• Gaiety Hollow: Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver

Lord & Schryver Conservancy blog

~ A personal look at the ideas, inspiration, and hard work that go into the Lord & Schryver gardens.

Lord & Schryver Conservancy blog

Tag Archives: Aegopodium

Hated weeds, take 3

27 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by Lord & Schryver Curator/Garden Manager in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, gardening, weeds

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Aegopodium, gardening, invasive, November, noxious weeds, Volunteering, weeds

Last week, I asked What might be called “the scourge of Gaiety Hollow”? It was less than 12 hours before someone guessed correctly:

Aegopodium podagraria

Hiding in Geranium
Hiding in Geranium
Aegopodium leaves
Aegopodium leaves

Also known as ground elder, bishop’s weed, gout weed, snow-on-the-mountain, English masterwort, and many indecent names that a gardener calls it in a fit of fury.

There are two varieties of Aegopodium. One has green leaves; the other has variegated white/green leaves. In my experience, they are equally aggressive. They both bloom in the summer a rather unremarkable umbel-shaped flower similar to Queen Anne’s lace. This late in the season, Aegopodium is still lush and green.

20171114_105527_copy

Covering the base of a Hydrangea

Portland includes it on its Nuisance Plant List. Although it is considered less aggressive than many other plants in native ecosystems, it is extremely aggressive in a garden setting and (almost) impossible to get rid of. Volunteers have spent countless hours pulling it out of the plant beds at Gaiety Hollow and yet it keeps coming back. Its roots are well entwined with the boxwood hedges making complete eradication unlikely, but we can at very least keep it from getting out of control again.

20171114_143744

Mother plant on the left. A new plant growing from the rhizomes to the right.

If you have Aegopodium in you garden, I would advise you to remove it as quickly as possible. Most likely you will not get all of it out. A fragment of its white rhizomes left underground will regrow. Even if you think that you like it, begin removing it now to keep it under control.

Like the other weeds I have mentioned, digging seems the best way to go in a garden setting. I dig with a shovel or trowel and follow the roots through the garden bed, gently pulling the plants and roots as I go. I try not to break the plants and feel very satisfied if I can pull up roots more than a foot long at a time. If it is growing into the roots of a perennial, I face the choice of bare-rooting the perennial or pitching it altogether.

20171114_144249

Another example of how the plant spreads by underground “runners” (rhizomes)

However, if you have a large patch of Aegopodium with no other desirable broadleaf plants mixed in, applications of an herbicide might take down the population. Always read the label on herbicides to make sure that you are applying the right product, at the right amount, in the most opportune conditions.

20171117_101617_copy

Aegopodium in Dahlias

Can you see the white Aegopodium root extending to the left? It is growing straight through this clump of Dahlia tubers. I planted the Dahlia earlier this year as a single tuber, so the Aegopodium has grown over 2 feet in one season. I will have to divide this group of tubers to remove the Aegopodium. I don’t want to risk accidentally re-planting the Aegopodium come spring. Constant vigilance is key! Again, a fragment of root left alive will regrow and quickly begin taking over.

I have many other hated weeds, but these are our biggest challenges at both Gaiety Hollow and the historic gardens at Deepwood. What is your least favorite weed?

We are very grateful for the many hours of labor our dedicated volunteers have put into removing these weeds. The gardens would be a jungle without their help. 

 

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Newspaper Mulch

19 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by Lord & Schryver Conservancy in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver

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Tags

Aegopodium, Deepwood, Gaiety Hollow, Historic Gardens, Lord and Schryver, newspaper mulch, weed control

Friday morning at Gaiety Hollow, sunny and bright…

8

Gretchen was already there with a load of mulch…

1

They are putting down a newspaper mulch to keep down the aegopodium.  The method is as follows:  water heavily the night before, place newspapers all over the desired area,3wet newspapers fully…

2

layer mulch—3-8 inches dep7ending on the situation…on top of newspapers

cover newspapers fully with mulch…

mulch

cross fingers for a good result.

NOTE:  The tea garden at Deepwood IS a Lord and Schryver design, but no planting plan exists so the restoration has included a bit of guesswork according to what was in the garden and the plant lists favored by L&S.

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Aegopodium

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Lord & Schryver Conservancy in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized

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Tags

Aegopodium, boxwood revival, Gaiety Hollow, garden benches, pruning boxwood hedges, weeds

Eek…a nasty word that…aegopodium.  A native of Europe and Asia, often called Bishop’s weed/ground elder/goutweed…this plant is regarded as an ecological threat.  It is AGGRESSIVE and INVASIVE, and reduces species diversity in the ground layer.  In other words, you don’t want it in your garden.  It has long white branching rhizomes underground that go everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  When I was in the garden early in the summer it looked like this…

aegopodium

 

You might almost think it was pretty, with the little white flowers…until you began to notice it was EVERYWHERE…

augopodium 2

with the volunteer gardeners bravely waging war against it…

weeder

gairty Hollow weeds 1

The other day I was in the garden and was amazed to see that MUCH aegopodium had been removed, with newspaper put down and mulch on top to keep it down…

mulch 1

mulch 3mulch 4

mulch 2

fingers crossed!  But on the brighter side…the boxwood is back!!

return of the boxwood

and the new bench looks great!

the new bench

 

 

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Help Needed!!

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by Lord & Schryver Conservancy in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized

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Tags

Aegopodium, boxwood, brick pathways, Gaiety Hollow, garden, Historic Gardens, Lord & Schryver, Lord & Schryver Conservancy, weeding, white oak

Did you know that this beautiful garden is almost totally maintained with volunteer labor?  Every Friday morning from 9:00 to noon a small group of very hard-working volunteers does the “dirty work”…the weeding, the pruning, the sweeping and raking…and we need help.  I might just say that if you love to work in a beautiful garden, if you have skills or if you want to develop skills, if you like the idea of contributing to a fascinating historic resource in your community… consider joining this merry band.  Just showing up to take some photos I’ve learned a thing or two from this group. Think about it…WE NEED YOU.

So here’s what they were up to this week plus a report on some of the ongoing projects I’ve been reporting on.

work 8

truck 1

truck 2

gate

One project this week was work on the bricks which need cleaning and re-sanding…

brick 3

brick 5brick 2brick 1

pruning…weeding…

work 1work 4

work 5

work 2

work 6

the big problem is the Aegopodium…it’s everywhere…

weed 1 weed 2

The boxwood is beginning to regrow…!

boxwood 1

and Woody has built a very ingenious tool cupboard in his work area…

cupboard 1 cupboard 2

Woody's cupboard

white 1white 4white 3

white 2

The new Oak Tree has some leaves!

oak tree

See you Friday morning…PLEASE!!

 

 

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