What is ground elder?
Ground elder is a prolific, persistent and fast-growing perennial weed. It spreads easily, thanks to its thin and wiry rhizomes which regenerate quickly from tiny fragments. Ground elder is found throughout gardens, from flowerbeds to cracks in paving and lawns. While it’s most commonly known as ground elder, it’s sometimes also referred to as goutweed (thanks to its historical medicinal uses), bishop’s weed, or jump-about.
How does ground elder grow?
In early spring, reddish and dark green shoots emerge from the soil. Between June and August, tall stalks with the tell-tale heads of delicate white flowers will appear. Although ground elder is unrelated to the elder tree, the weed gets its name from the similarity of their white flowers. Throughout the summer, ground elder’s leaves proliferate, crowding out other plants as it competes for light and water. In winter, ground elder dies back, but its roots and rhizomes remain, ready to re-establish in spring.
Why is ground elder such a problem?
Ground elder can creep in from neighbouring gardens, or even arrive as a stowaway with new plants, compost or manure, as its rhizome can be easily missed. Once it’s in your garden, ground elder spreads quickly and removing it entirely can be difficult and time-consuming. Some gardeners decide to allow the pretty flowers of ground elder to persist where they don’t interfere with other plants and provide a good food source for bees.
Controlling ground elder
If you find ground elder in your lawn, frequent mowing will weaken it, and so it shouldn’t persist. It’s not so simple to eradicate ground elder in flowerbeds, however. Here, a careful and robust weed control plan should be adopted:
- Dig up all the plants, carefully washing their roots to ensure the wiry white roots of ground elder are removed
- Dig through the soil, removing all roots and rhizomes of ground elder. You may want to fork through the earth every two weeks to ensure every piece is found as it re-establishes
- Consider applying a suitable weedkiller
- Lay a weed control membrane such as Weedtex or Landtex, geotextile fabrics that allow nutrients, water and air into the soil, but starve weeds of the light they need to grow. For particularly problematic areas, a double layer should be laid, and/or a double layer of bark over the geotextile membrane
- Replant your cultivated plants
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