Brushing up on our weeds and how they grow
We’ve put our gardens to bed, now we’re anticipating a few months of seed catalogues and online seminars in preparation for spring gardening. Well, here’s a little added aid, a Weed Primer. I know, I know. We’re all too familiar with garden weeds, but perhaps we can save ourselves some serious weeding later by looking now at the weeds we’re fighting.
Here’s a simple review list of the common weeds we see in mid-Maryland and a brief review of how we might keep them from running wild in our gardens. I’m not going to spend time on the weeds that attack our lawns. You can discuss those weeds with your lawn service. What I’m offering is a guide for year-round weed control. You might want to snip out these few pages and tack them in your garden shed or wherever you keep your tools.
I’ll review general information about our ubiquitous weeds and the simple treatments we’ve probably tried again and again. I’ll review the basic categories weeds fit into; then I’ll list the weeds that are the most common culprits and a few handy hints for each type. So, here we go!
General Information
Weeds sprout all year long! (Sorry, starting with the tough stuff.) So, if there’s no snow covering them, you can pull a weed or two any time you get lonely for gardening.
Common weeds have three types of roots: fibrous (thin, shallow, hairy), rhizomes (spread horizontally beneath the surface, thick and very tough.), and bulbils (small, round globs that appear atop a stem or are attached with tiny veins to the base of the weed.)
Manual weeding is the hardest on the back but the kindest for the environment. However, there will be weeds that demand harsh treatment with herbicides.
Hints for weeding by hand:
- Get a few tools: a long handled, hand weed-puller or digger, a narrow trowel with reasonably sharp edges, and a small pail in which to immediately dump weeds you’ve pulled. (Do not let the pulled weeds fall onto the flowerbed. They’re sneaky plants and will send down new roots from the dying roots.)
- Try to weed when the soil is damp. It’s much easier to lift the roots—deep taproot, bulb roots, or long rhizomes, from the soft earth.
- Familiarize yourself with the type of root systems of the weeds you’re tackling. (See previous hint.)
- If the weed has matured, pull it carefully to avoid spreading its seeds, which are often in the weed’s flower.
For stubborn and out-of-control weeds you may have to use Pre- or Post-Emergent Herbicides:
- Pre-emergent herbicides can be used as soon as the soil temperature approaches 55 degrees Fahrenheit; that’s when the weeds begin to germinate.
- Post-emergent herbicides must be used according to the instructions given with the herbicide; they’re usually granules which you’ll spread or liquid which you’ll spray. When you’ve treated all the weeds in an area, water that area lightly to activate the herbicide.
Weed Categories
Horticulturalists commonly refer to 3 types of weeds: grassy, broadleaf, and woody.
Grassy weeds are what you might expect—those annoying weeds that sneak into the lawn and, at first, seem invisible. But soon they’re taking over and killing the more fragile grass we enjoy as lawns. Bermuda, Crab, and Quark grasses are just a few of the types. But we’ll leave those to the lawn specialists.
Broadleaf weeds are the most annoying and common in our flowerbeds and garden paths, in my experience. They usually have innocuous looking round or oval, flat leaves and you can usually see their veins; they often produce flowers—to lull us into false admiration for such pretty little things! I’ll go through a list of some of those. We can tackle them as soon as the ground begins to warm and the snow disappears.
Woody weeds are those vines, shrubs, and trees that can takeover and choke out indigenous plants. I’ll list them briefly, but they’re not weeds you can pull quickly or easily. Some common troublemakers are Tree of Heaven, Kudzu, Mulberry, and Bradford Pear.
Top left: Henbit Deadnettle. Top right: Bindweed. Bottom: Dandelion
So, let’s get to it. Broadleaf Weeds and what we can do about them in a capsulized explanation.
Bindweed: deceptively delicate tendrils with spear-shaped leaves; they wind up the stems of shrubs and plants, their rhizomes are tough to pull out, and the dying stems can send out new rhizomes if pieces are left in the flowerbed!
Creeping Thistle: dense plants with purple flowers, spread quickly when seeds are dispersed by wind; 2–5 feet tall, rhizomes go deep and any portion left in the soil will regenerate an entire plant!
Chickweed: flourishes and spreads in winter, single plants can live 10 years, star-shaped flowers.
Clover: bright green, 3 or 4 lobed leaves with tiny pink or white flowers in spring and fall, spreads along the surface.
Crabgrass: low-growing with spiky leaves that surround and choke out other plants.
Dandelions: jagged leaves sprouting from center, yellow flowers, deep tap root, seeds on the wind.
Henbit Deadnettle: easily winter-over; round, scalloped leaves form mats, very active from early springtime; short, purple, cylindrical flowers in autumn.
Poison Ivy: 3-leaf clusters; leaves turn red in autumn, send out invasive vines, both the vine and the leaves are toxic.
Star of Bethlehem: tiny, white flowers appear in spring, in tufts of thin, green leaves, die back after blooming but bulbils remain in the soil until next spring. (I must confess to allowing them to flourish in my lawn.)
Wild Garlic: thin, grass-like leaves with small, white flowers. Grows in clusters. Bulbils roots. Distinctive odor when crushed.
Well, after reviewing these pesky plants in our gardens, I hope you’ll keep an eagle eye out for early weeds that try to get a head start. I’m sharpening my weed puller and maybe buying a few pullers as gifts, to which I’ll add red ribbons in keeping with the holiday spirit.
