Hi folks, in the spirit of giving back to this forum, I post my Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegata') diary below.
Note: I'm a gardening amateur, so don't take this as professional advice
Hopefully someone finds this thread useful.
Background:
I bought a house 2 years ago and thought I was in luck when I saw a flower bed that was approximately 20ft x 8ft. It had this beautiful indestructible plant that needed no work, it just magically arrived after the snow melted and looked great well into the Fall.
Last summer, I was told I really needed to remove this invasive plant, especially as it had crept into my grass, tucked itself under some big trees and sneaked into the neighbours yard (under their asphalt, and onto their grass).
September 2022:
With a weed whacker, I cut the goutweed to the ground in the flower bed, raked up the heads and put them in the landfill bin (to hopefully prevent it escaping from our town's compost area). I covered the area with tarps, before winter arrived.
I also dug up parts of my lawn, and my neighbours lawn (with their permission of course). Same process as above.
May 2023:
The taps did prevent the plants from appearing above the surface. But, they did spread a little further, into my lawn.
I dug the enter flower bed to 1-2ft deep, with a spade.
I then raked the soil with my fingers, binning every white-ish root. This is real slow work.
I levelled the ground with a rake.
June-now:
Every week, I check for new plants.
This allows me to get them while they're tiny. For each plant found, I'm digging roughly a 2x2x2ft hole with a spading fork, to get the entire root out in one piece.
When they grow in the neighbours asphalt, I simply pull them out of the cracks every time I find them. This might have worked.
Where I'm at:
I'm down to maybe 1 plant every 2 weeks and I'm hoping I've turned a corner with it. The areas that previously had grass have not have goutweed since my work in May, so I re-seeded them.
I'll post an update when the growing season ends, then we wait for Spring next year to see what turns up!
Note: I'm a gardening amateur, so don't take this as professional advice
Hopefully someone finds this thread useful.
Background:
I bought a house 2 years ago and thought I was in luck when I saw a flower bed that was approximately 20ft x 8ft. It had this beautiful indestructible plant that needed no work, it just magically arrived after the snow melted and looked great well into the Fall.
Last summer, I was told I really needed to remove this invasive plant, especially as it had crept into my grass, tucked itself under some big trees and sneaked into the neighbours yard (under their asphalt, and onto their grass).
September 2022:
With a weed whacker, I cut the goutweed to the ground in the flower bed, raked up the heads and put them in the landfill bin (to hopefully prevent it escaping from our town's compost area). I covered the area with tarps, before winter arrived.
I also dug up parts of my lawn, and my neighbours lawn (with their permission of course). Same process as above.
May 2023:
The taps did prevent the plants from appearing above the surface. But, they did spread a little further, into my lawn.
I dug the enter flower bed to 1-2ft deep, with a spade.
I then raked the soil with my fingers, binning every white-ish root. This is real slow work.
I levelled the ground with a rake.
June-now:
Every week, I check for new plants.
This allows me to get them while they're tiny. For each plant found, I'm digging roughly a 2x2x2ft hole with a spading fork, to get the entire root out in one piece.
When they grow in the neighbours asphalt, I simply pull them out of the cracks every time I find them. This might have worked.
Where I'm at:
I'm down to maybe 1 plant every 2 weeks and I'm hoping I've turned a corner with it. The areas that previously had grass have not have goutweed since my work in May, so I re-seeded them.
I'll post an update when the growing season ends, then we wait for Spring next year to see what turns up!
