So I feel like King Canute trying to fight the tide here. Garden backs into woodland and this time of year the Lesser Celandine takes over part of the garden. Any ideas on how to combat it or should I just go with the flow?
If there's nothing underneath you can hoe it all just let it rot down. You'll never get rid of it, but at least you'll feel a bit more in control of it.
Such a shame they are such a thug and virtually impossible to eradicate as they look lovely on mass in flower. If you have a large garden I'd go with the flow.
I just let it flower about this time of year and it disappears again soon after that until next spring. I'd be afraid using a hoe on it would spread the small tubers and make it more widespread and the leaves naturally die back anyway after a few weeks. I think it adds a nice bit of colour to the garden here at this time of year when most of the plants are still not after getting growing properly.
Where I am they grow happily amid Queen Anne's Lace. When the celandines die down you get a second bite at the cherry as the other plants grow up and flower.
I have a small patch at the base of a clematis. It doesn't spread much from there now, purely because I purposefully don't disturb the soil in that area, all it gets is an autumn mulch.
All I would suggest is that you are careful not to transport soil from those areas to elsewhere in your garden.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Posts
You'll never get rid of it, but at least you'll feel a bit more in control of it.
Learn to love it.
It dies back in summer.
Tiny bulbils...just need one and you get another plant.
They're not with us for long.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.