First one to post!

Thanks for the PlantFiles reminder - done.

Dea

There is only one thing I've ever found that will kill Bermuda and that is POAST. It works great here in So. Cal. I have ivy on one bank and iceplant on another and it invades it each year, but one spray with POAST wipes it out and doesn't hurt other plants. It's pretty pricey but a little goes a very long way. I've had my 16 oz. bottle for over 4 years now and still have more than half left. One application during warm weather usually does the trick, but I do it again after a week. It takes about a week and a half after application to see it turn brown and die. If you can't find it at your local nursery, you can buy it online. Just do a Google search for POAST (it's called different names in different states). It also states that it kills Johnsongrass, but that's foreign to me.

As for invasive plants, mine are Evening Primrose and iceplant. I control the iceplant by trimming and pulling and the primrose with Bayer Weed Killer. I also fight crabgrass each year by pulling, spraying, and using my Hula-hoe.

Ditto to all the Johnson Grass complaints. Where I live, it's more a problem for farmers than happy home owners. There is an actve control program here, and if farmers fail to control it, woe be unto them. It really is nasty stuff.

Now to my most hated invasive: here it's called "wire Grass". Is it the same as Bermuda Grass? It goes dormant in the winter but comes back with a vengeance come warm weather. It spreads by rhizomes and will go anywhere, including my raised beds. Tilling just spreads it around. Roundup is the only answer, but that's not an option in my lawn.

Salt Cedars aka Tamarix. They spread like wildfire by seed and are deeply taprooted and fast growing. Had to rent a backhoe to clear them from the property we got here but still have to watch for seedlings constantly as they are everywhere here. Absolutely nothing will grow around them and they literally turn soil into salt. I have no idea where on earth these have their niche or why but it is NOT here LOL.

We have the bermudagrass problem here too, in any area that gets watered anyway. I just pull as much as I can and bury what's left under thick mulch. Seems to be working as I have less than I did a couple of years ago.

All you Evening Primrose haters...feel free to send it my way...it never has a chance to spread much here because the rabbits love it. I have to plant it with rosemary, lavender, garlic, etc to just keep it alive hehe.

My invasive faves: Buckthorn. Smooth Brome. Dame's Rocket. Ox-eye daisy. Garlic Mustard. Purple Loosestrife. Phragmites grass.

Evening primrose is so pretty(have you ever seen Missouri Primrose? Gorgeous!)...and it's a night feeding moth magnet...but it's such a pain to try and control, as a specimen plant. in my little prairie, it has competition. Dana, I'll gladly send you some primrose seed next fall. You'll rue the day, LOL! Dode.

raisedbedbob There are quite a few cultivars of Bermuda grass. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LH007 The common Bermuda grass was called wiregrass in Virginia which I was young. The old folks use to say that the only way to get rid of it was to die and leave it. The modern cultivars are very popular in the the south. Coastal is a major hay crop. and other cultivars are used extensively in high traffic lawns. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/32203/index.html. It loves sandy light soils, but is restrained considerably by heavy clay soils.

Thanks for the info Farmerdill. I live in wiregrass heaven I guess. My soil is classified as Sassafras Sandy Loam.

red cypress vine is something the hummers and butterflies love! Several years ago, I bought two plants in one gallon containers from a man at the flea market. I have thought, he could become wealthy if he sells all of his seedlings. They have become very invasive. They come up everywhere, between the small cracks in the sidewalk, in the lawn, all over the yard. I pull them up like weeds (they do come up easy). It is a very fast and strong grower, one vine grew thru the window screen. Last year I pulled up all that I saw. I probably will be invaded again this year. Would like to keep ONE vine, but not have them everywhere. I shared a few plants with my neighbor who admired them. the next year, she said she was trying to erradicate them.

Sandbur,wild strawberry,yellow nutgrass,toad-flax,white locoweed,buffalo grass,foxtail millet,henbit,windmill grass,in my "little prairie"! Also gooseneck loosestrife,but, Garden spiders love to web in it,so,I built a fieldstone blockade around it.If I ever built a replica of the settlers sod-houses,I'd use bermuda grass for the roof as I'm sure it would put "Tyvek" out of business! lol!.....Dave....

Celastrus orbiculata (asian bittersweet), climbs and smothers all in its path...

Davers,

I've found with gooseneck loosestrife that if you pull up new plants that come up where you don't want them to, they don't re-sprout. April

Terry, the bermuda grass grows like mile a minute vine down here.

For gardeners that may be effected with the same invasive plants as I am, here is a link about Ohio. It identifies the noxious weeds here.
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/dnap/invasive/ ... I personally have problems with Ribbon Grass (Phalaris arund....), Oenothera tetragona - a yellow so-called primrose, Japanese Honeysuckle of my neighbor's, an ugly sprawly-crawly Sedum that is yellow-green with yellow flowers, and forget-me-nots (Myosotis).

Karin

Is 'Florida Betony' a four-letter word ? It is for me ! It might cause my husband to spray my yard, thousands of daylilies included, with Roundup ! Nothing gets rid of this stuff. You can't dig it up. Break one root and 50 plants grow in the place of one !

Before anyone jumps on a bandwagon - I am not serious about spraying my whole yard with RU !( I don't even think that would work anyway.) Just releasing anger !!!

Corgi, believe me...Round-up works quite well on daylillies, and grass, and most everything green. ;-)

Bermuda grass, St. Augustine grass, Dianella tasmanica, Mirabilis jalapa (Four O'Clocks), Kalanchoe (Bryophyllum) daigremontianum, K. tubiflora, and all other Kalanchoes/Bryophyllums which make little plantlets on the edges of their leaves, Oxalis (particularly Oxalis pes-caprae), Chickweed, Hypochaeris radicata (False Dandelion aka Rough Cat's Ear ). That's all I can think of right now. I know there are many more. There are way too many invasive plants here in the San Francisco Bay Area because our climate is so mild. Around here it's a good idea to do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions before you bring a new plant home. If you don't you're apt to have it all over the neighborhood in no time.

