A Weedy Blog!

i did a bit of weeding today Spritz...it was great getting my hands dirty in the sunshine agin....my weeding rules are relaxed and have been learnt from a lovely neighbour.so the policy is keep the weeds smaller than the plants.....so clover is left under shrubs as is buttercup and other small ones. appart from winter HELIOTROP...it is a beast....it has taken over many road side banks around here killing off all native plants including thousands of snowdrops..... digging it out of one of my customers gardens has been hell....

I must be a strange gardener because some weeds are allowed to grow in my garden. I do pull out dandelions as a matter of course..and pick the blossoms too but recently saw bunches of healthy cultivated leaves at the grocer! many of the weeds we don't want in a flower garden at one time grew in a herb or kitchen garden ...but I did notice something that i think I can help you with Spritz...the plant that has fleshy roots that seem to go to Australia...may be a type of ligularia... and do I agree with you...this plant is making me fret! I have a Ligularia Gregynog gold and I (woe is me) allowed the creature to go to seed....even took seed and sent some to a friend! I was expecting that the seed was true to type..but it was not! what grew from natures sowing was a hulking, relentlles Dalek!!! It tried to take over with it's roots that seem to spread by rhizomes! HELP!!! so if you don't want thousands of those horrible little colonizers I would suggest digging deep for all the roots and doing conscientious weeding in spring when any escaped seed may take hold...Good luck. Oh! and over here we call the "prickly weed" Scot's Thistle...it will grow to 8 ft tall...and it's seeds spread by downy sails on the wind!! I say again...good luck!

No way Spritz can I offer to clear yours as I might bring ground elder or mares’ tail with me. I have both I seem to keep them under control but only by constantly pulling or digging them up whenever I see them. Thanks for this very interesting blog.

That weed - winter heliotrope - I just googled it, and its latin name is Petasites fragrans - it belongs to the same genus as Ligularia, Lori!

Isn't it a monster, Sandra. :-(((

We had yet another rainy day today, so I just nipped out and took weedy photos - no gardening, sadly.

Denise - you're very welcome. I hope the photos help you.. If you have different ones, you'll be able to take photos of them! I'm disappointed that you're not coming to help me weed, though. LOL.

Fortunately I have only a few of your "offenders"....in the garden at home, hairy bittercress is a bloomin nuisance....Had a blitz on them in the autumn...but the path didn't get the same attention so I expect they will explode all over the beds when the weather warms up (sigh....((:-....the other pest is creeping buttercup....noted a bed of them down at the lottie.....they will have to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should have said I had all of yours except the dead nettle Spritz. My creeping buttercup? was everywhere last year I left it the first year I found it as the flowers were so pretty. Well one learns I suppose

i only leave the creeping buttercup when it appears under big shrubs like my hedge fuchsis and even then it needs taming as it tries to spread out....,,,,but i am fighting with ;alexanders at the moment. big hog weed type thing. as the ground is soft its easier to get them out now.

Can we see a pic of Alexandras Sandra ?

Find that the only saving grace with Hairy Bittercress is that it only has shallow roots....yet as you say flings seeds all over !

I get shepherds purse it likes my pots and lurks under the rims , also is it creeping/ wild strawberry it lives in the area of the new fence ,so it is just out of reach I just use the hoe to chop down what I can.Plus the usual buttercups and mares tail.

alexanders smyrnium olusatrum...just found its name...i find it hard remembering their names...it grows huge and seeds every where....

Well its name matches its size Sandra

You can eat that one, Sandra - I just looked it up - it tastes like celery! So now you know how to deal with it. ;-)

Snap Barbara , you sure you weren't in my garden when you took those pics. :o(

Which one do you hate most, Amy? LOL.

i had read and smelt that...at the moment it is soft and juicy so maybe i wil Spritz.

Sandra the road sides in Norfolk are one mass of Alexanders it's a member of the Parsley family ( Smyrnium olusatrum ) it grow up to 3ft or more ..
I think it's a menace taking over where the wild flowers use to grow on the verges ......

The Brambles Barbara .. we have a field in front of us covered in blackberries the birds gorge themselves then drop the seeds in our garden ... .. I can pull the little ones up but the ones that grow up the stems of shrubs can get quite large before you spot them , they put their roots down where the shrub roots are making them very difficult to get out ....

Oh, don't I know it! I have to get up on a stepladder and chop the brambles back right along the fence - and still some get over and root! On with the gardening gloves - and HEAVE!!

