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Most hated weed
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Posted by garden_nerd UK Central (My Page) on Mon, May 8, 06 at 16:34
| As the encroaching jungle threatens to get the better of me and my allotment even earlier than usual this year I wondered which were your most hated weeds.
I loathe that avens thingy - seeds everywhere and invariably breaks off in my hand without pulling up the roots so I have to take a trowel to it, even when tiny.
Thistles - even worse, can't even touch them without gloves.
I rather like herb bennet which looks pretty, smells nice and pulls out with no trouble when their time is up. I even quite like dandelions as it's quite a challenge to see how much of the root I can ease out in one go, especially out of nice damp soil. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Most hated weed
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couch grass is evil im not religious in any way but i know the devils work when i see. it it is in every bed on my allotment it has grown through potatoes and carrots in the past and i do mean into a potato tuber and out the other side. apart from that creeping thistle, i dug up a 7' long root in one of my raised beds with 12 plants coming from it its a nightmare.
yours
steve |
RE: Most hated weed
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- Posted by pjc04 UK SE England (My Page) on
Mon, May 8, 06 at 17:00
| Ground elder is probably my worst, but I also have a problem with creeping cinquefoil and a violet which seeds itself absolutely everywhere. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| We have a railway line at the bottom of our garden. When we moved in the embankment was a jungle of Japanese knotweed. It has since been killed off, but there are great stands of Japanese knotweed in next door garden but one on both sides. It rears its ugly head occasionally in the bottom corner of our garden. We put up with it until late summer, then spray it with glyphosate. That seems to knock it on the head. But we deep down we know we'll never really eradicate it. Sycamores seedlings are also a problem, but we just keep weeding them out, along with the brambles, ivy, bindweed, herb Robert, creeping buttercup, grasses, dock, plantain (I grow Plantago major 'Rubrifolia' which is lovely but seeds everywhere if you forget to cut off the flowers), nettles, Caucasian comfrey (very pretty blue flowers, but it's a bit of a thug). At least with the last 2 you can make a good liquid feed. Oh well, at least when you're weeding you notice what's going on with your plants. |
RE: Most hated weed
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- Posted by pond Portsmouth, UK (My Page) on
Tue, May 9, 06 at 9:49
| Bindweed. It always manages to twizzle itself round something before I spot it, leading to either yanking up the plant I want to keep or spending ages unwinding it! Couch grass comes a close second. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| At home.. probably dandelions and buttercups, because they so obviously look like weeds and tend to clash with everything. At the lottie.. bindweed.. horsetail.. So what are people's *favourite* weeds, then? Mine are hairy bittercress, herb rocket, nettles.. I like the leaves, and they fill blank spots quickly. :D Melanie |
RE: Most hated weed
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| I like the ones that seed themselves next to like-minded plants by happy coincidence. Such as the Corydalis lutea that appeared next to some Dicentra eximia and across the path from Corydalis flexuosa. And the yellow-flowered Meconoposis cambrica popping up next to some cowslips. Even the rampaging blue-flowered Caucasian comfrey has only appeared amidst other blue-flowering plants. (I suppose I can't really have this one as my favourite AND most hated weed...) |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Why does everyone everywhere hate dandelion, seemingly? The flowers look smashing in the lush grass, the seed-heads are cool and fun for kids, and in a pinch the plant can hold off scurvy. It will grow in conditions near impossible for other plants. I've had wire-grass (couch grass?) grow right through a potato tuber also. Pretty amazing. I guess that one is my most difficult weed. