welcome splash of colour now that bulbs are finished and other stuff yet to get going !

minimouse don't do it!! But thanks for the bindweed tip, I will try it.
thatbags you poor soul! with those twin evils. I think I would move house.

Just been taking photos of Celandine with grandson. They are not weeds, they are woodland plants, on my Woodland Trust swatch book. They only flower for a couple of months anyway, unlike buttercups.

www.andrewspink.nl/ranunculus/wordsworth.htm

Wordsworth wrote three poems about it. No idea why three.

If they are woodland plants, what are they doing strangling all my herbaceous plants in my wide open borders? A weed is a plant in the wrong place: these are weeds, trust me!

I've got celandine plants all around the birders and in cracks between stone pavers in the kitchen garden. They look so sunny and bright, I like having them there......unlike the blasted ground elder that is trying to take over!

Ground elder is another nightmare. I imported some from our last garden by mistake. I moved so many plants I didn't notice it was lurking in a pot. I don't find it difficult to dig up but it soon comes back again.

My nettles are legendary and have even featured at the Chelsea Flower show!

Merlot, you and Brenda need to get together; nettle and wild garlic soup is delicious.
My neighbour swears the ground elder in his garden came from my garden. Not true, as there was none in here until a year ago. We had a lot of ground elder in the house before last. We found the easiest way to get rid of it was to put old carpets over the top of it. It grew to the light but the stems and roots were very long and weak, and the soil was damp, so it was easy to pull out. Your garden does not look so good for a couple of years, but it's worth it.

I like to put something in my green bin to make it worth their while driving two miles to empty it. Nettles, nettles and more nettles. Everything else goes on my compost heap.