Plants that Will Eat your Yard if you let them - Page 2

Tracydr · May 19, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by nancyruhl

I can't agree Lindalana. I have been ripping out campanula for 2 years now, and think there is more than I started with. Bindweed, OMG. I bought a beautiful variegated grass that won't stay put. The colors are spectacular and I would love it if it behaved. Wild violets. Anything that spreads by underground stolons beware of.

Mondo grass.

Mojave · May 20, 2015

Horseradish.

Blueaussi · May 20, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

Vinca vines

<shudder!>

When I was a child, pulling periwinkle vines was my mother's favorite punishment for us.

Cole_Robbie · May 20, 2015

Catnip gets my vote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

The local farmers who used to plant Johnson Grass for a hay crop. Now it grows everywhere and it will take over your yard in a hurry.

I wish I could sell Johnson Grass root starts. Mine look like crab legs.

noinwi · May 20, 2015

Creeping Buttercup

BarbJ · May 20, 2015

Bermuda Buttercup, also called Sour Grass. Spreads by small nut-let sized bulbs on the roots that detach when you pull it out. It's taking over the pacific coast beaches and muscling out the native plants.

Vinca major, Bermuda grass, and Bind weed.

But my own nemesis is a little perennial ground cover called Lippia, Phyla nodiflora. It's often suggested as a lawn substitute, but it's a monster in sheep food clothing!
It's not a great lawn sub as it tends to grow patchy where you want it, but grows lushly into the flower beds. Even if it does grow well where you want it, as a lawn it's still terrible, it flowers but that draws bees so you have a tough time sitting on it and avoiding being stung, and it also is always infested with pill bugs, who will always come out and investigate when you're sitting on it. Not scary at all, but kind of annoying as they crawl across your legs and lap.
And every single piece will root where ever it falls.

Wi-sunflower · May 20, 2015

Around here my problem is Chick weed. It spreads everywhere and won't be killed. I got it in the greenhouse with some peat dirt I bought many years ago. It even roots thru the woven ground cloth I have laid down it's hair-like roots are that fine. Out in the field if it's in a row of something small like beets or even peppers, it will smother them.

Carol

Tracydr · May 20, 2015

Hickory trees are volunteering everywhere on my property. Thugs!

Worth1 · May 20, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Hickory trees are volunteering everywhere on my property. Thugs!

The squirrels are planting them for you.

Worth

AlittleSalt · May 20, 2015

Tracy, you reminded me of something.

I pull oak trees from our garden every year. The root is at least as deep as the plant is tall above ground.

bower · May 24, 2015

I'll see your raspberries and raise you fireweed. And sorrel is a hated weed here, they come back from the tiniest bit of root as well as self seeding.
In my perennial herb garden, the answer would have been different ten years ago, and keeps changing over time. St. Johnswort was threatening to take over 15 years ago.. then Oregano became king, seeding itself into beds and gravel paths and outcompeting everything. Tansy is now taking over some of the previous oregano patches. It spreads far underground.
Japanese Honeysuckle is not a problem here, it survives but isn't strong enough to strangle anything.
Grass, what a pest in the garden.
Buttercup is a chore at my Mom's which is old farm land. And grass!!!
Yellow clover and purple vetch are hard to get rid of in a perennial bed.
I still have more oregano than anything.

Cheryl2017 · May 24, 2015

Beware of 4 O'clocks. Uggg

Tracydr · May 24, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worth1

The squirrels are planting them for you.

Worth

It doesn't even take squirrels! They grow roots from the nut right on top of the ground! This fall they will all get raked and burned.

tam91 · May 24, 2015

I have stupid garlic mustard. And some weird giant farm weed. Everywhere. I would take any of the other plants in this thread instead of those

4season · May 24, 2015

In the mid 1950's Clyde Tingley introduced siberian elm trees to Albuquerque. They produce many windblown seeds in early spring. Every other weed in the garden early summer is a sprouting elm seed. In places where they pile up against the driptape I can pull 30 or more in one handfull.

May 20, 2015	#17
Mojave Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: SF Bay area Z9a Posts: 821	Horseradish. __________________ Bill _______________________________________________ When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. -John Muir Believe those who seek the Truth: Doubt those who find it. -André Gide

May 24, 2015	#29
tam91 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Crystal Lake IL Posts: 2,484	I have stupid garlic mustard. And some weird giant farm weed. Everywhere. I would take any of the other plants in this thread instead of those __________________ Tracy

May 20, 2015	#20
noinwi Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: PNW Posts: 486	Creeping Buttercup

May 20, 2015	#21
BarbJ Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: California, USA Posts: 154	Bermuda Buttercup, also called Sour Grass. Spreads by small nut-let sized bulbs on the roots that detach when you pull it out. It's taking over the pacific coast beaches and muscling out the native plants. Vinca major, Bermuda grass, and Bind weed. But my own nemesis is a little perennial ground cover called Lippia, Phyla nodiflora. It's often suggested as a lawn substitute, but it's a monster in sheep food clothing! It's not a great lawn sub as it tends to grow patchy where you want it, but grows lushly into the flower beds. Even if it does grow well where you want it, as a lawn it's still terrible, it flowers but that draws bees so you have a tough time sitting on it and avoiding being stung, and it also is always infested with pill bugs, who will always come out and investigate when you're sitting on it. Not scary at all, but kind of annoying as they crawl across your legs and lap. And every single piece will root where ever it falls.

May 20, 2015	#22
Wi-sunflower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,591	Around here my problem is Chick weed. It spreads everywhere and won't be killed. I got it in the greenhouse with some peat dirt I bought many years ago. It even roots thru the woven ground cloth I have laid down it's hair-like roots are that fine. Out in the field if it's in a row of something small like beets or even peppers, it will smother them. Carol

May 20, 2015	#23
Tracydr Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7 Posts: 3,207	Hickory trees are volunteering everywhere on my property. Thugs!

May 20, 2015	#25
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Tracy, you reminded me of something. I pull oak trees from our garden every year. The root is at least as deep as the plant is tall above ground.

May 24, 2015	#26
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	I'll see your raspberries and raise you fireweed. And sorrel is a hated weed here, they come back from the tiniest bit of root as well as self seeding. In my perennial herb garden, the answer would have been different ten years ago, and keeps changing over time. St. Johnswort was threatening to take over 15 years ago.. then Oregano became king, seeding itself into beds and gravel paths and outcompeting everything. Tansy is now taking over some of the previous oregano patches. It spreads far underground. Japanese Honeysuckle is not a problem here, it survives but isn't strong enough to strangle anything. Grass, what a pest in the garden. Buttercup is a chore at my Mom's which is old farm land. And grass!!! Yellow clover and purple vetch are hard to get rid of in a perennial bed. I still have more oregano than anything.

May 24, 2015	#27
Cheryl2017 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: san antonio, texas Posts: 174	Beware of 4 O'clocks. Uggg

May 24, 2015	#30
4season Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: albuquerque Posts: 308	In the mid 1950's Clyde Tingley introduced siberian elm trees to Albuquerque. They produce many windblown seeds in early spring. Every other weed in the garden early summer is a sprouting elm seed. In places where they pile up against the driptape I can pull 30 or more in one handfull.