Common Weeds

One year gone to seed can mean 7 years of weeding, so nab those weeds before they seed!

A reference to help you:
The Gardener’s Weed Book by Barbara Pleasant. Storey Publishing, 1996

Cleavers: Also called Velcro plant or bedstraw. Likes wooded/shady areas. Easy to pull out. Dangerous to pets who can get internal bleeding from its raspy foliage.

Chickweed: Actually a medicinal plant that has a lot of vitamin C and calcium and magnesium and other nutrients. Prolific at seeding: one plant can produce 2500 to 15,000 seeds. Birds like the seeds so they will spread it around for you and it often grows in recently disturbed soil so it can really take over in new gardens. It also can spread vegetatively, so as these stems lie on the soil they can root and form very large mats.

Henbit: A member of the mint family. It has the mint’s square stem and prolific seeding habit! Lovely purple flowers above whorls of leaves. Enjoy the flowers, then mow before it goes to seed.

Sow thistle: This is one with a deep taproot. It forms a low mat on top followed by spikes with yellow flowers. This attracts ladybugs to the aphids that feed on it, so you might want to leave a few around to keep the ladybugs on call.

Wild carrot: The leafy tops look like carrot tops. The white umbel flowers are very pretty, but the seeds are very sticky. Your socks and your pets will make sure they’re everywhere in your house, as well as all over the garden next year. Producer note: they are also a real pain to get out of your cloth garden gloves or off your socks.

If you can’t pull them all by hand, mow or weed-eat before they go to seed.