Yellow Dock and Onion Grass

I am dealing with a new yard full of flower beds, some of which are infested w/ the perennial nightmares: yellow dock and onion grass.

Regarding the yellow dock: I use a shovel to lever the root up as best I can -- then I toss the root on the driveway to dry out. These are of course not setting seed at this point in 6b, but it looks as though they were left to their own propogation by the previous owners. I have taken all I can out, but there are times part of the root is left deep in the ground, especially where it intersects a tree or shrub root. What can I do to keep this thing in check? Will the root stub keep sending up leaves? Will I ever get rid of it all?

And the onion grass: This seems to propogate with the greatest of ease, regardless of how carefully I get the bulbs out. How competitive is this grass?-- will it stunt the growth of my culinary herbs? Is there any way to wipe it out?

(By the way, I keep an organic yard, so won't use conventional pesticides on the dock, and the flame weeder is not good for this sort of weed.)

I hand pull as much as I can hand pull after it rains. I have been out there on and off already this year pulling weeds because they are "exposing" themselves right now while all the native species are still dormant. I toss mine on the nice hot asphalt to fry them too.

The Yellow Dock (Rumex ?) should be able to be kept at bay doing what you are doing. Unfortunately, the taproot is quite a formidable opponent as you've already discovered and can re-grow. If you keep at it, you'll get them. It just takes a little time. Sooner or later by repeatedly hitting the top growth, the plants ability to photosynthesize will be crippled to the extent that it will die.

Your Onion Grass (you might have Wild Garlic) might be a little bit trickier. Not only will the bulbs you miss regrow but any roots you miss will also regrow. Special plants, very special. I'm going to say that if you want to go herbicide free, you might have to take a serious look at removing the desirable plants from the area and smothering or solarizing the Onion Grass/Wild Garlic. Other than that, would you consider putting a little bit of Round Up in a stamp licker bottle (they look like shoe polish bottles complete with a sponge tip)? You could use the least amount of chemical imaginable by applying it only to the leaves of the Onion Grass/Wild Garlic and you would be able to control exactly where the chemical went with no risk of over spray or drips. Very time consuming but I tend to go this route when ickies get entertwined so to speak. And chemicals are not exactly high on my list either with fungicides being banned from my home for all practical purposes. I applaud you for going organic.

Thank you; this is really helpful.

With your onion grass & roundup idea: I think I'll try this with both roundup and the organic (clove oil) "BurnOut"... maybe I'll get the medicine dropper, snip the tops off the grass, and drop the fluid on it. I love experiments. :) Will report back...

Wild onion & garlic are hard to get rid of because th leaves are waxy and weed killer just rolls off of it. Here is what I did and it works astonishingly well! I attached medium grain sandpaper to both sides of a fly swatter then went and swatted the wild onions with it, bruising them. Then I sprayed the round-up. I was amazed at the results!

X

Hey X,

There is a forum here called Invasive Plants. I've never heard your method before but I love it. Would you please share it somewhere over in this forum- http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/invasives/all/

Your method sounds totally unorthodox which is probably why I love it so much. What a hoot! I bet it works!

Interestingly enough, there was another really neat idea over there in Invasive Plants regarding killing vines that somebody's Mom created that sounded interesting also. I love these innovative ideas, particularly when they work.

I am trying this bruising method except w/ clove oil instead of Roundup. So far so good! Thanks very much.