clearing a new plot

[diggers11]

I am new to gardening only started last year. I have been given a piece of land 10m by 5 m that i need to clear so i can start growing. The problem i have is that lesser celandine is growing all over it. What is the best way to clear that area.

[Westi]

Hold on digger11 - Never experienced your particular problem but this is the place to post for the correct answer!

Sorry!
Westi

[Tony Hague]

I have heard it said that if they like your soil, you'll never be without them... but I'm sure that a fork and patience will make a difference on a smallish area. Or glyphosate if you haven't the energy/patience

[Geoff]

I suspect they are quite difficult to clear completely, I can't get rid of them from part of the flower garden but can limit them with hand weeding. If glyphosate does kill them (RHS say it does) you have a chance, the leaves are there very early and quite flat so you should be able to use it as soon as it is warm enough without affecting your cropping too much. As you probably know, they grow from little fleshy tubers that easily break up and spread as you are trying to weed them out. In light soil hand weeding by getting under the plants and carefully removing it whole is quite effective, I guess it would be more difficult in clay. Whatever you do don't rotovate (this applies to most new plots anyway).

[Colin Miles]

Very difficult to clear completely. I have them and they are a nuisance more than anything else. Hand weeding or glyphosate probably best though with the current weather conditions you will have to wait a while!

[Primrose]

Oh, they're a nightmare. Earlier in the gardening days of my youth I actually planted a few in a border thinking how pretty they were in springtime. Thirty years later I'm still trying to get rid of the damned things. Apart from using a weedkiller, if you dig them out by hand you will need to dig deep and ensure you get every last bit ofroot bulb out outherwise they just seem toregenerate and start all over again.

[FelixLeiter]

You can get rid of it with glyphosate (Roundup) but it does not stick to the leaves too readily. But you can now buy it in a dispenser with a foam setting. This works really well. I completely got rid of an infestation of ground elder using the foam dispenser.

Celandine has the good manners to die off by high summer. It is an irritation rather than a significantly competitive weed.