How do I get rid of these alliums?

Esmay

After digging up /cutting back as many as you can - try this :

Cover them with thick black plastic bags and weight them down carefully .

I've had to do this to the incredible army of weeds , which come under the fence from my reclusive neighbour's garden - not tended for 30 years .

Good advice.

Similarly, when we wanted to kill vegetation, we covered it with heavy black plastic and a heavy layer of bark or mulch.

I have the same with Japanese Anemones - they pop up in the lawn and all over the place.

Contrary to most of you I hope mine spread, I’ve only got a few put in two years ago.

This year I have horse chestnuts coming up everywhere even in the middle of plants. Thanks Squirrel 😂

Lots of these so-called "invasive" plants don't like our garden.
Even various mints have had to be replanted... except one tiny pot of Lemon Balm - which totally takes over if I'm not on top of it very early in the season!

I have actually bought Japanese Anemones after the ones moves from my mother-in-law's garden just disappeared!

I have a couple of troublesome spots - where I really should dig out the bulbs.

Instead, due to back problems, I've covered them with weed fabric then boards to cut out all the light. The boards are disguised by gravel and I've put some pots on top, so it looks like deliberate displays.

M0nica

I have a 30ft square area, which has essentially had nothing but an annual cut for the last 30 years, although I did pull nettles out the first year as they threatened to take over.

It has been interesting to see how my 'rewilding' plot has gone. The one thing it is not, is a beautiful wildflower meadow, As time progresses it has been taken over by different plants to the almost total exclusion of everything else, first buttercups, replaced by dandelions, replaced by daisies, eplaced by cow parsley. I wait to see what will replace that.

I think the idea that 'beautiful wildflower meadows' will materialise if you let nature take over is a work of romantic fiction. They need to be seeded initially and then take lots of work to keep them looking as diverse and beautiful as they did in the first year or two. Left to themselves, as you describe, MOnica they tend to revert a few dominant species.

Do you mow your wild patch at any time?

Oh, I missed that you mentioned an annual cut. What time of year do you do that?p

I think that next year I will try the covering up method in the problem areas with holes for the shrubs to grow through. How long will I have to leave it for, though? A year, two?

Maizie, i have always assumed wild flower meadows were carefully created, or carefully grazed over 100s of years. That is why I set out to do a piece of true rewilding, just letting a patch of grass do its own thing and see what happened.

I cut mine once a year in the late summer and take off everything I cut and compost it.

However I do feel that my patch is true rewilding and not a carefully managed affectation.

I feel that your patch is true rewilding, too, MOnica 😆

I was thinking about all those gorgeous roundabouts which were very fashionably planted with multicoloured wild flowers a few years ago and which ended up looking less than gorgeous after a year ot two...

I think that it's a bit of a con when people buy things like seed bombs and aren't warned that the effects are transitory.

I do think it's interesting that a 'managed' patch (however lightly) ends up looking far more attractive than a truly wild and untouched one...

MaizieD I agree, my patch except in the period when it has a full flush of fowers (this year, cow parsley), is not a thing of beauty, but it cannot be seen from the house. I am very belatedly putting insect houses on the adjacent fence because. I suspect, while not a thing of beauty, it has a better population of insects than a carefully maintained 'wildflower garden'.

M0nica

I have a 30ft square area, which has essentially had nothing but an annual cut for the last 30 years, although I did pull nettles out the first year as they threatened to take over.

It has been interesting to see how my 'rewilding' plot has gone. The one thing it is not, is a beautiful wildflower meadow, As time progresses it has been taken over by different plants to the almost total exclusion of everything else, first buttercups, replaced by dandelions, replaced by daisies, eplaced by cow parsley. I wait to see what will replace that.

Mine's been taken over by hawkbit. I thought at first it was coltsfoot but the leaves are different.

Last year I had a couple of viper's bugloss but they don't seem to have appeared yet this year.
A clump of oxeye daisies have appeared this year too.

I did fling a few wildflower seeds down a couple of seasons ago (poppies, cornflowers and oxeye daisies) but realised it's probably better left to chance as the ground is very poor.
I've never seen a poppy in that area as I think they like better soil.

I've never seen a poppy in that area as I think they like better soil.

That's probably why they always did so well in corn fields.

In my experience (I have a small acreage as well as a garden) areas that are left entirely to themselves get taken over by docks, nettles and brambles. No doubt supporting all sorts of animals and insect but not a thing of beauty...

I'm sure that some management, such as grazing or mowing is a absolutely necessary.

MaizieD I think the idea that 'beautiful wildflower meadows' will materialise if you let nature take over is a work of romantic fiction. They need to be seeded initially and then take lots of work to keep them looking as diverse and beautiful as they did in the first year or two.

Of course a meadow has to be seeded. After building is completed, decent soil is brought in, prepared - compost is worked back into the soil. Clover is over seeded for nitrogen, wild seeds are scattered.

However, apart from the initial easy process - not much remains except to throw more flower and clover seeds as needed.

What about the regular grazing and manuring by ruminants? The best wild flower meadows are the result of the combination of fower and beats over hundreds of years.

I think most native wildflowers prefer poor soil. My little patch by the back gates had all it's topsoil removed and was left bare. It's just strimmed down and raked in August.

There are ox eye daisies, cornflowers and scarlet pimpernel - but no poppies - not planted by me, maybe old seeds raked to the surface? It was grazing before the houses were built. I was told that poppy seeds survive for over a century underground, germinating when brought to the surface - so why don't we have them here?

I think poppies prefer better soil. They used to be rampant in corn fields, which would have had improved soil.

MaizieD, aha - that explains it!

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row

The soil was disturbed and contained plenty of nitrogen from explosives 😥

Poppies prefer disturbed soil. The artillery bombardments disturbed the soil. I am not sure how nitrogen from the shells would act as a fertiliser.

This is why, before weed killers, all our grain fields had poppies in them.

The artillery bombardments disturbed the soil. I am not sure how nitrogen from the shells would act as a fertiliser.

Not nitrogen from the shells, MOnica. Goulish it may be, but corpses make excellent fertiliser...

I am not sure how nitrogen from the shells would act as a fertiliser.
That is the accepted theory anyway.

And, of course, bodies of men and animals

WHY DID SO MANY POPPIES APPEAR DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR?
www.discoveringbelgium.com/the-poppies-of-flanders

MaizieD

^The artillery bombardments disturbed the soil. I am not sure how nitrogen from the shells would act as a fertiliser.^

Not nitrogen from the shells, MOnica. Goulish it may be, but corpses make excellent fertiliser...

We saw poppy fields at Gallipoli - remains of soldiers noted as cause.