Weeds

[Oleanda]

My new garden has masses of two particular weeds. One looks like floppy coarse grass and upon digging I find it has tiny bulbs. The other is a small plant with flat roundish leaves and is now beginning to show yellow buttercup-like flowers (could it be an aconite?) What can I use to get rid of these weeds? Is it a case of having to painstakingly dig out every one?

[carrust]

The floppy coarse grass is this; http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1004/couc hgrasscontrol.asp
I think. I'm not sure on the 2nd one,but it could be creeping buttercup...Ooerr, get digging!!

[HeadGardener]

Hi Oleanda,
It sounds like the weeds you have are wild garlic with floppy coarse grass like leaves. The other weed you describe as having buttercup like flowers it sounds like lesser celandine which is a member of the buttercup family and therefore it will have similar flowers.
Have a look at the two following web sites
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0405/cela ndine.asp
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/wildg arlic.htm
Hope this helps.
Happy gardening

[Jules001]

the yellow flowered one does sound like celandine which is an absolute nightmare to get rid of as it leaves the little bulbs behind when you dig it out, we had loads of the stuff when we moved into our current house, however we did eventually get rid of it .

[Oleanda]

Thank you all. The Lesser Celandine looks about right, but the other one does not look like the picture of Wild Garlic, it has narrower, grass-like leaves that come straight out of the ground, with no stems. But anyway it looks like I'm off to the shops for some Glyphosate.

[Thunderbird+]

Hi Oleanda, I would suggest that the wild garlic that you have is not the native one offten called Ramsons (allium ursinnum) but another plant which confusingly is also called wild garlic which does in fact have them grassy leaves and go's under the name, 'Tulbaghia' possibly T. natalensis. they was introduced as a garden plant but escaped into the wild and often regarded as a weed.

[Solarjunkie]

Why on earth would you want to rid your garden of celandines? Really pretty flowers, free! People spend a fortune on buying "Alpines" etc, which are just wild flowers from abroad, when we have some lovely ones here. If you have something taller, eg rose bushes, celandines growing underneath look very pretty.