By Ostrich
East northants, United Kingdom
Following on from my question of last year re. wild garlic...which we have in abundance...can anyone suggest a way to get rid of it? It is rampant, & rapidly taking over an area that is too much to dig out. By that I mean something approaching a total of 50-60 square meters in total. It's not all in one place, it even is growing in cracks in walls, & between paving slabs. The only place free from it is in the fields where sheep graze, but putting sheep in the garden is a non starter!
I have so far this year removed a large trailer-full, but as it is impossible to remove every little bulb I know it will be back next year. Whilst it is very pretty to look at in drifts of what look like white bluebells, when it starts to die back it becomes slimy & revolting.
I don't think any other plant has survived the onslaught of this thug, so putting something really vicious to deter it would not be a problem.
So, if anyone can help I would be really grateful, both my husband & I are well into our 8th & 9th decades respectively so really hard work is not a possibility!!
- 29 Apr, 2014
Answers
bruise them by walking on the foliage and then spray with a weedkiller like roundup. this will be taken down into the bulb/bulbil and should kill the bulb. repeat spraying especially after flowering will help. also cut the flowers off so they don't set seed.
regular mowing/scything is also a possibility.
30 Apr, 2014
Thanks to Seaburngirl & Bamboo...I think I like the roundup answer best......I don't know any very young men any longer.....unfortunately!!!!!!!!!
1 May, 2014
Oh dear, this stuff is extremely resilient and seems utterly impervious to any weedkilling treatments. The last time I found a big problem with it, I paid a very young man to come and spend 3 days carefully digging them all out, extracting every bulb and bulbil he could find. It worked, but there are still some appearing here and there, and those I remove immediately.
30 Apr, 2014