Which invasive plant is the most troublesome in your garden?

I've never heard buttercup called sour grass -- any idea where that came from?

Buttercup/sourgrass could possibly be Oxalis/wood sorel: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/38376/

Here's our newest DG contest:

Since we are spotlighting invasive species this week, we've opened up the DG Invasive Species Photo Contest. Winners will receive a 1 year subscription.

Come on over and share your images!
http://davesgarden.com/contest/invasive-species-photo-contest/

Melody, that's it! I wasn't sure, the kids here call it sour grass... Thanks!
Christie

I voted other, I have so many different kinds of weeds, I don't know the names of any of them. Always pulling and cutting them down, I can't stand the fumes from chemicals, so it's a never ending job. I'm sure a lot people are going through the same thing. HELP!!!

Rosey -- mulch early and often, smothering is my best defense as I also do not use chemicals of any sort.

Bonehead , I just about went broke last year from buying Mulch. Of course it was around $6.00 a bag.

I voted for other, I have spotted napweed, bindweed, crabgrass, creeping charlie, wild daisies, chick weed, oxalis, dandelions, just to mention a few.

I don't use weed killers!

This message was edited Mar 2, 2011 4:45 PM

I have big trouble with a plant in the Cenchrus family. How can I get rid of this weed? Thank you.

This message was edited Mar 2, 2011 5:36 PM

Rosey, if you have the room for it, buy it by the pickup or dumptruck load - much less expensive but then you have a lot of work to do at one time.

McCash, love your typo "week" killers... ha ha... sometimes I think we subconsciously misspell things in our posts. Funny.

My nightmare is burdock. So far it has been impossible to eradicate!

Thanks for pointing out that typo bonehead, it is now corrected.

To dwayne. Back in the '40's we used kerosene on the root. Now I would used concentrate Roundup on fresh cut root. I had good success with that on blackberry canes growing under a big rhodie/

Bronze fennel! I planted thre and now they are coming up ALL OVER THE PLACE!

I voted "Other" for the awful privet I am trying to get out of my woods. Close second is honeysuckle...

Porcelain berry! Ugh! I don't consider a dandelion to be an invasive species:
http://www.newenglandwild.org/publications-and-media/articles/bill-cullina-articles/green-and-mean.html

AY....That bronze fennel brings in a lot of Black Swallowtail butterflies I bet. It is one of their host plants. I plant it for them to lay eggs on.
Each of us in the different areas have plants that others don't consider a problem. We just need to remember the ones on the invasive list for our area and keep them in check. Happy Gardening everyone!



Larval stage of Black Swallowtail butterfly

Creeping Charlie

Love my creeping Charlie!

I voted "other" - we are battling Running Bamboo!

For four years we battled Burmuda Grass, but have finally got it out of the garden by digging it up by hand and removing every tiny piece of root!

I don't blame you Pirl, Charlie is a cutie

Thanks, Rosey.

Has anyone ever successfully battled bamboo or is that a reason people move to another home?

garlic mustard

I do have a weed in one of my flower beds that looks and smell like onions, I've been trying to get rid of it for years, no luck. They have little bulbs which are impossible to get rid of.

roseycats - I've heard them called "wild garlic" and "wild onions". When they come up in our garden, we call them "food". They taste a little like chives to me.

I still don't want them, I want my flowers

Perhaps it's chives. If you've ever had them in the past, even just a pot of them, they could be the problem. We also have the wild garlic.

Thanks everyone

poison ivy, johnson grass, garlic mustard, and burdock are the worst weeds for me and the hardest to get rid of... creeping charlie I can live with if it doesn't get too out of hand, and henbit seems to die back when it gets hot. Weeds got really out of hand last year when I couldn't get out into the garden... all my "good" plants suffered in the heat & drought, but the weeds flourished!

Chinese Elm, (Ulmis Parvifolia) & Bindweed.

A neat trick I heard of if you have weeds in the tight quarters of established flower beds is to put on a good quality long nitrile or rubber glove and then put a cheap cotton glove over it. Dip it in Roundup and stroke your weeds ever so lovingly! Goodby!

I pull most of my weeds in the garden, but I use a hose end sprayer on the undeveloped areas when there is zero wind.

Sonny

I voted Bermudagrass but it might have been different if I didn't have a bermudagrass lawn!

My nightmare weed is Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), which I call "The Weed From Hell"! I first noticed it about 12 years ago, and since it looked like pretty, miniature bamboo I didn't pull it up. Now it covers almost 2 acres of my property and one of recommended methods for dealing with it is to pull it up by hand for 7 years!!!!! Or Acclaim herbicide which costs about $80 per quart and doesn't work. It is most dominant in the east, northeast, so if you see it, PULL IT UP!!!!!!!!!!
This is what it looks like:
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/mivi1.htm

Carolina Moonseed vine and Sugarberry or Southern Hackberry tree seedlings. We call Carolina Moonseed, "Mother Vine".
Usually comes out as "I can't stand that mother___ ___vine".

pewjumper...... good idea for getting rid of weeds!
Another DGer posted an idea once that appeals to me also. Cut the bottom out of a plastic jug and use in tandem with a bottle of weed killer like Round Up. This insures no spray on other plants around it. The clear juice ones work best.

Pewjumper,
I had forgotten about that little trick. We call that weed wicking down here. I used to do this on my lawn to get rid of mainly Dallisgrass, Nutgrass, Bahiagrass whatever doesn't belong. You've got to be careful on a lawn though, too much can leave a noticeable dead spot. I haven't had to do that in a few years because my bermuda grass has really come on strtong.
Thanks for the reminder.

I use that 5 gallon plastic oil jug with the bottom cut out to Round up anything in my yard. I encapsulate only those thugs and let the jug sit until the mist has settled. Then I move to the next spot. I like the almost clear jugs so I can see what's in there.
Here's what wants space in my yard in Jax.
Spider weed
Air potato
Southern Brier
Some wild vine producing 3/4" cucumbers
Half a dozen grasses
Daisy vine
Root Beer Plant
Honeysuckle
Virginia Creeper
Whatever Jeremy plants there this summer will have to exist on what falls from the sky.

Sidney

other ... bindweed (wild morning glories) and oxalis (bermuda buttercup) ...

Creeping charlie, crab grass and an obnoxious field horsetail which is almost impossible to kill. We got it in a load of topsoil, and it took over in weeks. I used round up. Didn't work. Tried pulling it up. It spreads by spores, roots and seeds. Didn't work. Bought two big jugs of BBQ lighter fluid and immolated it. Dang near had the fire department come to see what was burning. Didn't work.
Buried it under heavy duty landscape fabric. Still tries to come up with mums and other perennials. I picture it skulking underneath and waiting to surprise us.

English Ivy http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/english-ivy.aspx - keeps crawling through and getting tangled in everything from both neighbours yards.