admirable weeds

[Neil Bromhall]

You have to admire the ways some plants reproduce.
Earlier this year I thought I'd weeded all the buttercups and wild strawberries from my garden yet they are back to full numbers again.
They have a neat way of reproducing by sending out a tendril which takes root creating a baby plant. This in turn does the same by sending out more tendrils and before you know it the ground is covered by them.
Love em or hate em you have to admire nature.

The bramble does much the same but in this case a branch touches the ground and takes root

[digger]

Yes it is a good reproduction system, at home we have problems with brambles that came in from a neighbours garden they are the "devils" work to get rid of.

[AnnaDyne]

I have the same problem as you Digger, although we also have ones which are established on the river bank and I don't think we'll ever get rid of those.
This year I decided to go with nature and let the brambles keep on coming then I had a nice day picking the berries before slashing them back again. ;)

[Paul Narramore]

Admire? Admire? Bah humbug! I have lots of creeping buttercup, a few brambles and ivy which creeps over the ground soon after I've weeded. I don't admire them at all. A pesky nuisance, if you ask me.

[Miranda]

The main weed we get here is dandelions. They grow very successfully here and in spring the whole verge on the wood side of the road is a blanket of yellow. The council generally don't cut the verges till after they've gone to seed, so all those dainty little seeds come drifting over the wall and settle into our soil.

The other weeds are ash and sycamore seedlings. I spend ages looking for them and pulling them up, but sometimes come across one that's obviously been there for at least a year and I always wonder how I could have missed it.

Next door are going to have a problem with Buddleja seedlings in their lawn, I reckon. Mrs Nextdoor cut their Buddleja back hard at the end of September, but then left the branches on the lawn for two months. The seeds will no doubt have fallen out into the turf and will be sprouting. That'll learn them.

[digger]

Well experience is reat teacher:-) we get lots of sycamore seeds and every one of them seems to be viable, I think dandelions are pesky for everyone, I have a dandelion "grubber" which works okay in soft soil but if I try to use it in the lawn it takes a big chunk of turf up with it!

[Miranda]

Yes, digger, it will be interesting to see what their lawn looks like by next summer.

I know dandelions are pesky for everyone, but I feel that we have more here than anywhere else in England. There is a big field just down the road that turns completely yellow every spring. It's a stunning sight, but I'm glad our house doesn't back on to it.