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| I don't know why everyone's got it in for couch grass. It is easier to eradicate than you might suppose. I managed to clear it from a plot entirely within three years, first by hoeing it off for the first year to weaken it (I grew a crop of shallots amongst it this first year, which nearly disappeared among it but gave a good yield), then by digging out whatever I found when autumn digging. By year three, all gone. Agreed, it is most problematic when it gets amongst ornamentals and shrubs, or wanders in from next door, but it responds well to glyphosate. But at least unlike the other recidivists like ground elder or bindweed it does not have brittle rhizomes, which makes removal easier. I love dandelions, especially for roasting for coffee substitute. The worst for me, though, is any of the big, coarse Umbellifers — cow parsley and the like — which make my skin blister. Never mind giant hogweed, they all do it to me, even parsnip leaves. Added to this, they tend to seed in little cracks and crevasses and then grow huge in no time, extending a quite intractible tap root which only regrows if the top is removed. They smell awful, too. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Yes, that is about what it took me also, 3-4 years to get a bit of a handle on the endemic grasses. I accomplished it mostly by smothering. We don't have "cow parsley" over here that I know of. But I intentionally let several parsnip plants go to seed last fall (fabulous-looking seedheads) and now have thriving parsnips as weeds all over. Easier to handle than many other weeds. Mustard is another that naturalizes very well and will crowd out weeds. |
RE: Most hated weed
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I always think a weed is only a weed when it is not wanted in that position. Otherwise it is a wild flower. I think a lot of them are beautiful and really like the dandelion flower and seedhead. I let them stay in certain positions but do try to get hold of them before the head loses its seeds if I don't want a problem. I like the wild buttercup and that grows mainly around my pond and waterfall so it is fine there. I also let thistles and nettles grow for the butterflies.
The main thing I have a problem with is the birdseed that I put into a coachlamp style birdfeeder. As the birds feed on it it falls onto the soil below and lo and behold there are sunflowers(which I don't mind) and thick grass (which I do mind)growing everywhere. It seems to grow so fast that by the time you really notice it, it has already grown three inches and is hard to pull out. I suppose I only have myself to blame as I chose the birdfeeder and love to feed the birds and encourage them into my garden, but it is a lot of hard work. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons garden website
RE: Most hated weed
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| I like dandelions! Haven't tried roasting them but did get my class to use them for an Andy-Goldsworthy style art activity which was greatly enjoyed by all. I also managed to eradicate couch (is it "cooch", "cutch", "cowch" or even "twitch"?) grass from my garden by means of digging and rooting. I'm very grateful that I haven't got any of the really intractable weeds like bindweed, ground elder, Japanese knotweed or mare's tail to contend with. I do have an a slight problem with lesser celandine, which I love as it reminds me of Wales & sunshine , but it is forming a dense mat over an increasing part of my garden every spring. I'll never be able to dig it out, short of sifting my entire garden. Should I get worried? |
RE: Most hated weed
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- Posted by deeds1 the far SWUK-9 (My Page) on
Sun, May 14, 06 at 6:20
| I'd agree about the celendine garden nerd. I'm lucky not to have awful weeds like ground elder and horsetail. My absolute nightmare though is Rssian vine, it's rooted in the granite walls,smothers the trees and is impossible to kill - five years of weedkiller has only slowed it a little. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Its got to be bindweed growing through my Paeonies and couch grass or as we call it in Ireland "Skutch grass" thriving in a bed of geraniums. Why oh why do the worst weeds come up through plants like paoenies that hate to be disturbed. I also detest that little weed that I call the 'garden centre weed' its a tiny thing that had miniscule white flowers and goes to seed quickly and when you touch it it springs the seeds all over the place. Oh and while im at it that moss like weed that grows in shady places and you end up taking off an inch of soil trying to remove it. Thata all! |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Oh yes, I get that moss stuff on seed pots. No wonder I hardly ever get stuff to germinate! |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Oxalis - it looks quite sweet with little reddish clover type leaves and yellow flowers but the seed pods just explode. It's seeded itself in all my sempervivum pots so I've had to start again with offsets. Have to scratch it out of my gravel area with a claw tool. Toadflax - and I actually introduced this to my garden. It used to grow in the stone walls of my parents garden and I collected some seed and planted it in a hanging basket!! Seemed like a good idea at the time..... A white allium (don't know the name of this particular one) which was already in my garden. Six years later I'm still pouncing on it. Looks quite pretty but it's a very determined spreader and seeder. Potentilla argentifolia - a pretty little plant but is obviously so happy in my garden it wants to colonise the paving. Spanish bluebell - I never seem to be able to get the bulbs out and back it comes. Snails just love to hide under its great floppy leaves. I'm moving soon and am being very careful not to take any of the above with me! Unfortunately I've got a mass of that soleirolia stuff to deal with in the new garden....hope it responds to glyphosate! |
