New Poll! What is your worst weed?

[Nikki Arnold]

Hi Everyone

If you let us know your favourites as you have been doing, we can still count them as votes! Remember everyone gets different weeds in different areas and we had planned to add in an other box for 'other' but a glitch in the system as we posted said otherwise, so please do let us know what weed is most problematic for you! Couch weed could win it yet!

[Dynamo]

Its a really difficult question to answer though. I get the majority of weeds mentioned in this thread and they all affect you in different ways. As someone said, the likes of Chickweed is a pain when your growing peas and beans, but Couch Grass and Dandelions and Dock can be equally as nausiating when they are growing in the middle of a clump of strawberries. I also have problems with Nettle, Bramble, Horsetail and Thistle which all have really deep roots in various places on my lottie and keep showing all the time.

[Creemteez]

Couch grass for me - though I am winning...I AM! I AM! I AAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

C'm... Closely followed by Dandilions. The last couple of years has there has been an explosion of them. Anyone else noticed the custard-yellow road verges? I put it down to councils cutting back on verge mowing to save money.

[daleclarke]

Couch Grass and Clover, this year clover has just pipped Couch Grass.

[planetologist]

bindweed
I'm also surprised couch grass is not on the list, though for me it's "only" number two
creeping buttercup
and non-couch grass species are pretty bad too, I'm experimenting with growing only creeping clover in the paths, but that's a long-term project.

[VirginVegGrower]

Where are dandelion and couch on this list please??? Will note vote until they are on - am on strike along with those other peeps!!

[shona_b]

I fear its is only bindweed that is holding my ramshackle compost area together! I spent hours following the roots towards the plot and carefully pulling them up - it got strangely addictive and a bit competitive to see how long a piece I could get out in one go! It will never be gone as most comes from my neighbours but I am battling a line before it reached the first main bed!

[snohare]

I seem to remember that the old fashioned way of telling the pH of your ground was to look at the types of weeds growing there. Seems like a dose of manure or lime could "cure" a lot of our troubles...but I wonder - quite apart from the fact that we would want to grow crops that needed a different pH to what we ended up with - would the likes of bindweed and couch just feast merrily ?

[Glutton4...]

Hairy Bittercress here - I have spent at least 6 hours this week removing the blinkin' stuff from various gardens.

Horsetail and Cleavers/Goose Grass are a nuisance, brambles and nettles are a pain (literally, sometimes) and Ground Elder is too persistent for words. But Hairy Bittercress is the worst, in my opinion, because you have to deal with it when you find it. Leaving it until next week's visit means it will have already seeded. I hate it.

[MyLifeWithAndrew]

Brambles, stinging nettles and IVY!!!
I pull up one ivy and ten more appear!
I don't know if it is classified as a weed, but it is a pain.

~*~

Changed to bindweed, now that I know what it is.

[Peppermint]

We only moved here the middle of last year so we haven't had a full season to assess the full round but so far the problem weeds are:

Ground elder - it's strangling borders, under some of the trees and is moving into grass areas
Couch grass - we are digging it up in all the vegetable beds
Docks - these have self seeded everywhere
Celendine - it's spread across the lawn and borders

I've voted for creeping buttercup as it is everywhere and the field next to us is full of it, but ground elder is turning out to be the bigger problem.

[StephenH]

On the allotment, none of the options given. The area alongside the polytunnel is heavily infested with couch grass. I've removed as much root as possible, but undoubtedly will have left some behind, so I think I'm going to be battling it for some years.

[Jeanied]

My worst weed is the dreaded bindweed... unless you count the procrastinating human weed not wielding the hoe and failing to keep on top of it (yours truly!)

[rinabean]

Snowberries. I've seen them described as a good plant for beginners as they grow "reasonably quickly". Yeah, I saw some grow 6 inches in a day last week. It will happily grow through 2 feet of added soil even after being horribly mutilated. Still, it's making a good mulch.

Brambles and nettles are literally a pain if you've not got good gloves on, but at least the latter is edible and brambles have berries. I wish I could eat the snowberries, just to spite them, but unfortunately they are poisonous to humans.

[Allotment26]

Have spent a year clearing an allotment that had not been used for at least 5 years. The head high brambles had provided a tremendous framework of support for bindweed. Rampant horseradish from a long left tenant, native (ie. non-bocking 14) comfrey. I dream of a time when annuals like chickweed and bittercress are my biggest problem. They may seed quickly but they do only seed.