My garden has an invasive weed
By maximax8
@maximax8 (31053)
United Kingdom
June 29, 2011 9:33am CST
I have been doing lots of gardening lately. Today I had a handy man put up my seat with a decorate roof and it looks delightful. I am upset with a rampant weed that is very invasive in my back garden. I remove this awful week where I can. I can't reach everywhere to get rid of it all at once. That is because I am very busy. I took three bags of it away so that was superb. I still have two bags of it to get rid of. I asked that handy man how I would get rid of it. He said use a spot weed killer. If I do that I am worried about killing the other great plants I want to keep. He suggested I got a roof rack for my car so I can get the tropical looking fence covering. Once I have got rid of the horrible weed in my garden I want to buy more of the hardy tropical plants like the New Zealand Cabbage Tree, the European Fan Palm and the Chinese Fan Palm. I really like the Australian Tree Fern but it appears hard to look after.
How do you think I should handle getting rid of the invasive and rampant weed in my garden?
Do you think I can do this without killing the plants I do like?
Would it be better for me to get a clean slate and begin again with all the hardy tropical plants?
7 responses
@smacksman (6053)
•
29 Jun 11
Listen to your gardener - he knows what to do. Use a spot weed killer. It is time consuming to use but the whole idea of a spot weed killer is that it only kills the plant that you put the spot killer on. That way you keep your nice plants.
@ozarkcat (43)
• United States
29 Jun 11
I agree on the spot treatment - if it is too difficult to get to it, this will be the easiest solution. Try to use a more earth-friendly weed killer like Roundup, if you can. It's not terrible to use what you need to if nothing else is working - that's the idea behind sustainable gardening - you're doing the best you can to keep your garden productive, while not overusing chemicals (using them only when needed).
@rosegardens (3034)
• United States
8 Jul 11
Sometimes you just have no choice but to use a chemical. Natural treatments are great for some things, but for others they will not work well and you can take a chance on killing off your plants from the thing you tried to kill with a natural substance.
@rosegardens (3034)
• United States
29 Jun 11
It depends where the weed is. I have a noxious rose growing in my yard, and I had to forgo planting my vegetable garden in the plot this year because I wanted to kill the thing. There is no way to just dig it up; it will create shoots out of pieces of root and cane. I had to poison it to get rid of it. Some weeds are like that, if they are growing in the same place they need to be poisoned.
Now you did mention you don't want your other good plants to be harmed. It depends how close the noxious weed is to your plants. You can always cover your plants to protect them from the spray when you spray the weed with a weed killer.
It sounds like you will have such a beautiful garden!
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
3 Jul 11
My precious plants are very close to my awful weed which I have found out is called horsetail. I will not be able to dig then up because they have deep roots. I need to use poison to get rid of them. Many thanks for your useful suggestions.
1 person likes this
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
1 Aug 11
I got a gardener to remove the horse weed in one flower bed and improve the soil. He used soil conditioner and sand. I am going to do some plantings and keep on top of killing this horse tail weed. I am getting my old greenhouse removed and making that area into a children's play area.
@rosegardens (3034)
• United States
8 Jul 11
Good luck. I do not know what horsetail looks like, but it sounds like a horrible weed to deal with. The Ortho weed killer I got for the roses included horsetail on the package, so it kills that off. It worked very well on the roses, but I have some rose of sharon trees that I have been trying to kill off and it has not worked. I need to get some other stuff for it. The trees are pretty when they bloom, but the blooms end up turning to seed pods and they multiply like crazy. I would rather have roses and some other flowers in that area. It is too dark next to the garage to plant vegetables, but that would be a nice spot if it got sun.
@peavey (16936)
• United States
4 Jul 11
I looked up horsetail and it apparently spreads by rhizome, that is, a spreading underground root that breaks rather than pulls up. That makes it almost impossible to kill by hand unless you work at it every day. If you can keep all of it pulled, it will eventually give up and die. I wouldn't use poison on it, especially Roundup. Roundup's glycosphate has been found in the blood of newborns, so it is not as safe as Monsanto claims it is.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
29 Jun 11
I am not much of a gardner but I do like the little area I have..we also have an invasive weed called creeping charlie..it has purple flowers on it to make you think that it could pass for a flower but it also has vines that go everywhere! I tried to do kill it with vinegar as I heard that would be more "green" but so far it hasn't done the job. I'll also have to try a spot killer....but one that is gently to flowers. I think I would just try to get rid of the weed.
@smacksman (6053)
•
29 Jun 11
"... it has purple flowers on it to make you think that it could pass for a flower ..."
They say that a weed is just a flower in the wrong place! haha!
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
3 Jul 11
Your weed called Creeping Charlie sounds horrible. It was a shame the vinegar didn't work. When there is a flower it can seem like a precious plant. I like "green" options but sometimes the weeds are too tough. I have found out my invasive weed is called Horsetail.
@hotsummer (13835)
• Philippines
30 Jun 11
I would love to have a wonderful gardens as you have . But I don't have a green thumb . That's why I've given up already is maintaining beautiful flowering plants . I don't have enough patience to do what it needs to have a very wonderful gardens
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
3 Jul 11
Maybe you could opt for a little maintenance garden. Then you could have the beauty but little work to do on it. A water feature looks lovely You could try painting a shed to make it look pretty. Some plants can be very fast growing and grass just needs mowing.
@kingparker (9673)
• United States
30 Jun 11
I guess there is no perfect solution for everything then. If I were in your situation, I might visit one of the Home Depot location and find those weed killer, and spread around the garden regardless the existence of other plants. That is my take on it. If you want to keep other plants alive from it, I guess you have to kill them manually, one by one.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
30 Jun 11
You can try pulling it out. You can also use white vinegar in a spray bottle on the weeds they'll die in a few days worth of spraying. By using the spray bottle you limit where the vinegar goes to kill only what you want to kill.
