Outbreak of dock leaves

[CotswoldLass]

Flower beds are suddenly infested with the darn things! Any ideas? The roots have gone deep already so difficult to pull up.

Thanks in advance, CLx

[CotswoldLass]

[saddad]

If as it sounds they are this year's seedlings they should come out easily enough while the soil is damp...  :-X

[djbrenton]

Make them useful by growing a nettle patch next to them.

[CotswoldLass]

Trouble is they're on a flower bed! I had a good dig this evening (well, afternoon with the light fading) and got rid of some of them, but deep-rooted b***ers near a lovely old rose are a bit of a prob!

CLx

[gp.girl]

Roundup or very dedicated weeding  >:(

Apply in spring when fresh growth appears, if you use plastic bags it keeps it off other plants and stops it washing off.

Just remember it could be worse it could be couch grass.....or bindweed..... or ground elder or combos urggg I'll give myself nightmares

Weeds DON'T chase and eat you. Weeds DON'T chase and eat you. Weeds DON'T chase and eat you.

[CotswoldLass]

Haha! I have managed to get the ground elder retreating to the fence line in that bed - very happy! And a survey of the peony (dying back) reveals NO trave of the dreaded bindy stuff - yippee! Has taken four years though - that's why don't want any new interlopers.
At least no nightmares on this one - just  get the round up out in the spring I think!
Cheers,
CLx

[cornykev]

I've got quite a few come up on the end of my strawberry bed.   :( :( :(

[Unwashed]

If you've bested ground elder then you already know more than I do about weeding. :)

[CotswoldLass]

If you've bested ground elder then you already know more than I do about weeding. :)

Think we are lucky here in that the soil is quite stony so it is easier to trace the roots back to the fence line. Just a question of keeping at it to keep it at bay. I got quite obsessive!
Was much harder in previous Cotswold garden were soil was more compacted!

[Vinlander]

Docks can be pulled up in one go if you wait until the flower stalk is nearly mature.

Just gather up every single leaf stalk near the base in a handful and pull - if it doesn't come out try the next day.

When one comes out easily they all will.

They just seem to lose their grip on the ground.

It's strange - it really works - presumably it corresponds to when a big enough investment has been made and there is a better chance of producing viable seed if the plant stays in one piece - even out of the ground.

At some point they regain grip again - presumably when seeds can be produced from just the energy stored in a detached stalk.

You'll probably have to try it to believe it - but it is well-documented - apparently farmers used to test them until they loosened and then draft in workers to clear the fields entirely.

[pigeonseed]

ooh I never knew that!

I always try to get them when they're little. I've got some sort of tool that looks like a cross between a dibber and a trowel. I inherited it in the shed, and I use that to get out weeds when they're close to plants I want to keep.

But Vinlander's idea sounds best.

[electric landlady]

I've noticed that too, with various deep-rooted weeds!

At a certain point in the year, they just seem to give up and can be pulled out with very little effort. How they do this I don't know - maybe the roots shrink slightly when the plant no longer needs a lot of water to fuel its growing, or something.

I just wish they did it in May!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Maybe the strain of producing all that flowering apparatus takes it out of the root, causing it to shrink or weaken somehow.

[Vinlander]

Robert,

Yeah, I thought that too - but then they take a grip again later.

I also thought it might be a soil moisture issue - but I've watched it for years and it is definitely more to do with the state of the flower stem than the weather.

It's weird, and like I said you have to try it to believe it.

Cheers.

[PurpleHeather]

sounds to me like some one has tried the easy way of using a rotovator and has chopped up roots .

Each small bit will grow to a new dock

Go round the plot and as soon as a dock shows. DIG IT OUT

and get every bit out.

***************

There are a few weeds

Nettles
Docks
Buttercups

the three most difficult where the only thing to do is dig out do not rotovate in. Don't compost burn or put out for recycling

There are others

Bind weed........

encourage even give them canes to grow up (it fools them in to a false sense of security) and feed , yes feed them to encourage growth.......then spray and better spray. Roundup is good

Mares tails. Not as bad as they look but if you want to get rid. batter them first to break into their natural protective cover and then spray. again round up.

I am not going to list weeds any further but I'll add that I have known allotment holders to try to leave beds free for a whole season and hope that by treating them constantly with weed killer that the following year the bed would be weed free.

You are ahead of me here ain't you? (The American spell check came in with ain't. altered it from arn't) Anyway, in case you are ardently following......

Weeds rule.  they come back 'hasta la vista baby' no matter how hard you fight them.

[Vinlander]

Bindweed, nettles, couch grass, creeping buttercup.

You can't compost any of them - true - UNLESS you dry them first to the point where they are brittle and crunchy - use a bit of netting to speed this up - it only takes a week or two in summer.

It's a waste of fertility to burn them at this point - they are stone dead and full of nutrients - compost them.

I'm not sure about docks with this method - but only because I've never needed to find out - never had any problem with them surviving a good composting.

Cheers.