When we moved into our house over nine years ago, parts of the garden were overrun with invasive lamium (lamiastrum?) galeobdolon. We've managed to keep it out of most areas by persistently ripping out as much of the plant as possible where it appears but it seems impossible to get rid of completely without a huge amount of effort. The most difficult is in hard--to-reach areas such as next to a dog fence and under old shrubs. There is one section behind a dog fence and under a very old ribes sanguineum that is currently overrun where I'd like get something else to grow such as woodland anemones. I'm wondering if the following method would work -- not with the expectation of getting rid of the lamium completely but at least to get something else growing there. A number of years ago we covered an area that had been partly shaded lawn with sheets of corrugated cardboard and then covered that with a thick (i.e. over 70 cm) layer of compost. We then planted some species rhododendrons and woodland plants over that, all of which have grown well there for seven years or so. If I were to do the same thing over the lamium, would it least be unable to find its way up through the cardboard and be forced to try to grow at the edges of the renovated area?
Isn't this stuff a delight? I have worked as a volunteer to try & remove patches of Lamiastrum this from a local park. According to the experience in this park - mulching, hand pulling & covering with plastic are basically ineffecitve. There are alwqays bits that come back at ya'. Chickens (you ARE in Vancouver, right?) work. They will clear this to the ground repeatedly I am told (no personal experience) & wipe it out. The other thing to note is that Metro Vancouver Parks has lifted it's ban on the use of chemicals for vegetation control in a few locations to deal with just Lamiastrum & Fallopia (Japanese Knotweed) which shows you the difficulty of the problem these plants represent to them. I would suggest pulling all you can, then spot treating the residual shoots, as they emerge, with Roundup. You should be able to do that in the base of trees & shrubs since Roundup works on the green tissue which is, of course, mainly in the leaves. A small amount on the mature bark of trees has not bothered any of my plants ( oh, which weed? Field Bindweed -agghh!). The amount I had to use is very small - 500 ml. or so on my 1/4 acre lot, & I did it twice last year on an indiviual plant basis.
Hmm. I wonder if anyone in Vancouver rents out chickens for weed control on a temporary basis! ;) Thanks!
Business opportunity? Maybe Gregor would subsidize it. Joking aside, there are people in USA who contract herds of goats to eat-up invasives.
