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Help! Cleaver issues!

LothianlassLothianlass Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hello, 

I just bought my first house. It was empty when I viewed it and then obviously empty until everything went through. There's been no attention to the garden for a good few months (I was focusing on the house).

There is a  small tree (makes me think of a giant bonsai) and fuschia (bushes?) which now have sticky willies/cleaver crawling right through them.

Is there a way of getting rid of this and saving the trees/bushes/plants or will I just need to get rid and start from scratch? 

As you can tell I have never done any proper gardening before and am not particularly green-fingered. 

Thanks in advance. 

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    Cleavers (Galium aparine) is an annual weed so dies completely at the end of the season, and will cause no damage to your shrubs and trees, other than looking messy.  They don't come back from roots.  The best way to treat it is to simply pull it out of your plants.  However, it will have seeded by now so you'll need to keep removing seedlings when they start to grow underneath your plants next spring (and for about 5 more years as that is how long the seeds can last.)  The seedlings are easily recognized:

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • LothianlassLothianlass Posts: 2
    Thank you so much for your your helpful and speedy reply. I really appreciate it.  :)
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 53,991
    Yes - easy to pull out, even though it lookslike a huge plant when it gets going  :)

    If you need help with an ID or maintenance for other plants/shrubs, take a photo and put in the forum, and you'll get plenty of advice.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LynLyn Posts: 22,876
    It seems to be a year for sticky willy, I’ve had loads of it, far more than usual, very therapeutic pulling it out. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,252
    edited July 2019
    It's certainly the right sort of temperature for sticky willy :sunglasses:

    I'll get my coat...
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 53,991
    LG_ said:
    It's certainly the right sort of temperature for sticky willy :sunglasses:

    I'll get my coat...
    Tut tut @LG_ .......... :D
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LynLyn Posts: 22,876
    LG_ said:
    It's certainly the right sort of temperature for sticky willy :sunglasses:

    I'll get my coat...
    Rude! 😀😀🤪🤣
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,647
    edited July 2019
    Just one bit of advice.  If you have sensitive skin, wear gloves and sleeves.  I now have to get OH to deal with ours as it brings me out in a rash.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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