Ann Tique
TOG
The real Mrs. Bickerdyke
Am I there yet?
Posts: 800
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Post by Ann Tique on May 11, 2007 21:22:40 GMT
How can I get rid of these darned things .... they have suddenly started growing like grass in my garden !!!
Ann
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Post by Lord L on May 11, 2007 22:39:57 GMT
Learn to love them. It's your only realistic hope.
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Lucy Lastic
Young Limb
Another cynical ex hippy now working for the establishment
Posts: 33
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Post by Lucy Lastic on May 11, 2007 22:49:31 GMT
How can I get rid of these darned things .... they have suddenly started growing like grass in my garden !!! Ann This stuff is an absolute b****** to get rid of...I found this which might help click here it takes ages and you just have to persevere
Woohoo - I just managed to put in a link that works!!
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Post by Fi on May 11, 2007 23:41:21 GMT
How can I get rid of these darned things .... they have suddenly started growing like grass in my garden !!! Ann Horsetails are the descendants of some of the most ancient land plants on earth. It was their tree sized predecessors, some 350 - 290 million years ago, that kindly fell over and became the coal mined in this and many other countries around the world. Very few other plants or animals have been successful. And that means they are tough survivors - learn to love and admire them like this chap.
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Post by revmichael on May 12, 2007 7:12:58 GMT
I first met this 'chap' (as Fi calls it) when I had a Council Allotment about fifteen years ago. It looked so pretty and fluffy as it was dotted here and there over the ground. But before long it almost covered the plot.
We got rid of the allotment in the end (although not entirely because of the horsetail).
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Post by lindasahandir on May 12, 2007 7:14:04 GMT
We've been living with horsetail for about 18 years, and haven't found the answer yet. In our case, I don't think we ever will, because we live opposite a hedgerow in which the thing flourishes, and I think the roots travel under the road and pop up in the gardens on this side. In the end, I settled on hoeing regularly, which at least prevents it from growing very tall. But if I didn't keep on top of it, horsetail and bindweed would soon take over our garden entirely!
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Post by Lord L on May 12, 2007 7:44:53 GMT
And Horsetails are fascinating things, and have their own subtle charm.
If they were rare and exotic and cost £20 each, people would rave over them!
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Lucy Lastic
Young Limb
Another cynical ex hippy now working for the establishment
Posts: 33
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Post by Lucy Lastic on May 12, 2007 14:17:51 GMT
And Horsetails are fascinating things, and have their own subtle charm. If they were rare and exotic and cost £20 each, people would rave over them! Try it, it might catch on
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Post by Fi on May 12, 2007 15:33:41 GMT
And Horsetails are fascinating things, and have their own subtle charm. If they were rare and exotic and cost £20 each, people would rave over them! They don't usually cost as much as £20, but a lot of Equisitums are lovely additions for pond side planting. Have a look here for some examples. Most are not as invasive as horsetails.
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Post by Ann T Soshal on May 13, 2007 9:48:41 GMT
Your only hope is to keep blasting them with a weedkiller that kills roots. It may take several applications, but eventually they die.
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Post by Lord L on May 13, 2007 11:01:33 GMT
Your only hope is to keep blasting them with a weedkiller that kills roots. It may take several applications, but eventually they die. Or you do. It's a case of which comes first.
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Post by Ann T Soshal on May 13, 2007 16:05:04 GMT
Your only hope is to keep blasting them with a weedkiller that kills roots. It may take several applications, but eventually they die. Or you do. It's a case of which comes first. ;D ;D
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Post by Leigh Djonn on May 13, 2007 16:12:46 GMT
And Horsetails are fascinating things, and have their own subtle charm. If they were rare and exotic and cost £20 each, people would rave over them! There are many plants that are just as aggressive and difficult to get rid of that are readily sold in garden centres.
Yarrow, fox & cubs and more recently fashionable Houtinia (sp?).
On our allotment site there are two ways of getting rid of it.
1 - Digging and root removal. Try to remove as much root as possible and to catch it as young as possible. 2 - Systemic weedkiller, which makes the plot unworkable for 3 months from application. Local application of a leaf to root weedkiller may have some effect but will take lots of tries.
