Your top ten worst weeds.

The Continental Op

I just wonder if we can cobble together a list of the top ten worst weeds (we don't need to stick at ten).

Mine would have to include

Weeds that I'd consider moving house to get way from

Mares tail or horse tail

Japanese Knotweed - although it can be beaten I've proved that.

Oxalis - never managed to get on top of it

Other worst weeds that aren't so bad I'd consider moving but are a right pain.

Ground elder

Scutch grass - UK Couch grass

Creeping buttercup

Bind weed

Cleavers aka clivers, catchweed and sticky willy etc

Rosebay willowherb and any other willowherb

Bluebells - I love the native bluebell but not in every bed in the garden

There are loads of others but they are more of a nuisance than anything and with work can be dealt with my top 10 are ones that take more up more time that any other weeds.

Igotadose

Blackberries - uggh. Just. Uggh. They can be beaten into submission but eternal vigilance is still necessary to keep them from returning.

Thistle - damn things are impossible to keep down.

Nettles - another plague.

I'd add +500 to the scutch grass. I've had it sneak into (what I thought were) sealed bags of compost left outside. Open the bag up, and it's full of roots. B*stard plant.

The Continental Op

If I could eliminate just one weed on my list from our garden then it would be scutch.

put_the_kettle_on

Alchemilla ( sp ) mollis I'd add. I don't know why anyone would deliberately plant it in their gardens it's such a spreader.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281322#Comment_119281322

We always cultivated it under trees in when we lived in the PNW, it was great groundcover. One man's weed...

Lumen

Bindweed is the only one that I'd like to wipe off the face of the earth.

I'm sure it has some ecological purpose but I don't care.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281340#Comment_119281340

Once saw a video by Charles Dowling where he cleaned the bindweed out of garden bed it had invaded. He had a huge bale of the stuff when he was done. Vile evil stuff

Dowling, of course, composted it. But still. I see it, it gets the roundup treatment. No quarter. It's not terrible here, unlike the endless scutch grass/blackberry/thistle/nettle assault

put_the_kettle_on

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281330#Comment_119281330

Very true re one man's weed.

It self seeded I think from my neighbours garden and took over a rockery. No matter how carefully I weed it out it comes back again.

The Continental Op

I can easily live with Alchemilla mollis its a weed but I think the problem arises because its an attractive weed so people don't immediately weed out its seedlings so it becomes a nuisance. Once you know better its easy to kill it as soon as you see it growing where you don't want it.

looksee

I have planted alchemilla in an area that I want it to invade - in full knowledge, I had it in a previous garden.

However worst weeds in my current garden - creeping buttercup, scutch, common hogweed (lots of it), ivy, cleavers, brambles. And a plague of hawkbit this year, though it is easy to pull up.

There are lots of others but I am happy to live with them, and some I encourage. Two large areas of nettles are fine - if you don't want them they are easy to pull up and in quantity they look ok too.

Edit, oh and that straggly little weed with tiny white flowers that fires seeds from long pods if you touch it. Can't remember what its called but its a nuisance.

B.A._Baracus

Man, I totally misinterpreted this thread.

ZX7R

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281799#Comment_119281799

Flick weed otherwise know as hairy bittercress

coillsaille

It's against 3 B's that our main battles are fought here, with some minor skirmishes against others.

Bindweed, Bracken and Brambles.

ZX7R

Nettles ,dandelions, thistles,

bindweed more of a love hate relationship some variants have spectacular flowers

Just adding ornamental cabbage plants when the seed they spread like feck

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281880#Comment_119281880

I'm currently waging a hopefully short war against Bracken. Basically it consists of a daily walk over the infested ground while using a 4 ft length of alkathene water pipe to bash any newly emerging bracken shoots. Its taking longer every time for the new shoots to emerge and they are getting shorter and thinner. They also get a regular hit with 2,4-T which I'm using to keep the brambles and blackthorn down.

nevik

I managed to get on top of a bindweed infestation by sheer persistance, digging it out and painstaking use of a sieve.

My latest pain is a small purple oxalis, very invasive, and hard to spot against the soil colour. Don't think I will ever get on top of it but I will limit it's spread.

SnowyMuckish

I can tolerate just about anything but couch grass and ground elder. I’m having a love hate with vetch at the moment. Bees love it, it matches my garden colour scheme but it’s creeping from the wild boarders to the perennials now. I can’t bear to cut it back but it’s beginning to take over a bit!

Dempo1

Anything that upsets my Lawn, can't stand Dandelion or Daisy, have a pathalogic hatred of both, yellow clover a Pox and Moss (is it a weed 🤔) but can't abide it.

I'm not into this rewilding of lawn areas, I've ample flowering plants and shrubs, wild flowers etc for the bees and birds are fed better than me 😁

Dank Janniels

1-Horsetails

2-Horsetails

3-Horsetails

4-Horsetails

5-Horsetails

6-Horsetails

7-Horsetails

8-Horsetails

9-Horsetails

10-Bráiste 😀

looksee

I have never heard of yellow clover, is it the same as black medic (Medicago lupulina)?

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282175#Comment_119282175

As I pointed out in the OP, thats one (10) I'd consider moving house over.

Reckless Abandonment

Bind weed (I just pull it up every month or so) it spreads so easy.

Self inflicted, pheasant grass has turned Into a pain.

Tree

Willowherb (where does so much of it come from?!) (more quantity being a problem than it being difficult itself)

Fennel (it doesn't blow in on the wind, but damn I should never have planted that fcker)

Nettles I don't mind so much, they're handy to pull and more importantly keep animals and small humans out of the way. Same for dandelions, if i pull them early from the beds they're grand and I'm happy for them to be in the "lawn".

looksee

I had forgotten fennel. It was in residence when I took over the garden. It will always be in residence!

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282264#Comment_119282264

I have a fair bit of it but I don't find it difficult to control, and I think it's quite attractive. It will take over a space where there's not much competition, but if I want to clear an area a few minutes with some roundup will get rid for a couple of years.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282711#Comment_119282711

Which Horse Tail do you have? I suspect Equesitum Arvense is the one that is difficult to control and than Equesitum palustra is somewhat more controllable.

magicbastarder

Bluebells - I love the native bluebell but not in every bed in the garden

not difficult to control though?

i planted native bluebell in a tiny woodland section of the garden about seven or eigh years ago and it's barely spread. the wild garlic does a much better job of spreading.

The Continental Op

Very difficult to eradicate. Easy enough to hoe the tops off but you can do that for years and years before they finally give up.

I've never been unlucky enough to have wild garlic so can't say on how easy or otherwise it is to control, I believe its a bad one?

magicbastarder

i was looked at like i had two heads when i asked did they stock it in the garden centre.

i had been given 'wild garlic' bulbs prior to that, which turned out to be three cornered leek, but i'm pretty much on top of that now; ten minutes every few weeks yanking them and they're largely under control.

jaffa20

Grape hyacinth, Muscari Armenicanum. Don't plant it in your soil. It seeds everywhere and spreads like mad! I inherited a garden with it and it's everywhere even when I try to dig it out every year. The leaves take forever to die down in late spring and i spend forever pulling them out.

joujoujou

1. Blackberry
2. Blackberry
3. Blackberry
4. Blackberry
5. Blackberry
6. Blackberry
7. Blackberry
8. Blackberry
9. Soft Rush (Common Rush)
10. Soft Rush (Common Rush).

While #9 and #10 not so annoying if lawn is cut frequently, with getting rid of 1 to 8 I failed miserably. Sometimes I think the only solution I didn't try yet is Napalm.