Plants > Weeds

Weeds, weeds and more weeds

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Eric Hardy:
The garden has become more important than the computer now the weather is getting better so it has occurred to me what an extraordinarily large variety of weeds we have and how our age is making it increasingly difficult to keep on top of them. In fact I say without fear of contradiction that the weeds are winning at the moment  :(

Our most serious weeds are bindweed, couch grass and ground elder.
We have a lot of goose grass too which just keeps coming back. A few years ago we got a little bit of Japanese knotweed but to my relief I was able to eradicate it.

Lesser weeds are dock, plantain, groundsel, buttercups (creeping and meadow), dandelions, thistles (the seeds blow in from the common outside), dead nettles and we even have scarlet pimpernel in the vegetable patch. There are of course others that I don?t know the name of.

Some garden plants become weeds if they don?t stay where they are intended. Ladies mantle keeps popping up in places it shouldn?t be. Dill spreads all over the place and unless you catch it young the roots just go down and down. Honesty is fine in it?s place but needs keeping in check (or is it a weed anyway?)

Wild anchusa grows in the wild bit (along with wild rocket and red campion) but if it seeds in the beds it has deep roots like a dock. Cow parsley grows in the wild bit too but once it has flowered we pull it up by the roots (as long as the earth is damp).

Wild foxgloves and columbine seed themselves but in the right place we leave them. Then there are the (is it a weed?) forget-me-nots and wild garlic. The forget-me-nots are being pulled up now for the most part where they are encroaching on space needed by ?proper? plants. The wild garlic seems to be contained.

I know the experts in the group must have weedless gardens and I envy them.

What has prompted this rambling piece? Well you have to have something to think about when you are weeding  ;D

Eric H

Palustris:
Snap!

ideasguy:
Nice posting there Eric.
Makes you wonder if we gardeners are working with or against nature, does it not?
As for weedless gardens - now, that would be paradise  :)

I now realise I have an annual cycle "working with nature".
Currently its dandylions and I'm almost paranoid about them. I spend hours at this time of year removing those cheery blooms.
If they are in the "fallow" areas, I deadhead them. If they are accessible, I use a long handled pointed trowel, filed to a sharp edge at the point, which I use to cut the weed just below the surface, taking up the entire growth.
I never mow the lawn when until they are removed.
It leaves the tap root of course, but it gives no more bother until its second flush later in the year (aren't they so prolific!) Mind you the third flush, the sporadic ones which do their business during off season can catch me out!
They are truly amazing. The stem carrying the bloom or a flower bud has the knack of dropping off the plant as you put in in the weed bucket. If you don't see it, even an undeveloped flower will continue to flower and set seed - truly indestructible and programmed for survival.
For that reason, whacking with a strimmer isn't an option!

Nettles are next in order of nuisance. Don't allow them to go to seed! They develop a very tough root structure, don't they!

Buttercups are OK if you get them in time. If you don't, boy they don't half get a grip of the earth! If beside a timid plant, well its in trouble.

Now heres the ironic bit. My first task each spring is to go out and weed around my precious plants. Invariably, they are smothered with forget-me-not, grass in variety etc etc.  I weed cautiously until I find my plant. Eventually (if lucky) I discover this timid little plant just awakening from its slumbers! Usually, its eaten to the ground by slugs (another posting Eric?)
Sometimes theres nothing! You end up with a bare patch and in a few weeks (again if lucky) the sleeping beauty emerges.
I chuckle each year as I rescue Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' - how misnamed can a plant possibly be!!!!

I have to agree with your choice of three serious weeds.
Most can be introduced to the garden very easily.
I spotted this beautiful Helleborus niger in full bloom at a garden centre.
Then, I also spotted a strongly growing bindweed in the same pot. I pointed it out to the owner. He pulled the weed and went about his business. I left empty handed. Pity the poor customer who bought that plant  :'(

Divisions are lethal. Thats how my dad introduced ground elder to one part of the garden, with a very beautiful Phlox. Both are growing strongly and thats after 25 years.

A new gardener should be warned about the dangers of buying a load of topsoil.
I came very close to buying a lorry load of what I thought was quality soil, piled at the site of a new Sainsburys and B&Q outlest close to my home.
They spread some over a disused road. Now its full of Gorse -we call them Whin bushes (do you call them whin bushes?)
I didn't need that weed. The soil was obviously full of gorse seed (plentiful in that area)

When they widened the road outside my house, they took away a strip of my garden and in compensation, built me a nice brick wall. They brough a load of topsoil and filled it in to the new wall. Now I have bindweed!

Hey, isn't gardening so much fun  ???

Eric Hardy:

--- Quote from: ideasguy on May 05, 2009, 11:12:45 AM ---Nettles are next in order of nuisance. Don't allow them to go to seed! They develop a very tough root structure, don't they!
--- End quote ---
Yes, I forgot stinging nettles. We have those too. It is suggested you should leave a patch of nettles for the butterfly larvae. Peacocks, red admirals, tortoiseshells and commas all like nettles we are told. Luckily there are plenty of nettles outside on the common so I don't feel the need to preserve a nettle patch.


--- Quote ---Divisions are lethal. Thats how my dad introduced ground elder to one part of the garden, with a very beautiful Phlox.
--- End quote ---
I agree with that. I forgot to mention vetch as a weed. We had some divisions from Anthea's parents a few years ago and introduced vetch into our garden which we now have in abundance.


--- Quote ---A new gardener should be warned about the dangers of buying a load of topsoil..............
When they widened the road outside my house, they took away a strip of my garden and in compensation, built me a nice brick wall. They brough a load of topsoil and filled it in to the new wall. Now I have bindweed
--- End quote ---
Luckily that is something we have never needed to do. Years of our own horse manure has made the soil pretty good.

Another weed I didn't mention is herb robert. It is a dainty little plant. In between the stone sets we have by our back door it looks quite pretty. Luckily, if it gets into the beds it is one of the easiest weeds to remove.

I am sure we can go on for ever about weeds   :)

Eric H

Eric Hardy:
And I forgot to mention our two little ponds where duck weed and blanket weed have to be removed almost on a daily basis  ::)

Eric H

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