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Post by lemanie on May 13, 2007 16:15:28 GMT
dont' mention yarrow to me! it's entirely taken over my front lawn with the help of daisy's and dandilions and it's doing my head in!
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Post by Leigh Djonn on May 13, 2007 17:18:21 GMT
Yarrow, Yarrow, Yarrow...we bought some ornamental Achillea (yarrow) and didn't know it spread. How wrong can you be. It readily self seeds and also propagates through runners. Nature's winning combination, but a pain to deal with.
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Post by Lord L on May 13, 2007 17:27:37 GMT
And Horsetails are fascinating things, and have their own subtle charm. If they were rare and exotic and cost £20 each, people would rave over them! There are many plants that are just as aggressive and difficult to get rid of that are readily sold in garden centres.
Yarrow, fox & cubs and more recently fashionable Houtinia (sp?).
On our allotment site there are two ways of getting rid of it.
1 - Digging and root removal. Try to remove as much root as possible and to catch it as young as possible. 2 - Systemic weedkiller, which makes the plot unworkable for 3 months from application. Local application of a leaf to root weedkiller may have some effect but will take lots of tries.
By 'fox and cubs' do you mean this stuff? If so, it's really just a dandelion with O' levels, isn't it? And I agree about the Houttuynia (?).
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Post by Leigh Djonn on May 13, 2007 21:18:19 GMT
There are many plants that are just as aggressive and difficult to get rid of that are readily sold in garden centres.
Yarrow, fox & cubs and more recently fashionable Houtinia (sp?).
On our allotment site there are two ways of getting rid of it.
1 - Digging and root removal. Try to remove as much root as possible and to catch it as young as possible. 2 - Systemic weedkiller, which makes the plot unworkable for 3 months from application. Local application of a leaf to root weedkiller may have some effect but will take lots of tries.
By 'fox and cubs' do you mean this stuff? If so, it's really just a dandelion with O' levels, isn't it? And I agree about the Houttuynia (?). That's the stuff, DF. It also self seeds and sends runners. It looked so nice in its little pot with the flowers and bees around it. Low growing effort it said...
We didn't realise it would be quite so strong a ground cover plant to the extent that only shrubs can just about withstand the onslaught.
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Post by Fi on May 13, 2007 23:10:00 GMT
I've not had that much trouble containing yarrow, including the wild sort - but as a possible way to help keep it down, the fresh seeds of the wild sort have a lovely aniseed flavour, and chewing the leaves is a tried and tested remedy for toothache. I don't know if the culivars have the same properties, but if they do you can eat the seeds as a snack while you're gardening, which will stop their self seeding all over the place. They have to be fresh and green though - once they go brown they're far too tough and stringy. The other choice would be to cut off the flowers as soon as they've died, but I like to leave them over winter because they look lovely with frost covering them.
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Post by Fi on May 13, 2007 23:35:49 GMT
One other garden thug worth avoiding is Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris. Digging even young plants is difficult and large ones are quite capable of breaking a garden fork. The only good thing about that would be the joy of going into an ironmongers or similar and asking after fork handles.
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Post by Fi on May 13, 2007 23:43:13 GMT
By 'fox and cubs' do you mean this stuff? If so, it's really just a dandelion with O' levels, isn't it? And I agree about the Houttuynia (?). That's the stuff, DF. It also self seeds and sends runners. It looked so nice in its little pot with the flowers and bees around it. Low growing effort it said...
We didn't realise it would be quite so strong a ground cover plant to the extent that only shrubs can just about withstand the onslaught.
Leigh, if you wouldn't mind, would you collect some seeds for me please? I wouldn't mind trying it out as a ground cover to cover ground elder. It hadn't occurred to me before, but it does do exactly what you say, and we have a couple of largeish corners where we can't plant shrubs because of access to things like the septic tank and I wouldn't mind experimenting, maybe by using glycophosphate on the ground elder a couple of times and then planting the fox and cubs immediately after.
Ava's companion planting thread reminded me that Tagetes can slow down the spread of ground elder, so I'll try that alongside the fox and cubs, as well as having patches with just one or the other.
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