Identifying weeds 1

Oh dear, Peter. That looks like Ground Elder to me.

yes would agree with spritz, best corse of action is contact weed killer which will also do the roots.

Thanks for the answers :o) I just looked it up, eek!! I'm pretty sure I pulled this up twice last year but it keeps coming back. It's between a fence (hidden by the doormat) and paving so a real pain to get to. Will have another go at it this week.

Who found its botanical name then? :-) Unfortunately, it's still Ground elder and sorry, but you can't just pull this one up. Majeeka is right, it needs a VERY strong weedkiller with glyphosate in it. Even then it will take several goes to get rid of it. It has rhizomes which spread under the ground rapidly so it may well be under your paving. Good luck with this one!

And to think they sell the variegated form as ground cover!

I know, Andrew, I've had a few people point to it in their gardens and ask, with a proud smirk on their faces, "And guess what THIS plant is?" Sorry to say, Peter, we had the plain green ground elder, like you, and it took 4 years to get rid of it all. You'd better start NOW.

Thanks everyone, a trip to the garden centre it is then - I was pleased I'd managed to avoid using weedkiller so far.

Just think yourself lucky that you haven't got Japanese Knotweed. We had it back in Kent. It is illegal to dispose of it in Dustman rubbish or municipal tips or anywhere else, and it can't be composted and weedkillers don't touch it, so you have to cut it off, dry it and burn it. Its roots go down...and down... to Australia, and you think you've dug it all out and then - Hallo, what are those pretty little pink shoots over there? It really is the WORST weed ever. And I do believe it was brought over from somewhere (Can't remember where?) as an ornamental plant for a stately home by a plant collector. I must google it. Excuse me.... Later - OOOh! it gets worse - you have to fill in 'appropriate Waste Transfer documentation' from the Environment Agency and you have to carry out a risk assesment and inform the disposal operator (who must be trained) several days beforehand etc etc. And there's a whole section about the wretched stuff! It grows at a rate of 2 cms per day! And yes, it was introduced into the country in the 1800s. Wow! Am I glad we left that behind! I do hope that nobody reading this has got it in their garden? ( Maybe you are cosseting it as a rare species?) :-(

There was some growing on the boundary of ornamental woodland (owned by the Council) at the bottom of my road. They bought some industrial strength weedkiller and it only took two applications to kill it off, but it is not available to amateurs so as spritz probably realised, the best thing to do if you have knotweed is move house :-)

ABSOLUTELY! And we put the price up for the exotic plants in the garden, too!!! LOL (Oh dear, poor things - I feel guilty now)

lol, bindweed was my worst weed in england, up here its mares tail

Same here, in our patch in Fife, Islander!

The one you are buying or the one you are selling, David??