Thread: weed control
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Old 10-09-2016, 01:44 AM posted to rec.gardens
songbird[_2_] songbird[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jun 2010
Posts: 3,072
Default weed control

Don Wiss wrote:
Jeff Layman wrote:

I suppose that anything that works well isn't going to be cheap. Still,
that quart should last you a good few years!


I'm still working on it. First I now use an ounce for a gallon. The
instructions are all about how many pints per acre (e.g. 1/2 to 1).

Then the Canada thistle keeps popping up in new locations. The back yard is
about 1/2 acre in size. Some is overgrown. The location where the
infestation started, and where I started to spray, is now clear. But each
time I go out I find an entirely new area infested with mostly small
plants. So small I could probably pull them up and leave no root behind.
But then there will be a big one or two, like inside of a untamed rose
bush.

At the last spraying there were seeds flying all around. Even from small
plants. I hope spraying the seeds killed the seeds. I know the battle will
continue into the next season.

I am also fighting an infestation of garlic mustard in one corner of the
yard. This one will be easier. I pulled the second year up last year as it
was going to seed. This Spring I made sure I got every second year before
it went to seed. Do that again next Spring and I should be done. Maybe a
few seeds take two years to germinate, but I can look for those in a couple
years.

I figured out what the survival strategy is for biannuals. Garlic mustard
likes forests. If the plant was an annual, and a forest fire came through
just before putting out seeds, it would wipe out the plant. For a biannual,
if a forest fire came through, the second year would get wiped out, but the
low first year would survive.


no, that's not how seeds work, some will remain
viable for quite some time. sure you may have gotten
the most recent crops of seeds, but there are likely
plenty more in the soil that can eventually sprout
given the right conditions.

thistle seeds get moved around by birds/animals.
i dig them up when they try to get going in the
more formal gardens here, but they are all over
in other places.

aside from thistles and garlic mustard we also
have things like sow thistle and some invasive
grasses i keep under control using manual methods.
i don't like using any herbicides here if i can
avoid it.

a few spots of morning glory mayhem which i
would never plant again anywhere. poison ivy,
wild grape vines, sumac...

luckily we never got into blackberries.

those are just the wild plants to try to work
around then there are the honeysuckles we planted
and the lavender which we both are reactive if
we get sap on the skin, the garlic i scattered
around and have been trying to weed out ever
since, introduced plants from wildflower seed
mixes which aren't very nice and spread all over
the place... and then there's pennyroyal and
others of the mint family, yarrows, ...

the nice thing is that we are ok with thymes
and they are doing well at taking over some
spaces that used to be weed magnets. once they
fill in that calms down an area nicely. not
much bothers them.

i really can't wait until i can take what little
grassy areas are left and turn them into gardens
of one kind or another. there's plenty of
grasses around us, i don't really need them here
though. i'd much rather have strawberries or
something flowering or edible (or both).


songbird