Why do weeds come back

[Plot70]

I had a bash at getting a pesky creeping thistle up complete.
I had to dig a trench down to rock and slide it over in a heavy block of heavy clay before hauling it up and picking all the clay off to reveal its strategy.
Just below the ground there are roots that grow to stop you pulling the "drop root" out if you just pull.
If you do indeed loosen the soil and pull there is a tuber deep down that stays and sprouts back to the surface again.
If you want to eradicate it there is no choice short of deep digging unless the weather is really dry when a couple of drops of white spirit will take it back to tuber level.
It came out in one this time.

[Containergardener]

Well done. I have those, want to come and remove mine

[Snoop Puss]

You are far more determined and patient than me. Congratulations. I go for the little and often approach, I'm afraid. Plus, I know it's not a good idea in terms of weeds, but I actually let some flower away from the veg plot as bees love them. I then try and chop the thistles down before the seeds get going. That's the theory, anyway. And if it weren't my seeds, there are plenty of them blowing up from down the valley. Weeds will always be with me...

[Nicos]

I have nettles like that - the potagers next to our neighbours wood has a mat of roots about 2” below soil level and you can almost see it growing like an incoming tide from the wood....
At least I can make use of the plants’ growing tips to make soup etc!

[Plot70]

Nettles are a lot easier.
They are nothing like bind weed or creeping thistle.
They also make better compost.

[Penellype]

Whatever you do weeds will come in from outside. In this area there are loads of dandelions in the grass verges by the roadside, and the air is thick with seeds around now. Later in the year the thistle seeds blow in from the farmland across the road. Grass from the neighbour's lawn makes its way under the fence.

At the allotment there is horsetail in the hedgerows, so even if I ever manage to get rid of it in the main part of the plot it will always encroach from the edges. There is also creeping thistle coming in from under the fence.

Some weed seeds can live for 10 years in the soil so when you dig you expose them and they grow.

On the plus side, when I took over my friend's veg garden about 6 years ago (I think) it was covered in creeping thistle. I dug it out as carefully as I could while digging over the plot the first year, then dug out every bit that grew. The first couple of years there was a lot of it, but I haven't seen any at all for the last 2 or 3 years, so it is possible to get rid of it in areas where you can dig. It is much harder if it gets under permanent planting or paths, sheds etc.

[Plot70]

Dandelions always come up but are quite easy to pull up if you do it well before they get to flowering size.
Even creeping thistle comes up if they are only 4 or 5 leaves after germinating.

[Jungle Jane]

Butterflies like painted ladies lay eggs on thistles,if the flowers are dead headed the green leaves can be left to feed the caterpillar. If weeds didn’t come back it would be bad for wildlife.

[Plot70]

I grow cardoons for thistle loving butterflies.
The chickens like the leaves too. Thistles have too many spines for chickens.

[Nicos]

Nettles are a lot easier.
They are nothing like bind weed or creeping thistle.
They also make better compost.

Totally agree!
we had bind weed in one of of our garden flower borders in the uk and having dug up the whole border apart from a flowering cherry it came back...yup tiny bits left around the cherry roots

On our lottie, the same problem - we managed to control it by digging down 2 ft and pulling everything out ( roots) then setting in wriggly tin down to a depth of 2 ft.

It still appeared but we finally stopped the worst of it coming in from the adjoining plot.

I’d deffo go for nettles over bindweed any day if I had to choose!...ground elder is pretty rubbish too to try and control, as well as docks.

Blimy...flipping survivalist weeds eh?

[Plot70]

I had an area that was infested with bind weed.
I dug a trench down to the rock just under 2 feet down and moved along a little bit scraping the roots off the rock and putting them out in the sun.
After doing that during the dry period last year the bed now has parsnips growing in it. I chose one of the bigger varieties as the bed is nicely deep dug.
Then there was 20 inch dock roots.

[Babru]

Wow! A 20 inch dock root! Good for you Plot70. Begone, evil dock.

[Plot70]

I have also had dandelion roots just as long especially along the edge of my raised squash bed where the watering path is.
It looks like I have a chance to sun dry them ready for laying as a mulch.

[Nicos]

Very impressive!!!

[Plot70]

I pulled a hog weed root out and it was pretty big too.
I will have to take a photo of my weed shrivelling station in the morning.