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Eradicating
Oxalis (Wood Sorrel) |
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When
I moved into my house, I had a few small patches of the stuff. I actually
thought it was a pretty little plant and that I was lucky to have inherited
it. It was mostly in the lawn and didn't seem to spread too much,
probably because of regular mowing. Then I decided to create a fair-sized
island bed and I tilled under all the grass and Oxalis. I proceeded
to spend a good bit of money on edging this bed with terra cotta blocks.
Before I was even done with the edging blocks, I knew I had a big problem
with Oxalis, as it almost immediately overtook the whole area. It
was fall
Finally, I had enough and I went to the store and got some Roundup. I don't normally use Roundup but it was worth a shot in this case. I decided to do a test first before really getting out there and doing some damage so I picked a clump and painstakingly painted the Roundup onto each individual leaf with a paintbrush. The next day I went out there and indeed, the leaves I painted were wilted, but the few I missed were fine and dandy, meaning that I killed the leaves but it didn't affect the bulb at all. Two days later it had sent up replacements. So forget it - unless you have absolutely nothing else in the garden and you are willing to soak the ground with a chemical, Roundup won't work.
So that's my story. The only way I know of to get rid of Oxalis is by hard work, but in the end it's worth it. An infestation of Oxalis will eventually overtake pretty much everything else out there, so my advice is to just get out there and enjoy the solitude and revel in the little successes - and never, never till that area again! UPDATES: Below is the garden in mid June - I have made headway. There is still some Oxalis out there but with regular pulling it is a minor annoyance at this point.
Below is the garden in October - with the cooler weather I am seeing more and more Oxalis, but it's still only a nuisance rather than a crisis.
Here we go again. Oxalis loves the cold, and the garden in January needs a thorough weeding again. Below is a wide angle view, with a view below that of how thick this weed becomes in a hurry.
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