Unfortunately, Round-Up does not work on Arum italicum, and that's the biggest problem in my garden. The gophers don't want it either.

Hi, Marilyn. Long time no see. Don't forget about the Gelsemium sempervirens in the East Bay. It runs rampant and refuses to die.

Hi, Zuzu! I haven't been here much lately. Had some computer problems, plus have been doing fostering. Thanks for the reminder about the Carolina jessamine. I don't see it in my area very much, but now that you've mentioned it I'll bet I'll see it every time I turn around this spring! LOL Any others I missed? Speaking of "mist" :>) I just thought of another one - Nigella damascena (Love in a Mist).

Marilyn

Oh, but I love Nigella, Marilyn, and it's so easy to pull out before it seeds if you don't want any more next year. Same with Godetia. If you don't pull it, it ends up everywhere, but what a gorgeous sight it is when it's in bloom!

I'm one of those "good intentions" people. I intend to deadhead, but never seem to get to it in time. So if it gets here, it stays here!! LOL

Marilyn

My problem weed is nutgrass. It has little bublets underground and it's almost impossible to pull all of them up. Pull one up and ten replaces it. SheVerne

In the yard, it's Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum). We have been battling that since before we moved in.

In the fields, it's bull thistles and velvetleaf. The bull thistles are the toughy. We pull velvet leaf up when we see it - it comes in the corn for the cows and in seed that we use in the meadows and so far, we have been able to keep it under control. Multiflora roses are another toughy that we have to deal with in the pastures on my parents' farm.

The state of NY gifted me with some purple loosestrife in the ditch out front either when they brought in gravel for road construction or else from seeds on the mowing machine when they mowed the roadside. I pull it out every time it pops up.

Nutsedge, probably the same as 2vernes nutgrass. I have been eradicating it for over thirty years.

Yes, I believe it is nutsedge. Snapple45, do you think we are the only ones with that infernal weed? I think it will come up through concrete. SheVerne

Hello SheVerne! No we are not the only ones. My neighbors have a lot. Problem is they dont do anything about it, so I will always be battling. After an atomic bomb this scourge would be the first thing to recover.

Up here, nutsedge a problems in the fields. It is, by the way, a native nuisance. It can really wreck havock on corn fields and hay ground and makes a real mess of oats. There's almost nothing that kills it and tillage seems to just spread it around more.

We have it here too.

If you noticed that none of us in Zone -5 have any noxious weeds. Even Bishops weed is mild in the garden. We have some noxious weeds but none in my garden. Move to Zone 4 all your problems clear up. Of course I'm envious of zone 6+ but I like the challenge.

Soferdig.... I am a 5 and have lots of noxious weeds. Do you live in an area with large lots of undisturbed soil? I notice around here the areas that haven't been excavated or cleared are relatively free of the nasty stuff. Most weeds are opportunist, many need an opening, and as gardeners, we provide it. :)

In the areas they've put all the developments in there is tons of fox tails, Russian thistle, goat heads, hoary cress, i could go on and on...

Melissa

As for zone envy, what i wouldn't give not to have to dig my dahlias!!!!!

Kathleen and all, would it be ok if I started a thread on nutsedge? I have a bunch of questions and some comments. Thanks for letting me know :)

Dea

Goatheads and foxtails....ughhhhh. I managed to crowd most of them out of our fenced in inner yard now only....2.25 acres to go LOL.

Dea, of course - feel free to start a separate thread.

Here's a funny story about nutsedge: Nutsedge is a plant native to the US, but it has spread it's range through cultivation - showing up in grain seeds and settling in quite happily. It didn't really make much of an appearance in this area until the early 1960s, and where it came from seemed to be a mystery to many of the farmers. There were a few who always think they have the answer and in this case it was quite wonderfully fraught. They decided that the Russians were loading their satelites up with weed seeds, especially nutsedge, and programming the satellites to drop the seeds over American farm land. If I hadn't heard one old guy talking about this, I wouldn't be inclined to believe it, but you do have to give him extra credit for the leap of imagination this explanation took!

Tombaak You are absolutly right. Our Valley has been undisturbed since God moved here. We are now growing but the whole valley has been farmed for summer wheat for eons. Lots of cattle and sheep. Now it is becomming a house filled valley. I'm sure the pigweed will start to take over. But my neighbors are acres of Elk fenced in and no soil is being disturbed.

Yellow nutsedge was the bane of my father’s life. Everywhere it came up in his tiny front yard he hoed and dug. After 20 years of hoeing and digging he died at 83, hoe still in hand and nutgrass everywhere.

there is a good example of why God gave us weeds. We have a mission here to get up every morning to hoe. Otherwise we would sleep and watch TV. Weed the anti-TV.

Well...I don't know the name of the horrible stuff that crowds my gardens each year...I am a new member...and as soon as I have a picture I will send it to you good folk to tell me what this stuff is. It grows at maturity (when I go on vacation for one week!) to about 16 inches tall, has a single stem with notched broad leaves and tiny daisy-like flowers all over it which go to seed from one eye blinkl to the next.

Other than that....I have purslane that tends to invade when the heat hits....but I have learned to weed that out and nibble on it for the phytonutrients.

HM

I have a link ... http://ohioline.osu.edu/b866/b866_4.html ... for the ox-eye daisy. Perhaps this is the one. I know what aggravation the daisy can cause. This one is called "a noxious weed" in Ohio. Just regular daisies seeded themselves all over a big flowerbed, and SOME YEARS later, I am finally rid of them. It was horrible.

Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~