OPINION: Taking on another summer of goutweed

GUELPH – I had a situation last year that didn’t allow me to maintain my garden very much. 

Goutweed saw its opportunity and took full advantage.

As my back was turned it infiltrated, from all sides it seems, including from underground and overhead until now there is just one ‘island’ garden out front that isn’t afflicted.

It has surrounded shrubs, overtaken perennials to the point you can’t see them anymore and is beginning to eye the lawn.

So I turned to a local expert for advice – AI. And AI says cardboard. 

I also checked the Ontario Invasive Plant Council website because AI, as we know, is not always reliable. And it says I’m in for a long and difficult summer. Or two. Or three.

Sigh.

Goutweed comes in two varieties: solid green leaf or a variegated variety with the deceptively lovely name, snow-on-the-mountain. That’s how I got sucked into this mess in the first place.

Note to self: if it has the word “weed” in its name, it’s a weed. Don’t plant it.

If the tag calls it a “vigorous grower,” it’s a weed. Don’t plant it.

According to the invasive plant council, goutweed casts a vast root system and spreads through these interconnected rhizomes.

Try to dig them out at your own peril.

If you have a small patch of goutweed, digging it out might work. But be prepared to dig deep and beyond the patch you can see. And be vigilant about getting it all. 

If you miss a small piece of the root, it will regrow – and with a vengeance because now you’ve angered it.

And don’t put goutweed roots in your backyard composter – put them in black plastic bags and leave them in the sun for several days to really and truly die.

For a large area of goutweed, cut it low to the ground with a lawnmower or weed wacker and cover with a thick layer of cardboard, a black tarp or black plastic.

The idea is to block out all sunlight and starve the plant to death.

Use bricks or rocks to hold the covering in place and leave it for two or three growing seasons, according to the invasive plant council. Be sure the covering goes right to the edge, even digging the plastic or cardboard into the soil so no goutweed escapes its dark tomb.

“You must remove every tiny fragment of the root, as even the smallest piece left behind will re-sprout,” it says.

I know this to be true.

Several years ago I attempted to get rid of the goutweed only to have it grow back.

My then-neighbour was not a gardener, and the goutweed on her side crept back under the fence. And yada, yada, yada, here we are.

My new neighbour enjoys gardening, and we’ve talked about our mutual goutweed problem.

We are going to go at it from both sides of the fence and hopefully eradicate it this time.

It’s going to be unsightly. It’s going to look like I’m trying to grow an Amazon warehouse with all those boxes planted in the ground.

I hope it will work. I once had a pretty garden.

I don’t know why it’s called goutweed; I only hope I don’t get gout from all this.