it will grow through I am afraid.
if you can leave it longer to put the turf down then when new ground elder leaves come through spray them with glyposphate type, systemic weedkiller. If you spray from now on the weedkiller will be taken into the underground bits and kill the plant from within. It will take several applications to get rid of it. You can keep weeding, digging the soil over removing as many of the roots as possible.
It will be a long job but worth it in the end.

They certainly will grow back. There's no point in laying turf until you've dealt with the ground elder, which won't be easy. It may be better to allow it to grow back and then use a systemic weedkiller on it. You might need more than one application, too. Sorry - this will be a long frustrating job.

SNAP!

snap :o)

If you dig out as much as you can would laying weed membraine down help before you turf.

can you lay turf on weed membrane? didnt think you could.

As your garden is quite small you could, as I did once, pass as much soil as you possibly can through a series of riddles ( sieves ) but you will miss some. Spritzhenry above has offered the most practical solution.

good point NO googled it will lift the turf although laying some when using weed killer may speed up the process then remove and lay some fresh soil before the turf

A concentrated dose of salt water just might do the trick.
Even if it does not kill the root system, unlike commercial weed killers it will not be harmful to health. Using strong weed killers might mean that you will not be able to plant anything edible in the vicinity as rain water will spread the poison underground. Many have had to lose one or both kidneys due to poisonous pesticides and weedicides finding their way into waterways. Transplanting of kidneys if available, is a very expensive process and many come to a very sad end unable to meet the cost of either regualr dialysis or the aftercare subsequent to an operation.. My sister who is a doctor is helping a regular team of doctors to save these patients who increase day by day. Safest pesticide is made of Neem, a miracle medicinal tree that grows in the tropics. It does not kill even pests but only discourages them. I am an environmentalist. Hopefully what I have said will be taken in the right spirit by all. Prevention is better than cure. I have not even mentioned the effects of cancer here. Cancer is also mainly a result of toxics. Let us find alternative safe methods to fight gardening pests and household pests. Cinnamon seems to work for mosquitoes and cockroaches. Genuine cinnamon that is and not something called Cassia.. Many thanks.

Thank you so much for all your tips...I am in no hurry to re-turf. although the neighbours probably aren't loving the pig stye look. (they will when it's done though ;))

Vavilla I appreciate your concern for the environment, I was told to spary with weedkiller but didn't want to cause any harm to the environment so tried to dig it out naturally, but reading about the nature of this pesky weed I think I need to take further action. A natural method would be my prefered way, how much salt per litre do you know?

I know all about Neem as I'm an Ayurvedic Therapist and use this herb all the time, however it is not a pest i'm trying to get rid of but a weed...does it work for weeds too?

Also what is a weed membrane please? Just a big mass/ web of weeds?

thank you so much

A weed membrane is a textile "carpet" (but thinner) that you lay on top of the soil before spreading gravel, bark or other top dressing. You can cut holes in it to plant selected or specimen plants in it. It helps to stop weed seeds getting in contact with soil and growing as, when they land and germinate their roots can't get down into the earth. That's the theory......

Preparation is vital groundelder is very difficult to get rid of, if i have a job where groundelder is a problem then i dig as much out as possible, and find useing a good strong Bow rake and matock makes the job alot easier, go over it several times untill you have got most of it out then leave to see if any regrowth occurs in the spring, and then either weedkill or grub the remainder out, its a laboreous job, but worth the effort.

Voila! I think we have struck gold!! A herbal therapist!!!
Oh dear dear, how stupid of me... of course you know all about poisons and herbal values. I think you can teach me; not the other way round. You must have been spraying something completely harmless...so may be you ought to keep on spraying that till you get results. Here I am trying to take coals to Newcastle! I am afraid I have nothing more to say. Hope you will keep enlightening us on Ayurvedic therapy M.
M.

I try to be as natural as possible but by no means am I an expert at organic gardening ha ha...

Thank you for your input, do you know how much salt per litre or gallon for your weed killing remedy?

I'm going to get out as many weeds as possible before I go away next week, and if some of it starts growing back I will fight back with a vengence. Ideally I would like grass but seeing as it is such a small garden if I can't get rid over the next few weeks/months I will put a weed membrane down, cover with pebbles a a few paving slabs or something, but keep a border so I can have some nice plants and flowers and put in a climber to climb up my house.

I'm loving Akebia Quinata - chocolate vine, It's north facing wall and it does very well apparently. Plus it'd be lovely to smell vanillay chocolate when I walk through the front door.

Thank you

Salt will do more harm than good, especially to the animal life in the soil. as previously stated hand clearing is the safest option. I did clear a 50ft x 5ft border that way but it took several attempts. digging and seiving the soil. every time a new plant was seen it was dug up not just snapped off.

When using a systemic weedkiller, spray/wipe the individual plants only, this limits the amount that enters the soil.

A weed membrane isn't strong enough to stop powerful plants like ground elder from coming up from underneath. So you will need to keep on and on digging out the ground elder and sieving out the root pieces if you don't want to use a systemic weedkiller.

The membrane will only help to stop wind borne seeds from germinating, but after a while some soil appears on top anyway - perhaps it's blown there like the seeds. There's never a simple, easy, work-free method of getting rid of weeds forever- they're survivors!

I don't like the salt idea either, if you do want to keep it natural and organic use the sieves. 3x4m2 is not that large. Give yourself two days and I bet you could do a great job on it. If more come up you can get on them straight away.

2x days to do....blimey...I was thinking of using a membrane but if it's not strong enough to prevent it growing back not much point.

Plus our neighbour has gravel and our cat uses there front garden as a litter tray ha ha....not so sure I want that really!

Looks like some tough labour is required. Will get my OH to help me :D