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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: August 30th, 2024

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  • Yeah i started with hand weeding and being really fucking thorough but it is relentless. Next we tried cardboard and woodchips which helped stall it, but it still came through 2 layers of cardboard and foot of woodchips (i wish i was exaggerating). It especially came through any holes we left for an existing plant.

    At this point we’re between using black plastic or herbicide, neither are great options. I don’t love the idea of herbicide. And black plastic im worried would damage tree roots so 🤷‍♀️ but it’s out competing everything and we have a bit of a wild garden for the bees, butterflies, etc that id like to continue to provide them a home

    I will say we’ve been cutting off the flowers when we see them. I think that helps. At the very least it makes me feel like I’m actually doing something 😅

    Edit: Oh and if you do want to keep any plants, you can dig them up, spray off the roots and then grow it in a container until you verify it is free from ground elder. Do not move any plants from an infected bed without doing then or you’ll do what the MIL did and transplant ground elder to more beds 😩







  • I’m feeling really defeated. Few years ago ground elder was introduced to our yard from an adjacent lot. I didn’t keep up with it one year and the next year it ran rampant and invaded our favorite garden bed. I spent so much time trying to eradicate it last year, only to find that the MIL weeded it at some point and threw it in the opposite corner. Also she transplanted a plant from an infected bed to a different bed. We now have ground elder every where. This has been a multi year war. Can’t use black plastic because I’m scared of harming tree roots but nothing else has worked. If i try to save existing plants when putting down cardboard or mulch then the ground elder comes through there. I’m thinking I’m going to need to cardboard and mulch our entire garden beds and kill even the existing plants just so there’s no chance it regrows

    If anyone likes eating it, lmk. You can come have a multi-month buffet and would be doing me a favor.

    As far as wins, just been fairly productive past few days trying to get stuff off the to do list