Teazles

[GrannyjackParticipant]

Hi Charles
You may remember me from the West Dean day which my OH & myself found very useful.
It has taken me sometime to identify one persistant weed on my allotment.(I eventually found a plant for sale in a local garden centre at £1.99!). It is a teazle!!

Apart from digging them out – and selling them – is there an easier way of eradicating them? This allotment had not been touched for 9 years when we took it over last year and we have sorted out the brambles and ivy but the teazles are rampant.

[charlesModerator]

 I am glad you found the day at West Dean a help, but as for teazles I am unsure to what extent they regrow after the main root is dug out, which I imagine you have been doing: to what depth if so?
I have a few growing in my garden edges and they look lovely there!

[GrannyjackParticipant]

Thank you Charles. I do dig them out, including their root but somehow more appear and when we came back after 2 weeks away the ground was covered. I just hoped that there might be an easier method of dealing with them. However I have found out that they are bi annual so maybe getting them out before they seed is the thing to do.

If it was just around the edges they could stay & I know that bull finches love them & actually I love them along our riverbank – just not thousands on them on the allotment.

Incidentally your advice on brambles has worked a treat. We now just dig as much as possible out and cut the root off as far down as we can and we only occasionally get any regrowth and that seems to pull out easily. Or at least it did before the un composted areas cracked up in the drought.

[charlesModerator]

 When they are that persistent, I would consider a light excluding mulch, which would restrict your growing options but save much time now and hassle in the future. If using one eg black plastic, I think it needs to go on asap!

[Author]

Posts