The first offender, which goes by the nom de guerre of "the Bane of Barrington" is Buckthorn, or Rhamnus cathartica.
This nasty woody was well established when I purchased Squirrelhaven. Only by employing a Zero Tolerance policy has this bad boy been eliminated from the garden.
Fortunately, its seedlings are quite distinctive, allowing me to train the children from an early age to recognize and pull the "little bow ties."
The second arm of our Axis is a relative newcomer, but sheer seedspread has made it a serious contender for Worst Weed. It is another Alien Invader of woodlands, Garlic Mustard.
It's frothy white flowers cause it to be mistaken for a wildflower. The only good thing about it is that it is a biennial. If it can be kept from going to seed, it can eventually be eliminated.The third arm of the Axis goes to another woody plant, but this one isn't an alien. It's a native pest, Boxelder a/k/a Manitoba Maple, or Acer negundo.
Weedy, weak-wooded trees would crowd out all other plant life if I didn't yank out each seedling, wherever it pops up.Finally, the Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine of Weeds: Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis).
On the surface it seems attractive, even friendly, with its pretty pink and white Morning Glory type flowers. But beneath the surface it extends its grasp in a stealthy ploy for expansion and ultimate World Domination. This wicked weed can't be pulled or burned. The only way to destroy it is to use a stronger evil power, the Darth Vader of weed eradication, herbicide.These are the weeds to be feared, these are the weeds that must be stopped. A policy of appeasement will lead only to disaster. Nearly every day, throughout the growing season, vigilance must be practiced. The Fate of the World is at stake! (Okay, maybe just of the immediately surrounding neighborhood.)
Meme Alert: turn this into a meme by posting about your nastiest weeds. Win Bindweed seeds (just kidding!).
(edited 5/22/08)
31 comments:
HA, oh those nasty weeds. All very different from our evil mauraders here in TN. May the forces be with you. Way to train the kiddies to pull weeds!
These very aliens have landed in our garden from time to time. We have a scorch plant policy with these aliens. None are allowed to stay if observed.
mmd, while I'm grateful not to have any of those you mention, I have plenty of other weed terrorist cells hiding out in my garden. Leaf mulberry is a particularly noxious one: I swear it goes to seed about 10 seconds after leafing out. We must continue to fight the good fight ... like Tom Petty, we won't back down!
Hold fast, MMD! No appeasement! I've got a few similar weeds myself, and beating them back is the best I can do. I'll never eradicate them, despite my best efforts.
Had I but known the evil doers when I first moved to C&L...I would have trained my son to pull them too!
As Frances said we have some very different bad boys here. You have the axis of evil, we have the Borg.
With Bush Honeysuckle resistance is futile....but we fight on!
If only I had known that children could be trained to work in the garden.
As always, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
MMD, yes, they are all evil and must be destroyed!
I have a neighbor a couple of houses down whose dogwood hedge has a veritable garlic mustard garden growing at its base. I'm surprised it hasn't found it's way into our yard and garden (yet.)
Besides the one you mentioned, poison Ivy is very common in yards and gardens around here. I find it in almost every garden I work in. I had no idea before how widespread it is around here. Thankfully I haven't found any in our yard or garden either yet. I'm starting to wonder if I'm one of the 10% not allergic to it. Of course I'm careful handling it, but I'm surprised I've had no reaction (yet.)
MMD, I recognize some of these thugs, but the only one you show we really have a problem with is bindweed. That stuff is impossible to eradicate, no matter how many thousands we pull We're also plagued with milkweed because the neighbors across the street are negligent (I wanted to say lazy, but try to be tolerant) and just let the things to to seed on their fence, coming over our way... We're also plagued by tree seedlings ... innumerable maples (due to the spinners), mulberries (thanks a lot, birds!), and walnuts, due to the furry menaces, the tree rats. We also go after a lot of the wild tradescantia (even though it has really pretty blue flowers) in the beds, but where they're not invading something, we kind of let those go. I think you've only scratched the surface of the Axis of Evil of weeds, but I'm sure we can all add our own nemeses to this list! Great post!
What a great post topic and I loved that you showed them as seedlings - get those nasty buggers out while you still can! I might borrow your excellent topic someday and show off some of our wicked weeds - hey, this would make a great meme...
We have to combat this evil and try to eradicate it from our world. Will a scorched earth policy be too radical, you think, or not radical enough?
Bindweed grrrrrrrrr, to the barricades! Gardeners of this world unite!
