Can groundcover come back after being sprayed with roundup?
by Sam Binkley
+6
We bought a house 6 months ago which when we first looked at it it had beautiful groundcover. The seller, thinking he was simplifying the landscaping, sprayed it with Roundup, then spread mulch over it. With all of the rain and snow this region has gotten over the last year, is there a chance that it will come back?
Roundup kills the plant and it's roots, not the seeds. If your ground cover spreads by seeds it'll come back.
The seller may have done this as a quick way of weeding.
I think small shoots of it will probably come up, but it will not come up anywhere near as full as the original picture. I remember with Roundup for poison ivy mixed with ground cover, it took several applications to completely eradicate, so I think such an established ground cover won't die completely from one application.
Hopefully if you let the shoots spread, it will fill out again within a few seasons.
Some things yes, some no. If that's Creeping Jenny, probably not. Ivy, being the thug it is, would come back. I would have smacked him. What a shame.
There appears to be both ivy and another type of ground cover mixed together. Ivy is extremely invasive so I can understand (only a tiny bit!) why it was sprayed. Especially with the stone block stairs, ivy will get its roots right into the mortar and eventually cause structural damage.
I would add soil and compost to that area to amend the soil for best growing conditions. Dig out any ivy you see coming up and keep your fingers crossed for the other ground cover. IF you know what it is, go to a nursery now and purchase a flat of the same. Plant the new guys sporadically around that area so when small shoots of the old comes up they have some strong plants to mesh with.
Meanwhile, from my reading and own experience it is not likely that his single application of roundup has killed all the plants! Ground cover does what it does precisely because it spreads so well, becomes so dense, and is much stronger than any weeds that attempt to invade its territory. Read these to see how hard it is to get rid of
https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ask-toh/getting-rid-groundcover
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-invasive-ground-cover-plants-43044.html
https://www.lawnsite.com/threads/how-to-get-rid-of-unwanted-groundcover.351496/
Fingers crossed for your ground cover to poke up when it gets warm! 😎💐
I would think 50/50 chance of it coming back.
Did he spray it after the sale was agreed upon but before it closed? He devalued the property by destroying landscaping, and financial compensation may be in order. More to your question, research has shown that Roundup stays in the soil for up to 5 years, so I would not count on anything coming back in that area. You may have to remove the top 6 inches of soil and replace it before you replant in that area.