[jaykay]

Does anyone know if either box or chicory grow back from pieces of root? I'm digging both out from two raised beds that had become very overgrown (20+ years) with each. I am going to have some flowers, 4 years after we moved in! I just don't know how pernickety I need to be about getting all the roots out.

[suziequeue]

I don;t know but you can spend forever getting stuff out.

My view is - crack on once you have got most of it out. If any does come back it will be much weaker and you will spot it very quickly and pull it out.

Eventually the roots will weaken.

At least - that's what I'm hoping with alot of stuff in my herbaceaous border!!!

[jaykay]

Thanks Suzie. That's what I did in the end. Dug in lots of barrowloads of compost and then planted the two beds - they look very bare and new at the moment (tiny plants, lots of bare soil), but even that's a significant improvement on the huge old scraggy bushes (and chicory!) that was there before. I'm sure I've missed bits but digging the odd bit out now won't be anything like the original job!

Am surviving now on my mental image of the 'in five years' result