Fun post!
The only weeds I can identify are the ones I used to have to pull out of my dad's soybean field as a child! Now I'm not even sure if a seedling in my flowerbed is a weed or a friendly flower volunteer until it is half-grown.
By the way, long ago I told you I thought I had bindweed, but a friend has identified it as something she calls "creeping charlie." I do hope it's not the same thing!
I'm not dealing with the same weeds as you are except for the bindweed. We've got chickweed, vetch and my personal favorite weed to hate ragweed. The War of the Weeds rages on!
bindweed is the only thing that's ever made me seriously consider bailing on the whole gardening deal.
Frances - If nothing else, I know that I did right by my kids in teaching them to recognize the weeds.
Lisa - keep up the good fight.
Cindy - as they say, all gardening is local. You know your enemy; have you infiltrated thier cells yet?
Pam - pulling these nasty suckers out is a necessary, but rewarding task. Doesn't it make you feel good when you think about the weedy mess you've just prevented?
Gail - Resistance is NOT futile! (Even the Borg got beaten.) Don't give up, don't give in. Honeysuckle is a problem in some of the wooded areas around here. Fortunately, that is one I don't have to deal with.
MSS - training kids to work in the garden seems easiest when they're toddlers & don't know any better. I doubt it would have worked if I'd have tried to start now. I have a hard enough time just trying to get them to put their dishes in the dishwasher.
Garden Girl - I feel so lucky that I don't have to contend with Poison Ivy. It's odd how some areas are more overrun with one kind of weed than another.
Iowa Victory Gardener - these are only the worst of the worst in my garden. I have a Norway Maple & 2 of my neighbors have other maples, so I'm always pulling those out. They just don't seed quite as much as Boxelder.
Kris - meme away! I guess I'm no good at starting such things, but I know it would be interesting to see what everyone everywhere is battling.
Yolanda Elizabet - sometimes scorched earth is the only way, literally. Every spring & fall the prairie areas around here are burned to kill the alien weeds.
Rose - you dodged a bullet if your weeds are only Creeping Charlie. It has scalloped edges on rounded leaves. Very easy to get rid of (if time consuming). I eradicated it from my back lawn by handpulling.
Dave - my allergies hate Ragweed. Unfortunately, that one is a native. I've had minor infestations of chickweed too.
Gina - I think my front lawn is finally clear of Bindweed. That photo I posted was taken on an island in the middle of the street. My front lawn was mostly Bindweed when I started killing it during the drought of 2005. The best way to get rid of it is to use the brush killer Roundup dabbed onto the leaves with a Qtip. Another way to do it if the Bindweed is in the lawn is to cut back the grass around the weed, cut off the weed & dab the stuff onto the cut stub. Repeat until Bindweed is gone.
We were able to eradicate bindweed (we had it on one side of the house when we moved here) by pulling it every day. If we saw one leaf, we pulled it. We didn't often get the roots, but I guess over the course of 3 years, we starved the roots to death. Constant vigilance saved the day.
Here in MD, we have poison ivy, and my neighborhood is inundated with garlic mustard. Thank goodness it pulls easily after a rain. I've kept it off my property, but my neighbor's backyard has about a 20 x 20 foot stand of it. And the MD Garlic Mustard festival site says the seeds can stay viable for up to 50 years . . . . .
We have the evil bindweed fairly under control - now to convince our neighbors who have the patch that keeps spreading into our yard that their daughters would love to pull it up as an easy chore. We have also conquered the tree-of-heaven sprouts with the same technique (plus cutting down the damn weedy tree in the first place).
Goutweed (a.k.a. bishop's weed or snow-on-the-mountain) is still a problem, as are daylilies. I don't mind either of them in places where I'm not ready to cultivate, but they spread like mad. I'm due a good hour's worth of goutweed pulling this weekend.
Garlic mustard and Box elders were the big combo in my old IL yard along with elm and cherry seedlings. I noticed my sister has Buckthorn coming up in every bed.
Sometimes people get so focused on the bright and noticeable dandelions that they miss trees sprouting everywhere.
Good luck with your war, MMD!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
MMD, a post on weeds common to your area is always a wonderful and helpful post. We don't have those here. We have our own Axis of Evil. Keep up the no tolerance policy.~~Dee
Bindweed is Terrible. And, so far, I don't have it here. Had it at our other home... brought it home in a potted rosebush from a local greenhouse. It was a nightmare. My daughter has it in her Omaha garden. They attack it and (herbicide), but it's in the neighbor's yard, too. It even grows UNDER THE DRIVEWAY! Ugh!
