Garden weeds in your garden are simply plants which are growing in the wrong place. They are usually the native plants which are best adapted to the environment where they grow; sometimes they have been introduced in the past for culinary, medicinal or decorative purposes.

As the garden weeds in your garden compete with other garden plants for space, water and light, we try to eradicate them before they swamp the more delicate specimens. Even in a "wild" garden the native plants must be controlled to give the more pleasing effect we seek. The seeds they produce can lie dormant in the soil for many years, germinating when the soil is cultivated.

Types of garden weeds in your garden

Garden weeds in your garden can be categorised as follows:

Annual garden weeds in your garden - these germinate and mature in one season and die away leaving a supply of seed to germinate in the autumn or the following season, eg Cleavers & Groundsel

Biennial garden weeds in your garden - take two growing seasons to mature enough to produce seed, then die away. In the first season they germinate in early summer and most grow as a rosette of leaves at soil level, developing a long taproot. In the second season they produce an upright stem which flowers and seeds.

These garden weeds in your garden are more easily removed in the first year by uprooting or treating with a contact herbicide at the seedling stage, but a systemic or translocated agent is more likely to be successful. If the flowering stem is prevented from growing the plant may become perennial, it is the production of seed which causes it to die naturally. This can be seen with Thistles and Ragwort when they grow in mown grass; the growing point of the basal rosette is below the sweep of the mower blades.

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Perennial garden weeds in your garden - these garden weeds form a storage system in their roots or stems and live for many seasons. They are the most difficult to remove as they have a number of methods to ensure their survival.

First they can produce seed which, as for Annuals and Biennials, are dispersed by various means to reach new ground as well as the surrounding area. The other big advantage these garden weeds in your garden have is that they can regenerate if the topgrowth is removed or when the herbaceous perennials die away naturally to survive adverse conditions such as winter frosts.

This perenniating system takes a number of forms, usually it is underground as fleshy roots, stems or leaves, in the case of bulbs. So when eliminating these garden weeds the underground parts usually have to be removed or destroyed to prevent regrowth. Some have roots or underground stems which creep around , eg. Bindweed, Ground-elder. Other garden weeds spread using rooting stems or runners, eg. Creeping Buttercup.

Many garden weeds in your garden can mature in a matter of weeks and produce seed, if the growing conditions are favourable, allowing them to have several generations in a season. These are known as Ephemeral plants due to this transient behaviour. Examples are Chickweed and Hairy Bittercress, which are usually categorised as Annuals, although the latter can be a Biennial if it germinates in the autumn.

How to get rid of garden weeds in your garden

When removing garden weeds in your garden, it is important in most cases to uproot all of it and not to "graze", otherwise it will soon re-grow. Use a hand fork or a hand grubber (looks like a claw with 3 or 4 talons) to loosen the roots of larger garden weeds.

For perennial garden weeds in your garden with deep or widespread roots, a systemic weedkiller such as Glyphosate may be required, this will be taken down into the roots and kills the weed in about 7 to 10 days. If you are opposed to filling the coffers of the multi-national chemical companies and you have the time, then mowing or strimming an area of Nettles or Ground-elder will eventually eradicate theses garden weeds.

This method is not always feasible, eg.in a border, but continually removing as many roots as possible will eventually pay off, as the energy stored in any remaining roots will run out, so be persistent and don't allow garden weeds to grow enough leaves to make more.

Dandelion, Daisy, Pearlwort, Plantain and Creeping Buttercup survive mowing, as they form rosettes at ground level. If you do have invasive garden weeds in your border tackle it in the autumn or spring lifting the affected plants and teasing the invader from their roots.

Use a fork when digging as it will tease the roots loose, a spade will chop them up, thus multiplying the problem. Garden weeds invading from adjoining ground can be deterred with a barrier of thick plastic buried vertically to a depth of about 30 cm and protruding above soil level by at least 10 cm (disguise it with a row of stones or gravel-board). This is best done at the outset when preparing the plot, but can be done later as a remedial treatment.

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more on garden weeds including a weed identifier - even more on garden weeds

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