{"id":546,"date":"2019-11-30T12:57:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T12:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/?p=546"},"modified":"2019-11-30T13:01:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T13:01:46","slug":"what-is-goutweed-and-how-do-i-get-rid-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/what-is-goutweed-and-how-do-i-get-rid-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Goutweed and How Do I Get Rid of It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goutweed. Ground elder. English masterwort. Herb Gerard. Bishop\u2019s weed. Snow-in-the-mountain. Gout Wort. Aegopodium podagraria<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t matter what name you call it by, this plant is known best as the bane of many a gardener\u2019s existence. Native to Europe, this invasive species has rooted its way into yards and gardens internationally, stretching the U.S. from Maine to South Carolina, out to Montana and the Pacific Northwest. It has dug its way into Australian and Tasmanian soil, and devastated Russian farmers.<\/p>\n

A hardy perennial<\/a>, goutweed is planted by novice gardeners charmed by its variegated leaves<\/a> and resilience. Much to these gardeners\u2019 chagrin, it is also seemingly impossible to remove from your garden once it has taken root in the soil. And despite hacking away, mowing it down, or covering it in noxious chemicals, for most gardeners, the stuff just keeps coming back. Why so resilient? A rhizome, its root system is interconnected; new shoots of goutweed spring up from the root system of the plant beside it, meaning it\u2019s more work than just uprooting a handful of weeds like you may dandelions. Instead, this beast of the garden stretches its roots wide, burrowing just about everywhere \u2013 including around the roots of some of the more delicate plants you\u2019ve been toiling over.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, aside from up and moving to a goutweed-free part of the globe, you have a few options for eradicating \u2013 or at least mitigating \u2013 this pervasive grower.<\/p>\n

The kneejerk reaction most of us have when a plant is growing that we want out is to uproot it. Unfortunately, unless your patch of goutweed is small \u2013 and let\u2019s get real: if you have goutweed, it ain\u2019t just a small patch, friends \u2013 uprooting it won\u2019t help. If anything, it makes things worse. If you happen to drop a piece of the uprooted rhizome in your garden, these babies can propagate from a stray piece \u2013 even tiny ones \u2013 starting the problem all over again in another part of the yard.<\/p>\n

Instead, author and gardener Niki Jabbour<\/a> over at Savvy Gardening<\/a> had a recommendation: spraying horticultural vinegar<\/a> or citrus oil on the plants, killing them over time. In her experience, the horticultural vinegar eradicated all the goutweed for a year, when one stray shoot showed itself the following summer. However, to be effective, she had to reapply more than once.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not the kind of person who is comfortable making your own spray from vinegar \u2013 or you\u2019re wary of impacting your soil\u2019s pH with all that vinegar \u2013 you can try the most common method of eradicating goutweed: covering the entire impacted area with thick, black plastic and cooking them under the heat, devoid of sunlight…for a year<\/a>. While effective, many gardeners \u2013 myself included \u2013 balk at the thought of spending a whole year with a giant piece of plastic gracing their yard.<\/p>\n

For a prettier, but just as lengthy fix, try smothering the goutweed by covering it with a piece of cardboard larger than the affected area by several inches, then burying said cardboard in mulch. Let this sit for one to two years. After that, gardeners can plant directly on top of the mulched area, granted no goutweed shoots have shown themselves there in the past twelve months.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest, these techniques sound like we should just admit defeat. Throw in the trowel, let the goutweed take over, and hang up our overalls. What could we possibly do to overtake this herculean growth?<\/p>\n

Eat it, apparently.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, that weed that\u2019s been choking out all your lettuce and spinach and kale this year? You could have been eating it the whole time instead! A member of the carrot family<\/a>, goutweed is bursting with health benefits, and has traditionally been used to treat arthritis, bladder conditions, and \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 gout.<\/p>\n

With its edible leaves and stems, it turns out goutweed is a free, abundant source of daily greens \u2013 so long as you pick it far from the roadside, where it can absorb toxins. And apparently it\u2019s tasty, too \u2013 Hilda<\/a> from Along the Grapevine<\/a> likens it to \u201ca cross between carrot and parsley with a hint of celery\u201d. Yum. Here, she uses it in a chimichurri<\/a> sauce.<\/p>\n

If chimichurri isn\u2019t up your alley, there is an abundance of other ways to incorporate that goutweed taking over your yard into your daily diet, getting a hearty serving of leafy greens in the process. Like this simple recipe for goutweed soup<\/a> from the folks over at Tofu For Two<\/a>. Or, for a soup that\u2019s a little more adventurous, there\u2019s always this goutweed soup with coconut milk and tofu<\/a> from Vegan Sandra<\/a>. Creamy, frugal dreaminess from your own backyard \u2013 without even trying! Some other ideas for cooking with goutweed are hortapita<\/a>, muffins<\/a>, pesto<\/a>…you get the idea. Anywhere you\u2019d put greens, sub some goutweed for a fresh twist. After all, you know what they say: when life gives you goutweed, make chimichurri sauce.<\/p>\n

As with all wild foraging, it\u2019s important to note that you should only cook with goutweed if you have positively identified it; if not careful, it can be mistaken for poisonous plants such as water hemlock. The best way to be sure? Look for a local edible plant walk. Most towns and cities have a group that offers one. Check Meetup\u2019s Foraging<\/a> page, or simply google plant walks in your city.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re at your wit\u2019s end with the goutweed in your backyard, remember: you can always invest in some goats and sheep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goutweed. Ground elder. English masterwort. Herb Gerard. Bishop\u2019s weed. Snow-in-the-mountain. Gout Wort. Aegopodium podagraria. It doesn\u2019t matter what name you call it by, this plant is known best as the bane of many a gardener\u2019s existence. Native to Europe, this invasive species has rooted its way into yards and gardens internationally, stretching the U.S. from… Continue reading What is Goutweed and How Do I Get Rid of It<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/violetsveggies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}