There's an old saying in gardening that one year gone to sea can mean seven years of weeding,
and that's not far from the truth when it comes to some of these spring weeds that you'll
find in our area, and one of those that's very familiar to you I'm sure, is the cleavers,
because it does cleave to your clothing, it has tiny hairs that are hooked so it sticks
on to both your clothing and your pet's fur, now this one tends to grow in wooded areas,
it's not particularly picky about wet or dry soils, it will grow in the sun or shade, but
as it grows it gets longer and longer, then it starts to bloom, and then it'll put on
very fine hairy seeds, and that point it becomes very easy to just pull out so I use a small
rake and just rake it out of wooded areas and areas of stone.
Now if it has gone to seed I won't put it in the compost pile but if it hasn't yet I
can put it in the compost pile and it decomposes very nicely.
Another plant that is very common in the spring is chickweed.
This one, like the cleavers, is actually a medicinal plant, it has a lot of vitamin C
and calcium and magnesium and other nutrients, so it's used as a spring tonic often, but
it is very prolific at seeding, it can often after the white flowers come produce.
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 so you'll definitely want to dig the chickweed out as quickly as you
can.
Another one that you'll see a lot in the spring is this one hembet, it's a member of the mint
family, it's a lanium, and it has the square stem that's typical of all of the mint family
and seeds as prolifically as many of the mints do too.
It has these lovely purple flowers so it is quite attractive in the spring, but if you
want to enjoy while it has the blooms fine, but make sure you mow it before it has a chance
to go to seed.
Now some of the things I like to use to take out weeds for some of these type weeds that
don't have the deep taproot, just a fork if there are weeds growing next to your pansies
or other plants that you don't want to disturb the roots too much a little kitchen fork can
do a great job of digging those weeds out, even a longer barbecue fork that you pick
up at a garage sale makes a great weeder, but for some of the deeper taproot type plants,
I like to use a very strong weeder, and I like one that has a bent head on it, it just
tends to get under those weeds quite nicely.
Another great tool is the weed popper for some of the deep tap rooted weeds too, so
look for that one; it's a great investment.
Now some of the weeds with the deep taproots would include Salfice, very common in our
gardens, it tends to form a low mat at first, and then it will have these taller spikes
with the yellow flowers.
Now this one does attract ladybugs it will often get aphids on it, ladybugs will come
in and start feeding on the aphids, so you may want to leave one or two in your garden
area just to attract those beneficials but keep the flowers picked off and another one
that tends to be very common in our area in the spring is the wild carrot, and they do
look just like the carrots that we grow in our garden and it has a long, deep taproot,
the problem with this one although it has a really pretty white flower, the seeds are
very sticky and stick to your pet's fur and become a big problem, so with any of these,
if you can't get to pulling them out by hand, at least mow them, weed eat them, and get
them before they go to seed so you're not weeding them for years and years and years.
Now a good book for a reference about weeds if you need some help identifying, is the
Gardener's Weed Book by Barbara Pleasant, it has great drawings in it that will help
you identify weeds, and get them out while they're small, so make sure you pay attention
to those weeds, so you're not dealing with seven years of seeds.