michael83
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Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 11:55 am

Any weed barrier recommendations for aegopodium?

Any recommendations for above & underground weed barriers for aegopodium?

THE PROBLEM
We have two neighbors with lots of aegopodium growing into our yard (40 feet along one side of the yard, 20 feet along another side). The 20' neighbor already has a fence above ground that prevents aegepodium spreading above ground, but some spreads under the fence. The 40' neighbor has a thin wired fence (cyclone fence) with tons of aegopodium coming through. The weed primarily spreads under ground via roots, but appears to also spread above ground via seeds falling. We're looking for a solution that prevents both paths.

WHAT WE'VE TRIED
- Last year we spent a few hundred dollars on a weed barrier material that we spread flat covering the entire border of the yards, covering 3-6' feet into our yard. This prevented around 99% of aegopodium growth. A few aegopodium sprung through and we're planning to manually remove them, but are looking to grow vegetables where the ground cover barrier is now, so we want a barrier that prevents below/above ground spreading at the fences.
- The 40' border neighbor has a weed whacker which he uses to give the aegopodium a trim a few times per year, but he claims it has kept coming back for 20+ years he's lived there and he's mostly given up on it.
- We've tried ammonia as a natural plant killer, which made some aegopodium unhappy, but there's far too much to exterminate with ammonia.
- We hired a neighbor's son who spent around 80 hours carefully de-rooting the aegopodium, but there was far too much to pull.
- My mom's friend suggested farmers used to bury rolls of roofing material as under ground + above-ground barriers for this purpose, but we learned most roofing material still contains asbestos and are looking for a non-toxic solution.

WHAT WE'RE CONSIDERING NOW
- UNDER GROUND: We found 14" x 10 feet rolls of aluminum for around $10 at Lowes. Burying this along each border seemed like it could prevent roots from spreading for around $60. Since aluminum corrodes into aluminum oxide, we're thinking of upgrading to stainless steel which would cost around $250 for the under ground barrier.
- UNDER GROUND ALTERNATIVES: since even stainless steel can corrode under ground, we're considering cement or some sort of rubber barrier.
- ABOVE GROUND: We're thinking of trying the same weed barrier ground cover we used last year, but attaching it upright to the wired (cyclone) fence.

Has anyone tried something similar before? Any suggestions or lessons learned from the community would be much appreciated.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Wow!! Bishop's weed is an invasive exotic and VERY difficult to control. If you just had it in your yard, there are things you could try to eradicate it. But since you have an infinite supply of the stuff on the other side of your fences, it will just keep coming back.

Your underground weed barrier should help at least slow it down. But

"Goutweed can reach 50 to 100 cm tall when in bloom in mid-summer, topped par domes (umbels) of tiny white flowers. Its stems are hollow. Its roots can dig down deeply into the soil, sometimes to a depth of several yards (meters)." https://laidbackgardener.blog/2016/05/2 ... -goutweed/

Any piece of root you leave in the soil can regrow. Even if you were willing to treat your soil with something like RoundUp, it would still come back from the other side of the fence in a few months.

I'm sorry, but I can't imagine a solution unless your neighbors were willing to cooperate and work on eradicating theirs.



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