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Gardening

Wild garlic

(49 Posts)
Auntieflo Thu 11-May-23 09:47:28

This year we have had masses of wild garlic appear.
While it looks very pretty, is there an easy way to get rid of it?

Redhead56 Thu 11-May-23 09:49:37

You can dig it out it has little bulbs that look like spring onions Auntieflo.

kittylester Thu 11-May-23 10:00:28

But they split and spread like billyo. It took us about 5 years of digging them out. We still get small outbreaks which look lovely but are dug out as the flowers die.

MrsKen33 Thu 11-May-23 10:01:32

Can you send some to my DD. She wants some in her wood.? 😃

nanna8 Thu 11-May-23 10:03:27

It is considered a noxious weed in Australia because it spreads too quickly.

Whitewavemark2 Thu 11-May-23 10:09:29

My son is 50 this year and as a young teenager he used to cycle throughout the Sussex countryside. One trip near Arundel castle he brought back some wild garlic for me for the garden. It is still there - daring me to get rid of it😄

25Avalon Thu 11-May-23 10:11:53

Wild garlic will die down and the leaves disappear by June time, until it re-emerges next Spring, so you won’t have it all year round. Lots of things you can do with it - make garlic butter or pesto. Just be careful it is wild garlic. I am trying to grow it in a wooded area at the moment but although it is supposed to be invasive it’s being slow.

Just one thought - are you show it is wild garlic? Wild arum looks similar when it first comes up but is highly poisonous. I have it appearing in my flower borders this year. If cooking with wild garlic the leaves smell of garlic unlike arums which eventually get hooded with the poisonous berries which ripen to red inside. It’s these the birds must deposit.

Germanshepherdsmum Thu 11-May-23 10:15:22

MrsKen your daughter can buy some plants online here
www.gardensupplydirect.co.uk/wild_garlic_in_the_green/wild_garlic_in_the_green__allium_ursinum_ramsons/12983_p.html
And lots of other places I’m sure.

25Avalon Thu 11-May-23 10:20:07

Germanshepherdsmum

MrsKen your daughter can buy some plants online here
www.gardensupplydirect.co.uk/wild_garlic_in_the_green/wild_garlic_in_the_green__allium_ursinum_ramsons/12983_p.html
And lots of other places I’m sure.

I bought some in the green quite cheaply on EBay a few weeks ago.

Aldom Thu 11-May-23 10:24:58

I keep a little patch of wild garlic by the back gate. It used to be a glorious large patch until I used the space for a shed. A few pop up in a couple of borders, but each year, after flowering I remove as many as possible.
My first school was in woodland. Masses of wild garlic and wild wallflowers grew there. The smell of both takes me back to being a little girl. smile

Aldom Thu 11-May-23 10:25:52

And here is the photo of my little patch.

MaizieD Thu 11-May-23 10:41:02

Aldom

And here is the photo of my little patch.

I'm afraid that that isn't wild garlic, Aldom. It's another member of the allium family, allium triquetrum. it has that strong oniony smell but that's all. And it's a terrible garden thug and seeds itself like crazy. I've spent years trying to prevent it taking over my garden!

Wild garlic has much broader leaves, a bit like tulip leaves and a globular flower head made up of tiny white flowers. Lots of images of it here:

duckduckgo.com/?q=wild+garlic&t=chromentp&iax=images&ia=images

I'm amazed that people sell it on line! I'm sure that if one went to a wood where it grows and picked a couple of flower heads when they had set seed it would be very easy to grow!

I do recall that last spring there were complaints that in some areas woodlands were being stripped of their wild garlic because it had become a fashionable restaurant offering...

Whitewavemark2 Thu 11-May-23 10:44:12

This is wild garlic😄

Forsythia Thu 11-May-23 10:44:42

Germanshepherdsmum

MrsKen your daughter can buy some plants online here
www.gardensupplydirect.co.uk/wild_garlic_in_the_green/wild_garlic_in_the_green__allium_ursinum_ramsons/12983_p.html
And lots of other places I’m sure.

Thank you. That will be useful for me too.

Germanshepherdsmum Thu 11-May-23 10:46:27

I agree Maizie. Definitely not wild garlic. I have that too, seeds around but I don’t mind as it’s pretty and it dies down completely before the summer plants come into their own.

25Avalon Thu 11-May-23 10:46:44

MaizieD is right Aldo’s. That is not wild garlic.

I paid a fiver for 2O garlics in the green. Much quicker than seed. Not sure if you are allowed to dig the bulbs up in the wild?

Whitewavemark2 Thu 11-May-23 11:20:35

25Avalon

MaizieD is right Aldo’s. That is not wild garlic.

I paid a fiver for 2O garlics in the green. Much quicker than seed. Not sure if you are allowed to dig the bulbs up in the wild?

No I wouldn’t. Son of course excepted 37 years ago😄

25Avalon Thu 11-May-23 11:24:01

Just checked it is illegal to dig up the bulbs.

Esmay Thu 11-May-23 11:50:45

My neighbour insisted that his wild garlic was a white variety of bluebell
and it spread all over my garden and into the lawn .

I've found that it's easier to pull up when it's in full flower and the bulb is weaker .

Leave any bulbs behind and up it comes again .

I've suffocated patches of it with thick black plastic bags weighed down with stones .

It's been an ongoing battle , which I'm slowly winning .

Aldom Thu 11-May-23 12:10:29

Thank you Maisie and WWM Because of the strong garlic smell I've always assumed it was wild garlic. But now I see your picture WWM I remember the woodland garlic from childhood.
Every day's a school day, as the saying goes. smile

MrsKen33 Thu 11-May-23 15:53:49

Thank you GSM, I have emailed that link to her

J52 Thu 11-May-23 16:56:44

Wild Garlic on the verge, taken this afternoon. There was at least a mile of it.

MayBee70 Thu 11-May-23 17:00:52

I haven’t smelled wild garlic for years: it makes me think of the time I spent in Cornwall.

MaizieD Thu 11-May-23 17:02:26

Just checked it is illegal to dig up the bulbs.

I didn't suggest digging up any wild garlic bulbs (though anyone is welcome to come and dig some of mine up as I have industrial quantities.)

All I suggested was taking a couple of ripe seed heads.

What I would not do is pay good money for a rampant 'weed'. grin

BlueBelle Thu 11-May-23 17:02:49

Aldom I have your sort and always thought it was wild garlic 😂😂