what are these weeds in the Garden?

CamperMan

anyone any ideas what these weeds are?

they are a pain in the rear, I dug this area over 6 weeks ago, and now they are returning, and they can grown to over 6ft in height... I recently planted 10 small trees in an area nearby and these weeds have already started to grow around the trees.

How do you eradicate them?

Thanks

planetX

Fireweed - Epilobium angustifolium, or Rosebay Willowherb. Digging is bad as they have brittle roots that will regrow from every little fragment. You'll have to spray them, or like me just keep pulling them up for years (I thought they were pretty and left them one year, now they're everywhere:mad:)

Draupnir

I'd get a bottle of round up and a paint brush and brush the roundup onto the leaves. The plants should absorb the weed killer and die off quite quickly. It shouldn't affect your neighbouring plants at all if you do it that way.

unkel

Draupnir wrote: »

I'd get a bottle of round up and a paint brush and brush the roundup onto the leaves.

Good idea, never thought of that! Would have prevented a few accidents for me

CamperMan

OK..

the reason we planted a row of trees was to give us a privacy screen (eventually), the trees are only 2ft high..

this "fireweed", I noticed last year throughout the spring and summer it made a great privacy screen... then I chopped it all down and dug the ground over..

What is fireweed like in the autumn & winter?, does it die off and leave a big open space again?

If it last all year round, I might move the trees to another spot in the garden

planetX

CamperMan wrote: »

OK..

the reason we planted a row of trees was to give us a privacy screen (eventually), the trees are only 2ft high..

this "fireweed", I noticed last year throughout the spring and summer it made a great privacy screen... then I chopped it all down and dug the ground over..

What is fireweed like in the autumn & winter?, does it die off and leave a big open space again?

If it last all year round, I might move the trees to another spot in the garden

It dies down and disappears for the winter. It's not that hard to control if you don't let it spread - but sounds like you did the same thing as me and left it to grow for a year, that's given the roots plenty of strength. Pull one up and you'll see it has a big fleshy root. When you dug the ground over you fragmented those and now you have your mini forest of fireweed.

No need to move the trees, they'll out-compete it anyway. It's called fireweed because it's the first plant to colonise open spaces after forest fires, it won't thrive in shade. Either spray them now while they're small, or just keep pulling them up/ kicking them down. Don't let them flower and set seed. I just snap the stems each time I see them and they're under control now.

CamperMan

Thanks PlanetX

I will get rid of them now.

magicbastarder

it has also been known as bombweed after colonising sites after the blitz in london.

MikeSoys

Hi
I know nothing about garden except there is a weed [or something ] overtaking the garden and i cant seem to kill it...and roundup doesn't seen to effect it - at all!!! [see pic]
what is this??
and how to i kill it??? [its taking over the grass]

weeds.jpg