Amy its the same here... all along our road its just taken over from everything. the council cut it down this year before it seeded. but its a growing problem. as for brambles.....they are creeping in from all directions. eightfoot up a row of christmas trees we planted. it took me all day, but that patch is only the begining......

They root overnight don't they , when we moved here the bushes were up the other end of the field , they were held back by horses being in the field but once the owners moved the horses they spread like wildfire down our way , we are constantly try to keep them back .. :o(

i use a fork and wiggle all the soil ans am delighted when a big fat root comes up....have u tried eating it?

Oh No ... it sounds as if we are all fighting the same nasties .. ... Groan ..........

I haven't tried eating it Sandra ... I believe the Romans brought it over , i'm not sure about that !

The one you call Jacob's Ladder may be Vicia cracca (tufted vetch, also cow vetch and bird vetch). Bitter cress is a nightmare here too, as are creeping buttercups and couch grass. Wage war every year and LOSE! Boohoo.

But if it wasnt for the weeds what would we do all day?

Oh Denise! LOL.

Yes, I think it may be a vetch, Wagger. In fact, there are two slightly different ones that come up - one with more delicate leaves and a deeper purple flower - actually rather pretty! They are only just appearing at the moment.

I am going to put on my boots tomorrow and go weed spotting, but its very wet here so may well get bogged down lol, good night all.

There was some one on here that was looking for plants to dye cloths with, perhaps she will be interested in your wild madder, I cannot remember her name though.

Spritz you seem to have cornered the world market in WEEDS, have never seen so many, they are not allowed in the grass here, hubby is fanatical about HIS lawn, as it is very small it is easy to keep them at bay, it must be a full time job for you just dealing with weeds, never mind looking after your lovely plants, dont know how you do it?
After reading all the comments, I feel we are fairly lucky (fingers crossed) we do not get that many, mind you our garden is small.

Hairy bittercress drives me crazy, but my real annoyance is the wild strawberry that creeps under the fences,even though I treat those areas every year . I also have ground elder luckily only under the hedge in the front garden but as thats only for car and caravan parking and mainly huge slabs and gravel, I kill it off with weedkiller, I must admit I always feel good when I need to pull some weeds as it means things are growing ......

the vetch has such a pretty flower on it...we have the yellow kidney vetch too. the little blue butterfly loves the kidney vetch....i often see them visiting the flowers...

Dd - You are obviously feeling hard done by, so I will happily send you a few! Which ones would you like? Or shall I send you a 'Variety Box'??LOL.

On a sunny day, I actually enjoy weeding, strange though it might seem! I do try to keep most areas weed-free, but the lawns would be impossible to have as green sward. :-((

Interesting blog, suppose not having a big garden its easy to keep on top of weeds, the main ones i get is dandilions, but hoping not to get to many, as the new folks that moved in backend of last summer does cut the grass, where as the ones before them never did.

To wet to go weeding in my garden.....the lawns like a bog today after yesterdays rain.....

Woad is the thing to grow to dye clothes , one of our local Farmers has been growing it for approx 5 yrs. it dyes the materials a lovely shade of blue .. .. his name is Ian Howard he goes round all the craft fairs and shows with his products .. I haven't tried but I should think if you put his name in Google and Woad you might learn more about it ..... yes i've checked it , it's www.woad-inc.co.uk

There's an interesting 'museum' out on the peat marshes on the Somerset Levels. It has iron age huts and implements, a clay pit, wicker work weaving that you can have a go at from willow, as well as an area where plants are grown to show you what they'd have used to dye their clothes. They had woad there - but no wild madder - I did say I'd try to dig up a piece for them - but it hasn't appeared yet this year!

Spritz thanks.....but no thanks, will try and live without them if you don't mind lol

Don't mention lawns Barbara / Dd our lawn is suddenly full of moss , we normally scarify it each year to clear it all out , I have a horrible feeling that if we do that this year there won't be any greenery left .!!

The museum sounds interesting Barbara , will remember that if we are down that way .. :o)

It's out towards Glastonbury, Amy - near Shapwick.

Thanks Barbara .... we stopped off in Glastonbury a couple of years ago , I was more interested in King Arthur legends at the time ...LOL...

well i can actally claim i have a garden like spritz :o)))))
another one i have lots of is a wild geum. That roots a little more strongly than creeping butercup.

I too find weeding funnily theraputic.
Been in the front garden today but very wet under foot. might do a blog tomorrow if i get th ironing done.

Oh yes - I have that as well!

