1st definition online = a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants
I always considered these to be ugly, overgrown, boring plants with nothing much attractive about them, but seems quite a lot still produce lovely flowers... I recently took over an overgrown allotment that hasn't been cared for in over 6/7 years - as you can imagine, the weeds have gone CRAZY in this time!
There were some sort of floor, wall, tree (whatever it could climb) climber with lovely big white flowers, but it was quite obvious it was suffocating everything else in thre so I spent 3 days just pulling meters and meters of these twangly twines away from every tree, bush, wall, shed, fence ... you get the picture haha.
In my opinion, if it produces lovely colourful flowers... I'd never consider it a weed
I think the climber with lovely big white flowers is likely to have been bindweed, Char 74016. A bit of a thug, and really hard to get rid of if it's smothering other things. But Herb Robert is definitely in the pretty-and-easy-to-remove category... I've got quite a few wild flowers in my garden, some of which I've planted on purpose, but others (like violets and bluebells) got here on their own.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Looks correct looking at pics on the internet I did notice this growing around a lot of areas where I live that aren't regularly cared for so definately knew it was an intrusive pest but it's definately owed credit for being a determined little (or rather, large) bugger!
It's also something, even before an interest in gardeneing, I've heard spoken about as a devil of a plant
I didn't bother tracing twines back to their roots or anything though so don't know the source, I'm assuming there's mulitple by now from how widespread it was throughout the allotment?
Unfortunately the roots go down a very long way... and something like a rotavator makes matters worse, as each little bit of root will grow a new plant. If you can tackle the allotment a bit at a time that would help, as you can cover the areas you're not ready to plant, with old carpet, cardboard, etc, to exclude light. That will kill a lot of the weeds, though really tough ones like bindweed can take a long time to give up! If you're willing to use chemical weedkillers you can get on top of it more quickly, using glyphosate for instance.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Due to the sheer size of the allotment (above pic shows around half of the space ) and how much of a novice I am, I don't really have a choice but to do this bit by bit!
I did consider a weed killer, just as I think, by the time any of it's decent enough to plant anything it'll be too late in the year anyway!
All the grass on the left is growing in what look like they used to be veggie patches and there seems to be no keeping on top of it in this weather
It's grown back everytime i go hahaaaa (sooo NOT funny, but it really is a laugh or cry situation after all my hard work to trim it down in the 1st place!)
Posts
I'm an expert in growing these.
Easy to pull up. Strange smell, that I personally like.
Just read that if I rub the leaves on the body, the mozzies might leave me be. There you go, my saviour growing before me!
Last edited: 18 August 2016 23:31:35
If it's pretty and not getting in the way, it's not a weed in this garden...
I'll 2nd that Liriodendron!
Never say no to suprise flowers!
Any set rules as to what a 'weed' is anyway?
1st definition online = a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants
I always considered these to be ugly, overgrown, boring plants with nothing much attractive about them, but seems quite a lot still produce lovely flowers... I recently took over an overgrown allotment that hasn't been cared for in over 6/7 years - as you can imagine, the weeds have gone CRAZY in this time!
There were some sort of floor, wall, tree (whatever it could climb) climber with lovely big white flowers, but it was quite obvious it was suffocating everything else in thre so I spent 3 days just pulling meters and meters of these twangly twines away from every tree, bush, wall, shed, fence ... you get the picture haha.
In my opinion, if it produces lovely colourful flowers... I'd never consider it a weed
I think the climber with lovely big white flowers is likely to have been bindweed, Char 74016. A bit of a thug, and really hard to get rid of if it's smothering other things. But Herb Robert is definitely in the pretty-and-easy-to-remove category... I've got quite a few wild flowers in my garden, some of which I've planted on purpose, but others (like violets and bluebells) got here on their own.
Looks correct looking at pics on the internet
I did notice this growing around a lot of areas where I live that aren't regularly cared for so definately knew it was an intrusive pest but it's definately owed credit for being a determined little (or rather, large) bugger!
It's also something, even before an interest in gardeneing, I've heard spoken about as a devil of a plant
I didn't bother tracing twines back to their roots or anything though so don't know the source, I'm assuming there's mulitple by now from how widespread it was throughout the allotment?
Any hints / tips on preventing future growth?
Thank-you
Unfortunately the roots go down a very long way... and something like a rotavator makes matters worse, as each little bit of root will grow a new plant. If you can tackle the allotment a bit at a time that would help, as you can cover the areas you're not ready to plant, with old carpet, cardboard, etc, to exclude light. That will kill a lot of the weeds, though really tough ones like bindweed can take a long time to give up! If you're willing to use chemical weedkillers you can get on top of it more quickly, using glyphosate for instance.
Thanks for the advice Liriodendron..
Due to the sheer size of the allotment (above pic shows around half of the space
) and how much of a novice I am, I don't really have a choice but to do this bit by bit!
I did consider a weed killer, just as I think, by the time any of it's decent enough to plant anything it'll be too late in the year anyway!
All the grass on the left is growing in what look like they used to be veggie patches and there seems to be no keeping on top of it in this weather
It's grown back everytime i go hahaaaa (sooo NOT funny, but it really is a laugh or cry situation after all my hard work to trim it down in the 1st place!)