Mexican marigolds

[smallblueplanet]

Has anyone tried growing mexican marigolds to keep bindwind/ground elder at bay?

[JennieAtkinson]

I keep meaning to get a packet of these, but forgot last year. We have alot of ground elder. My sister in law reckons they are very good. Kings sell them if you are interested.

[rustylady]

The only way I've found to control bindweed is digging, more digging, and more digging. If you're not worried about using chemicals then use glyphosate.

[smallblueplanet]

We've just put some mex marigolds into the heated prop today, seeds from Nicky's.co.uk.

rusty, we don't do glyophosphate residue survives in the soil. agree about the digging, but just wondered about mex marigolds whose roots are supposed to 'suppress them'?

Ground Elder was supposedly introduced by the Romans - in case you were wondering 'what have the Romans ever done for us'!

[JennieAtkinson]

There was a thread here last year about Ground Elder and included a number of recipes for cooking it!

[Don Vincenzo]

We've just put some mex marigolds into the heated prop today, seeds from Nicky's.co.uk.

Ground Elder was supposedly introduced by the Romans - in case you were wondering 'what have the Romans ever done for us'!

Hi Manda
If the Romans introduced Ground Elder to Britain there must be a good reason for it. ( what have the Romans ever done for us ) a lot I think, but lets try to find out the positive aspects of ground Elder.
regards
Don Vincenzo

[smallblueplanet]

Like anything else Don, in its place I'm sure its great - but not swamping my garden borders!

[supersprout]

Hi Manda
If the Romans introduced Ground Elder to Britain there must be a good reason for it. ( what have the Romans ever done for us ) a lot I think, but lets try to find out the positive aspects of ground Elder.
regards
Don Vincenzo

The young shoots of ground elder are delicious in salad or stir fry
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....ium+podagraria

[smallblueplanet]

Yeah, yeah! perhaps my idea of delicious is different to yours!

How come the supermarkets haven't cottoned on? You'll be telling me all about Fat-hen next.....

[supersprout]

and couch grass roots
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....ytrigia+repens
a tad time-consuming to scrub though

[smallblueplanet]

Enough! You win.

[Two_Sheds]

I got some Mex Marigold (Tagetes Minuta) seeds this year to try and repel whitefly. I'll try anything.

[madderbat]

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....ytrigia+repens

Lovely link, thank you SS. I've bookmarked that one.

Interestingly as a child I discovered the insides of grasses tasted nice, used to pick couch at a joint and squeeze the inside bit into my mouth. Tasted lovely and obviously helped to replace fibre missing in my diet. Parents thought I was mad for eating grass !

[smallblueplanet]

Mexican marigolds pt deux!

Well a couple of weeks ago we planted out about a dozen 6-8 inch mexican marigolds along the line of next doors fence. I've read about their supposed help in supressing bindweed/ground elder so thought I'd try it.

Well.......they certainly have an effect on the bindweed - they're using the marigolds to climb up! Lol!!! Maybe they might be more effective (as a deterrent, not as a climbing frame) when they get bigger, they grow about 3ft don't they? Hope they look pretty.

[rustylady]

Never heard of any sort of marigolds deterring weeds, they're more usually used as companion plants to deter pests such as whitefly and greenfly. I still haven't found anything to beat bindweed other than digging out persistently or using systemic herbicide.