Sbg - it isn't usually full of weeds, honest! I've normally got rid of most of them by now - but the weather has been against me. A couple of dry days, and the weeds will be no more. :-)))

locally the cleavers/goose grass/sticky weed is called 'sticky willy'.
you can imagine my shock when my eldest came home from nursery aged 3 and told me in tears that 'adam put his sticky willy in my hair'.
I stayed calm and asked to explain. I had to laugh afterwards. Thank god for the latin names . its one of the species of Galena by the way.

it would be if the said boy hadnt had an interest in what was under her skirt. her dad taught her how to deal with that Ouch!!

It makes me lagh now but at that moment it certainly got my heart rate up.

I bet! LOL.

Gret blog Spritz,
Its good to hear what problems other people have!
I have problems with brambles via the birds, and shepherds purse. But my worst enemy is the "wild geum" does it have a reddish tap root and also spreads underground?

Oh yes, what about celandines? I felt very guilty when we left our last house cos the celandines were becoming a nuisance in some borders.

What about oxalis: can be a problem, and then I learnt my lesson once when I put the dead forgetmenots in the compost bin - what a crop we had in the mulch the following spring! never again :)

Luckily, I only get a few celandines - I had them in abundance in Kent and never did get rid of them. I haven't got any rampant oxalis, just some red clover that I forgot to mention. That's awful to remove! No shepherds' purse.....

Yes, geum is awful - but not as bad as some of the others, well, not in this garden, anyway!

I am always pulling out stray forget-me-nots - I thought they were wild ones, but they could be seeded, I suppose - they were everywhere when we came here, as were Ox-eye daisies. Very pretty, but rampant. I pull most of the seedlings out, and just leave a few.

What, ALL of them, Homebird? LOL.

Get that hoe going! ;-)

My worst ones are marestail in the back garden and oxalis in the front.The marestail we've been uprooting for at least twenty years,plus trying to spot the spore heads before they disperse their contents:( The oxalis is more recent but is a real menace as it's roots are growing through membrane and it is difficult to see as well as it is the same colour as the bark mulch !
Drc,I can think of lots of other things to do all day instead of weeding lol

We have a lot of marestail here but it does get less the more I pull it up.

Yes we do have to keep on top of it,not an easy job,especially as it is under shrubs as well.

That does sound like a real menace. I'm so glad I haven't got that here! I sympathise with you both.

Its everywhere and grows through things.

Oh dear. I believe that the recommended treatment is to jump up and down on it to bruise it, then use glyphosate weed killer, isn't it? Does it work?

Its among shrubs so cannot treat it I find just pulling it up it gets less and less until the next spring.

Shame you can't jump up and down on it! It's a stress-reliever and gets rid of your frustration about the wretched weed! LOL.

Not easy to jump up and down on it Spritz,it tends to prefer growing in soil so I think we'd sink a bit lol.

Dandelions and buttercups are the bane of my gardening life.

Have you got a 'daisy-grubber', Dawn? It really helps with removing dandelions, complete with roots.

I often use my d-grubber as a planting tool too.

I have a long thin trowel-like tool which is really useful - especially for small bulbs between plants.

i used to have one but i lost it 4 yrs ago. I have never found it. it is probably sticking up next to shrub 'laughing' at me every time i go past it.

No I havent got a daisy grubber Barbara, didnt know there was such a tool - on the Wish List it goes.

It's a tool with a long blade and a deep notch in the end. Very useful!

Sbg - I had a favourite small trowel - it was virtually attached to my hand! I lost it. :-((

It turned up at the bottom of the incinerator, minus handle, of course. Husband cleaned it up and made a new handle! It's not the same of course - but not bad...:-)))

I must get one Barbara, thanks for that.
I'm always mis-placing my trowel and my Felco's, they usually end up in the wheel barrow amonst the rubbish.
Your husband sounds very useful Barbara.

My Felcos stay in my jacket pocket when not in use - but I'm always losing my trowel....:-(((

Great blog !! Cardamine hirsuta is the posh name for Hairy bittercress! Got an exam in about 3 weeks, and this is something i needed to know, amongst many many other things. Xylem, phloem, vascular cambiums, photosynthesis, diffusion, osmosis, the list goes on.... Still fingers crossed!!!

All garden tools should have a little homing device implanted so we can find them - I expect the manufacturers would veto that idea!

Oh Wagger - I do so agree with you! Maybe a flashing light and/or a 'bleeper'??

Thelonegardener - you have my sympathy! All that lot sounds horrific - good luck with your revision and the exam. :-)

Why are they mostly green or brown? They don't need to be camouflaged !