How about Creeping Charlie? I had some in a load of dirt and I continue to pluck at it...
I share your issues with the bindweed... which is a name I usually utter only through clenched teeth and with a rather "blue" adjective before it! And the garlic mustard is a pain here, too--particularly because my neighbor doesn't weed his out. Grr.
My worst one is a creeping rhizome weed that I haven't been able to identify yet. Hmm.
Kim - that 50 year seed viability thing scares me, not for my own garden, but for all the forest preserves around here that are infested with it. That's a long time commitment that someone's going to have to make to save the native woodlands.
LCShores - believe it or not, I unintentionlly killed my Goutweed. I just remembered that it was one of the few plants growing here when I bought the property. I didn't try to kill it, but some how it just died. I consider myself very lucky on that one.
Annie - I think the Dandelion wars are akin to "the squeaky wheel gets the oil." The obvious weeds get noticed & become the focus, while the less flashy but more insidious weeds are allowed to flourish.
Dee - I hope you do a post on your weeds. All I can imagine is Tumbleweed (0r is that a cliche?)
Shady Gardener - Bindweed's ability to spread under paving is the reason I'm trying to kill it on the cul de sac island. I don't want it coming back into my yard. I'm also learned the hard way about garden hitchikers. (At least mine wasn't Bindweed - that's the pits.) Creeping Charlie doesn't bother me, as I was able to hand pull it all out of the lawn. Now I just have to keep watching the edges because it's on 2 sides of the garden.
Blackswamp Girl - sounds like it's time for a little guerilla weeding. I do that on the property of the homeowners' association behind me to get rid of the Garlic Mustard. You should be able to see the Garlic Mustard in the moonlight. :-D
Too bad it takes so long to learn the weeds when you move to a new place. I haven't figured all of ours out yet, but now that my "new" gardens are getting to be almost a year old I may be figuring some of them out this summer.
Oh yes, the battle has begun. The weeds always win in the end but I love the battle.
Sherry
Cinj - I'm still trying to figure out which seedlings are weeds! I almost yanked out what I think is an Actea/Cimicifuga racemosa seedling (Bugbane). (And I had been thinking that it just wasn't a good self-seeder.)
Sherry/Q - I love weeding too. I find it a good stress reducer.
We all have our share of weeds don't we! I will have to post some of my least favorites!
Layanee - I can't wait to see what your nemesises (nemesii?) are. We just have to be thankful that Kudzu doesn't grow in our areas.
Oh gosh, where to start? I've gotten rid of most of the garlic mustard, but the poison ivy sprouts in new places every year. Japanese honeysuckle was mostly gone, but some crept over the fence and now I have to work on it again. Two of the most annoying ones are Bradford pears and Norway maples. The neighbors' trees are very mature now and producing tons of seed.
Entangled - I'm encouraged by your success with the Garlic Mustard. Norway Maples are almost as much of a pest for me as Boxelders. Of course there's only 1 Norway Maple and half a dozen Boxelders on my property.
MMD, I was grinning all the time when reading your post, recognising some of my own aggression in it. Usually I try to get my back at those weeds by simply eating them (dandelion leaves are great in salads, ground elder too, and Garlic Mustard is quite a good herb for dressings -- if it is the same plant we have got over here). My absolute enemy now is the horsetail plant -- I've dug out loads of roots without ever getting to the end of them (just like bindweed).
I'm heartened to hear that Kim managed to kill off bindweed by pulling it, even if it did take 3 years. That's the length of time I've read almost any erradication takes. The stuff puts down roots 20 feet deep! (Not to mention the seeds.) Like blackswamp girl, I've got neighbors who don't weed, and I live in fear of the eventual invasion. Fortunately, I've got gardening privilages in the plot on my south, so I can fight it before it gets to my lawn. Circle the wagons, it's a fight to the death.
Hi, Corinna - I've heard that Garlic Mustard is also good fried up in olive oil. (I've never had the nerve to try it.)
Manic Gardener - I'm patient, but my Bindweed was way to entrenched to be pulled - I tried for several years. It's trying when the neighbors let their weeds run rampant, but I'm deal with the opposite problem too. One of my next-door-neighbors is a lawn fanatic. I feel guilty leaving the dandelions, although I try not to let them go to seed.
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