Thugs in the garden

[veggiechicken]

I seem to have a lot of trouble with thugs in the garden. You know the ones, they look sweet and innocent when you plant them and a couple of years later they've elbowed their way through all the neighbouring plants and made a proper nuisance of themselves. Of course, not all rampant growers are thugs, sometimes a bit of unruliness can be used to your advantage

Please tell us who the thugs are in your garden/plot and how to keep them in order without resorting to binning, composting or weedkiller; or should we not plant them at all?

I've shared the unfortunate incident of the Jenny Kiwifruit many times. I'm also troubled by phormiums and figs. Despite having their roots contained between 2 brick walls, the fig has managed to grow into a hedge that has to be trimmed with the hedge trimmer.

[Zelenina]

One of the most thuggish plants in my garden isn't supposed to be there at all. I would certainly NEVER plant it. It's the Virginia creeper that keeps invading from my back neighbour's garden. Not only do its vines keep on creeping over the wall and down and trying to take over my garden, but the birds eat the berries and scatter them around, so its seedlings keep springing up all over the place.

[Baldy]

Ivy... I hate ivy - no getting rid of it!

[Mr Bones]

Joan J (raspberries). Lovely but really does like to wander about.

[JanieB]

Sumac. It self seeded in next doors garden and took over. My new neighbour had it removed but it's roots are long and invasive and keep throwing up baby trees. I spend ages each week digging the damn things up.

[Snadger]

Sumac. It self seeded in next doors garden and took over. My new neighbour had it removed but it's roots are long and invasive and keep throwing up baby trees. I spend ages each week digging the damn things up.

I luurve the autumn foliage of the stagshorn! I am wanting a couple for my house garden but know they are shallow rooted and throw up a lot of suckers.

[Snoop Puss]

Kermes oak. Horrendous stuff.

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_coccifera), it's listed as an endangered species in Bulgaria (I find that hard to believe as it is totally ineradicable) and was tree of the year in 2014 on Cyprus (they can have all of ours if they can get them out). I'm thinking of getting goats, just to try and keep it under control.

[vixylix]

I have intentionally removed / are removing any and all potential thugs - and I am avoiding planting any new ones. I have plenty of problems with them re-appearing though, or arriving from either of the neighbours (one who has a horsetail bush, the other has covered the adjoining wall in ivy) - plus all the usual weeds.

In hindsight, maybe the thugs were better than all the weeds!

p.s. VC - I assumed at first that you were talking about slugs!

[burnie]

Ground Elder is my bane, it was here when I bought the house, ex council gardener used to own our place owner before last, he brought everything home from work they didn't want including this flippin' weed.

[bramble]

Bamboo. Stupidly I planted them in my front garden without knowing enough about them.
In the space of a few years it was like a jungle.
I made so many attempts at cutting them back and then trying to dig them up without success.
Eventually I hired a guy with a small garden digger who got rid of them for me.

[Jungle Jane]

My stagshorn sumacs becoming a giant,it can be a bit of a thug,if you prune/touch it,it gets all sensitive & sends little sumacs all around the garden. So I prune it as little as possible (but I did cut a massive section out in the spring because of shade,so I've had more suckers than usual but only about ten & they pull out easily when a few inches tall) I love the red leaves in the autumn & how it looks today

[Bren In Pots]

My thug is herb fennel it sprouts up everywhere its easy enough to pull up apart from when its in the carrot bed because it looks a lot like carrots seedlings.

[roitelet]

Lemon balm spreads, seeds and dig it up and it comes back.

[mothhawk]

A few years ago I took a cutting from a gloriously scented honeysuckle and planted it against my tall buckthorn hedge. In three years it completely denuded a large part of the hedge of leaves because of its smothering habit, so, wonderful as the flowers and scent were, it had to go.

....Last year, I spotted a gloriously scented honeysuckle and took a cutting. I planted it against the fence on the other side of the garden. It's already about a foot and a half above the 6ft fence.... But the scent is intoxicating..... The really maddening thing about honeysuckle is that if you prune it you cut off the parts that bear the flowers, which is the whole reason for growing it....

It's one of those love/hate relationships we have.....

[SarrissUK]

Slugs.
And buddleia. I hate the freaking things. Buddleia, as good as it is for butterflies and wildlife, as bad is it for my window sills outside, my brick walls, concrete paths... It gets in everywhere, grows and breaks everything apart. My neighbour's garden is full of the bloody things, and he won't prune them back before they go to seed either which really doesn't help!