So you lose them and have to buy more, Aster! Cynical? Me? Whatever gives you that idea! LOL

Felcos are RED!!!! :-))))

Yes, Felcos are not rip-off merchants.

They are spot-on, as Louise is finding out. :-)))

lol, I bought a pink handled small garden fork last season because of the same problem. But do I know where it is now? Er, no not if I'm honest! I think it's more me than the manufacturers.

this is a brilliant blog Spritz, useful to many I'm sure. I always wanted to do something similar, but apart from taking a few photos - I could supply a few choice ones of ground elder! - never finished the project (story of my life).
The weeds in our garden are way beyond a joke especially the g. elder. Very at home everywhere, and inseparable from the plants we actually like! I think the time has come for more radical action. I have a real problem now I work every day that I just don't have enough time to keep on top of it, but hate the idea of gravel or similar... must put my thinking cap on.

Your name doesn't fit you at the moment, then? That's a shame. I know that ground elder is one of the most invasive weeds. Poor you - I'd be getting very frustrated!

Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate them. :-) I hope your fork turns up - maybe it's amongst the g. elder! lol.

Many thanks ;p

good luck with the physiology, its is a part of botany i actaully like. dont like photosnthesis but do like osmosis.

Ha, found it lurking near greenhouse. Not so pink now it's smeared with mud, tee hee. No, my name is not apt this year, "negligent" or "wannabe-gardener" would be more like it! Or as a friend referred to me the other day, poor "white rabbit" : ((
I'd love to have more time for family and home, but feel very torn about my current job. I like my colleagues, and enjoy the adult (!!) company after years of not working and sometimes feeling trapped and isolated with very young ones and/or husband away an awful lot. Most women of my generation, if not literally just had a brand new baby, are out to work if they can, not at home. I'd like to study and do a more fulfilling job though. Hm, they say the grass is always greener don't they? My dream job would be teaching adult literacy.
For now, I'm very grateful to have A job at all. And I do get a lot of fun out of it - you wouldn't believe some of the funny phone calls we have to deal with, and I can keep practising my languages which is always good.
When I go out into the garden now, I feel I've not been out for ages, and that makes me quite sad. On the plus side, husband's getting quite keen on veg. growing. He had various packets of seeds in his stocking at Christmas.

Give the poor thing a nice bath - it will look as good as new in no time! Glad to hear that you found it, though. :-))

Which languages do you speak? I learned French and German way back at school, and went to evening classes for while to learn Italian for when we went on holiday, but I am very rusty in all three.

Now I'm retired, I don't use my brain enough!

I have good French and German, and just a little smattering of a couple of others, funny isn't it that these are the ones we learnt at school, but by now I'm sure Chinese, Spanish or maybe even Polish/Russian might be more in demand...
Right I'll wash my hand-fork. For a moment I thought you meant husband. He's not covered in mud today tho. lol.

As if I'd be so rude as to call your poor husband 'a thing!'. Tsk, tsk!

I read somewhere that the Govt. thinks that all Secondary Schools should offer Chinese as an option! Oh yeah - and where are they going to find all those qualified teachers from??

Is your fork nice and pink again? :-)))

Chinese restaurant and takeaway owners have children who all seem very intelligent and hard-working and I'm sure bi-lingual. Then again perhaps they wouldn't want to be teachers these days.

True, Wagger - but teachers these days have to have a degree! And aren't there several languages in China? I think the Govt. wants Mandarin - which they may not speak, of course. I have no idea at all, not being a Chinese speaker myself! LOL.

According to wikipedia there are six official languages, Standard Mandarin is the standardised spoken language based on the Beijing dialect. Cantonese is more common in overseas communities and is the standard language in Hong Kong and Macau so would be what our Chinese community would mostly speak - so my idea was a non-starter, lol.

Oh well - you did try to advise the Minister for Schools and Children (or whatever he's called these days! lol)

Crook, generally, LOL

Errr...very possibly! ;-O

Had an idea about a "beacon" for lost tools, Barbara. A couple of years ago a company that produces veterinary vaccines had a red reflector light/blinker that one could attach to a pet's collar. It would blink when one pressed a red button on the underside. It could be clipped to a collar so perhaps a little duct tape or electricians tape around the handle and slip the clip under some tape...if you mislaid it you could walk thro the garden after dark...and it would be there flashing in the flower bed! I have three of these things in my shed and I was wondering what to do with them... dog is always on a leash.. it would be better than finding my favourite old pruners (belonged to my dad) where I left them in the spring...completely rusted shut!! I was sooo angry with myself.

What a brainwave, Lori! Let us know if it works, won't you. :-))