RE: Most hated weed
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| My most hated weed is dandelions. I might sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells here, but there are people down the road from me where they never do anything to a TINY bit of front garden - really tiny - and it ends up being a muddy patch absolutely covered in dandelions. Of course those charming dandelion clocks mean it's distributed to everyone else's front garden too in equal measure. And I'm not anal about having a weed-free lawn, I don't mind clover or self heal at all, but dandelion leaves are so obvious and to my mind, ugly. There is also someone in a neighbouring street who sports japanese knotweed in their front garden but fortunately it hasn't spread so far (are we just lucky?) I love lesser celandine in the woods but then it's not in my garden so it's not a problem! I have a lot of 'mind your own business' (can never spell the latin name) but it doesn't bother me. |
RE: Most hated weed
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- Posted by robbyem Central England (My Page) on
Sun, May 21, 06 at 8:38
| Spring-time baddy is lesser Celandine, which is then overwhelmed by the sticky-leaved weed (don't know what it's called). Then the convolvulus and the bramble seedlings take over in the Summer. Not too many problems here with Dandelions, I find it controllable so long as you can stop it from seeding. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Next door's lawn is covered with seeding dandelions. However, I note they have a fine crop of greater celandine -I have one in my garden which I encourage because of the toxic yellow sap which gets rid of warts (If this were the Middle Ages I'd be straight for the ducking stool.)- so I have got my revenge. I have a bit of a problem with alpine strawberries - at least they pull out easily, unlike other members of the tribe. I tried putting some into a large pot, as I once saw a specialist bed devoted to them and they looked very nice, but they promptly died. Bluebells - a tiresome slug haven,but at least they die back - eventually. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| Ooh, I HATE bindweed!!! HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE IT!!! Nettles, though....I am planning to make some nettle soup soon, with some wild garlic to spice it up a bit..... |
Here is a link that might be useful: Jane's gardening page
RE: Most hated weed
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Mind you, I must have the only garden in the world that has too much WOAD!!!
I bought a tiny plant from Chelsea Physic Garden about 4 years ago...more or less forgot about it, then suddenly - WOOSH! - there was this HUGE crop of woad, that I have to keep cutting back because it really is invasive like a weed!! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Jane's Gardening Page
RE: Most hated weed
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Dulce et decorum est
Crocosmia mori |
RE: Most hated weed
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| I am sorry to say that I may have introduced some of my worst weeds myself, a Pyrenean cranesbill from a RHS seed packet, very pretty in its first year, a self-seeding weed from hell the next, astrantias and Miss Willmott's Ghost. Worst wild weeds, from no logical reason, are creeping cinquefoil and buttercup. Dandelions are so much more obvious than these lurking menaces. |
RE: Most hated weed
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| As Alison says, it's only a weed if you don't want it. I've got a whole lot of uninvited guests that other people might consider weeds; I like the Oxalis, Corydalis and even the wild Cranesbill (although I pull most of it out). I love daisies in a lawn. Dandelion is welcome because my guinea pigs love eating it. On the not-so-fond side, there's bindweed, couch grass and creeping buttercup; also the sticky one which I call goose grass (no idea if that's correct). The one I really really hate, though, is the Abominable Alcanet. We have so much of it, and in some places it is just impossible to dig up the roots, so it keeps coming back. |
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