Hello,

I've been a listmember for quite some time, but have only lurked.
Thanks for all the great native plant wisdom I've gained from all of
you in the past.

I'm having a huge problem with Allium vineale on my property, and am
hoping to get some advice on controlling it.

A little background: my lot is in the NW suburbs of Chicago, and was
a degraded oak-and-hickory savanna when we purchased it. After I
retired about six years ago, I began the process of removing all the
buckthorn and multiflora rose, and completed that three years ago.
I've planted lots of native trees and shrubs as replacements. I
believed that my biggest weed problem would be garlic mustard, but
controlling that takes me only a few hours a year. But, the allium is
like a carpet covering nearly the entire acre. For each of the last
three years, I've painstakingly dug it all out by hand (or at least
cut down what I couldn't get to before it flowered), on the assumption
that a few years of diligence would eliminate the problem.

However, my efforts don't seem to be making a difference - the plant
is just as thick in the woodland and now it is spreading to areas in
which I'd never encountered it, like my front yard prairie. It's so
interwoven with the Penn sedge, trout lily, and trillium that pulling
it disturbs those desirable plants despite my attempts to be careful.
Herbicides aren't effective on allium, plus there's the desirable
plant proximity issue.

I'm getting too old to spend 40 hours a week pulling allium for the
entire spring and half the summer! Does anybody have any tips for
me? Or should I just give up and let it be?

Thanks in advance,
Lauren