ivy

[potiche]

I'm clearing a small front garden that's been allowed to overgrow. Have got rid of some small leaning trees & now need to clear the groundcover ivy. What's the best way to do this? There are 2 glorious camellias in the area so systemic weedkiller might not be a good idea. Would a gas weed wand work?

[Ann]

While you are answering this query can I add ground elder to the question, I have tons of it all coming up through my shrubs and plants and need to get rid of it without killing everything around it..

[johnny37]

I had this problem. I found the easiest and quickest method was to pull the smaller ones out. If you are careful most of the root will come with it. Some of mine was years old with roots as thick as small trees. In that case I dug round them as deep as possible and if they still did not come out sawed them off. You wont eliminate then entirely but you can keep them down if you see a new shoot.

[megfitz]

My daughters garden was full of Ground Elder ,we tried lots of methods but the only one that worked was smothering it with old carpet-took 2 years before we could lift it but 3 years down the line there's no sign of it. (the carpet doesn't have to be bright pjnkbut it was a reject from the tip and it looks interesting on Google Earth)