What is this plant?

[SizzlininIN]

How in the world do I get rid of it? I've tried digging it up but it has lots of underground vines and they break off. It spreads like crazy and gets about 3+ feet tall. I want to put a new flower bed in the area its in but I can't get rid of this stuff and I don't want it reappearing in my new flower bed.

The soil here has tons of small river rocks and the flower bed is up against the foundation so I really don't want to dig down deep. Is there something I can sprinkle on or spray on or will fabric weed sheets be enough to kill it?

Thanks

 

[Jeekinz]

They're just weeds. If you let them get too tall, it will develop a pretty good root structure. The trick is to pull them close to the base when under 12" tall. If you turn the soil after all traces of foliage are gone, you can easily remove the root system they created. Keep picking though, they will soon dissapear.

My neighbor has tons of them on her property line (which is my property line) I have to go weed her *%$#^ @#$%^&* yard so they don't ruin my lawn.

 

[Andy M.]

If you don't mond killing everything there, spray with Roundup and give it a couple of weeks.

 

[BreezyCooking]

What you have there is Mugwort, a member of the Artemisia family. It's common all over the U.S., Europe, & parts of Asia, & is used in a number of medicinal herbal preparations. It also used to be used as a "spring tonic" in salads, but is outrageously bitter & it's not currently advisable to use it for this purpose anymore.

That said, except for herbalist use, it's considered a noxious garden weed, but can easily be eradicated. While the root systems can be extensive, they're relatively shallow, & your best bet is to pull the plants up from ground level after a rain or a thorough hose soaking. If you do this consistently, whatever roots are left will lose strength, & there'll soon be no need to resort to chemicals or heavy digging (although RoundUp will also work if you're adverse to weeding).

 

[amber]

I think I would go with Breezycooking's advice. Get the ground wet then dig them out.

Roundup works good, but then your left with tall dead weeds, though you could rototill after they die back ( or turn them over by hand).

 

[bethzaring]

never seen it before. Sure glad I do not have it. But, I have my own persistent vegetation, like Johnson Grass. I swear, I have ripped out so much Johnson Grass I could mulch the earth several times over

 

[Barb L.]

I agree with Andy, Roundup - that way you know they are dead.

 

[buckytom]

no offense to anyone, but using roundup is a lazy and earth-unfriendly way of getting rid of weeds. people have become entirely too addicted to chemicals to solve simple lawn and garden problems.
overuse just a little of them, and they'll end up washing down the sewer, into lakes and rivers, and eventually back into your life in some way.
for years, people have thought that roundup was a "safe" chemical, so it has been used in increasingly more fragile environments. only recently has it's ill effects become documented.
the other little fun surprise is if pollen from genetically modified glysophate (the active ingredient in roundup) tolerant plants gets into wild crops. what are you gonna use to get rid of them? is there an end to this madness?

once you begin to go down the slippery slope of using and possibly abusing chemicals for every garden application, have fun trying to get back to where you started.

Biosafety Information Centre

mbox-32: GLYPHOSATE DANGERS (as in Roundup herbicide)

Point: Open pollination presents clear dangers / Counterpoint: Roundup Ready control area addresses concerns Golf Course News - Find Articles

just water then pull them, like breezy, amber, and jeekinz recommended.

i realize that many studies are flawed, or are just flat out propoganda. but at the very least, stop and think about it. maybe even do a little research.

 

[Constance]

My husband ran a strip mine, and was in charge of reclamation after the mine closed. The EPA, as you can imagine, was breathing down his neck the whole time.
They approve the use of Round-up, It is a systemic herbicide, which kills from the leaves down to the root. It is harmless to wild life, and does not poison the soil.
I suggest you use it, and save your time and strength for more creative pursuits.

 

[buckytom]

like cancer.

ddt was once an approved chemical. in fact, it was pushed on farmers.

 

[mudbug]

bucky, when they did away with DDT, thousands of people in less developed countries got malaria again. You want more plants than people?

 

[buckytom]

i didn't think that they were mutually exclusive.

is it really so hard to pull weeds?

 

[mudbug]

I think what we really need to worry about is cockroaches. I just heard recently that they can hold their breath for 40 minutes.

I say bring back the napalm.

 

[buckytom]

rofl, 'bug.

i love the smell of napalm in the morning...

a quick cockroach story. on my first day of work for the associated press in nyc as a naive 20 year old, i was introduced to my boss in our "office", which happened to be in the lowest level of the paramount building on 50th st. and 8th ave. (coincidentally, the same corner where i met you and your family ). it was a level below the juxtaposed subway tracks for the #1 train.
no sooner were the handshakes over when my new boss said "turn your head to the side" as he picked a cockroach off my neck. i guess i was fresh meat!

ever since then, they have been my sworn enemy. the cockraoches; not my bosses.

while i worked down there, i used to keep a squirt gun full of denatured alcohol (aka anti-ronjohn fluid) for the sole purpose of dousing then torching the little buggers. what was scary was the larger ones, almost the size of your palm, would survive the blue-ish inferno and drag their scorched exo-skeletons off to their hiding places using their remaining appendages.

the skin on my neck still crawls when i see one.

ok, back to destroying the environment out of sheer laziness...

 

[Jeekinz]

OMG folks.....those weeds have a very shallow root system. Jusst pull the ^%$# things.

 

[buckytom]

thanks jeekinz.

they grow, umm, like weeds around us. (brain fart) and they're especially easy to pull as they grow tall and straight.

 

[Jeekinz]

Bucky, go to sleep......it's late.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I just got one of these www.planetnatural.com/site/dandelion-terminator then you put a sprinkle of salt in the hole also you really want to get the extender saves your back.

 

[buckytom]

ok, after some sleep and some thought, i figured hand pulling weeds on a large area might not be feasible, so if you still want to stay green, get a propane torch and just burn then till the dead weeds.

 

[SizzlininIN]

Whew....glad the heat of the fire has tamed down....LOL!

Yes the area I have is quite large and I dug and dug last year trying to tackle these damx things and repeated it numerous times through the spring/summer but it didn't do any good these things came back in full force this year and with me starting the new job I didn't get a chance to get out there and tackle it early on so now their quite large.

Well I've had my fill with them and I refuse to dig and dig again.....sorry Bucky....but I'm cutting them down and those lil buggers are about to be rounded up. I promise I won't use it again though .