Weeds are notoriously invasive plants that take up space and important minerals from your garden. With their highly adaptive features, weeds can thrive in diverse environments which makes them quite difficult to control. Luckily, you can find the best treatment for removal by correctly identifying the specific weed you’re dealing with.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how to distinguish the most common garden weeds in the UK based on each species’ prominent characteristics. Keep reading to learn more about how you can easily manage weed growth and maintain a healthy, thriving garden!
Where Do Weeds Come From?
Generally, weeds come from foreign seeds that have been transported to an area. Environmental factors like the wind or rain produce currents that cause various seeds to move from one space to another. Alternatively, some birds eat foods that contain seeds which their bodies don’t digest. These undigested seeds are expelled in their droppings and scattered in many locations.
How Do Weeds Grow In Gardens?
Weeds are often regarded as ‘opportunistic plants’ since they can grow wherever there is available space and fertile soil. When exposed to an environment that allows their seeds to germinate, weeds thrive and produce new offspring. Over time, these weeds will spread out further and take up more of the essential nutrients in the soil that the garden plants need to stay healthy.
Annual Weeds vs Perennial Weeds
Perennial and annual weeds differ in their life cycle length and means of surviving on a particular landscape. Annual weeds have a one-year life cycle and produce thousands of seeds to form new generations of their species. On the other hand, perennial weeds will persist for years and develop deep root systems that extend throughout any available space.
Perennial weeds tend to be harder to control since their strong roots prevent them from being pulled out easily. Additionally, the shoots along its modified stems or roots give rise to new plants that produce seeds for germination. It’s important to remove all remnants of this type of weed since the species can regenerate from even a tiny piece of root left behind.
Recognizing Common Garden Weeds In the UK
Spotting the weeds in your garden can be quite overwhelming. To help you identify the different types, we’ve listed the characteristics of the most common weeds you may find and how they may affect your garden.
1. Broad-Leaved Dock
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Large green leaves with netted veins, jagged edges around the leaf blade, large yellow-orange taproot system.
The broad-leaved dock is highly adaptive to extreme environments and tends to take nutrients from neighbouring plants with its large root system. These weeds also produce an abundant number of reddish-brown seeds that can germinate even years later, making them hard to get rid of.
2. Common Chickweed
Weed Type: Annual weed
Characteristics: Small, fuzzy egg-shaped leaves, pointed tips, opposite leaf arrangement, low-growing plant, doesn’t exceed 2 inches in height, can grow tiny white flowers.
This common weed is an herb that tends to grow in cooler environments of 35-75 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s considered a prolific producer of seed since a single plant can yield around 2,500 seeds. Moreover, the weed seeds retain their ability to sprout even 20 years later once the conditions are favourable for germination.
3. Couch Grass
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Narrow, blue-green leaves, typically has little to no hairs, parallel veins, forms a thick mat of grass, no flowers.
Couch grass is one of the most difficult common lawn weeds to get rid of since it grows underneath the soil through a modified stem called a rhizome. This stem can potentially produce a new plant in every node which will take up more space and sap essential nutrients from neighbouring plants in the garden.
4. Creeping Buttercup
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Bright yellow flowers, low-growing plant, dark green leaves with tiny hairs, lobed leaf blades, a fibrous root system.
The creeping buttercup is another fast-growing weed that spreads offspring through its stolon. They’re typically found in damp environments since they thrive in wet soil. If left untreated in your garden, the creeping buttercup can branch out up to more than 40 square feet of space every year.
5. Dandelion
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Yellow and round flower heads, deep taproot, white fluffy seeds.
Although the dandelion is considered a beautiful flower, homeowners usually remove them from gardens since they extract essential nutrients that their surrounding plants need. Complete removal can be quite tricky because their seeds are very light and give them the capacity to distribute through the wind at a distance of 100 kilometers.
6. Field Bindweed
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Small white flowers, arrowhead-shaped leaves.
Field Bindweeds possess a deep root system that allows them to extensively spread out in a landscape and take minerals from neighbouring plants. Although their lateral roots are shallow, they rapidly grow horizontally and receive additional structural support from their taproot which is deeply embedded in the soil. Field bindweed can also cling onto surrounding structures or plants, making it one of the most difficult weeds to control.
7. Ground Elder
Weed Type: Perennial weeds
Characteristics: Small white flowers, ovate-shaped leaves, netted veins, variegated, two to three lower leaves, toothed leaf blades, 50-100 cm in height.
This type of weed is best to catch in its early developmental stages since it can quickly dominate the space in a garden. With rhizomes branching out horizontally, ground elder weeds introduce foreign and potentially harmful substances from one landscape to another.
8. Hairy Bittercress
Weed Type: Annual weed
Characteristics: Basal rosette and alternate leaf arrangement, small white flowers, taproot system.
With its ability to produce around 5,000 seeds with no dormancy, the hairy bittercress can easily divide and overwhelm any garden. It only takes 5-6 weeks for seedlings to germinate and reach maturity, making this plant species quite difficult to remove.
9. Hedge Bindweed
Weed Type: Perennial weeds
Characteristics: White flowers, funnel-like petal arrangement, somewhat hairy leaves, netted veins, arrowhead-shaped leaves that are alternately arranged, pointed apex, rounded or lobed base.
Hedge bindweed stunts the growth of neighbouring plants since it secretes allelochemicals which hinder or slow down the rate of photosynthesis. With fewer plants taking in resources, the hedge bindweed increases its chances of survival in the garden.
10. Mares Tail (Horseweed)
Weed Type: Annual weed with some perennial qualities
Characteristics: Tall and narrow stems, basal rosette structure, forms pale pink flowers or bright yellow flowers, toothed blades with tiny hairs.
Active in the latter half of summer and springtime, this common weed grows into a large plant with roots that travel as deep as 7 feet into the soil. These weeds are also highly adaptive to varying types of soil conditions and can produce more than 200,000 seeds in one life cycle.
11. Oxalis
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Clover-like leaves, arrow-shaped leaflets, yellow flowers, palmate compound leaves.
This low-growing herbaceous plant can quickly spread throughout a garden by producing new plants in the nodes of its rhizome. Although considered invasive, the removal of oxalis is fairly simple and involves destroying its bulb which is the organ that gives rise to new offspring.
12. Ribwort Plantain
Weed Type: Perennial weed
Characteristics: Long and narrow leaves, basal rosette structure, white or yellow flowers, parallel venation, spiked tips hold the flowers.
Ribwort plantain is likely to be found in the sunnier areas of the garden due to their preference for direct sunlight. They’re able to tolerate dry, compact soil for extended periods and can reproduce if all its roots aren’t properly removed.
The Benefits Of Pulling Weeds Out Of Your Garden
Weeds introduce a host of problems since they can seriously hinder the growth of the plants in your garden. This is why most horticulturists recommend pulling out these opportunistic plants as frequently as possible. Here are the benefits your garden receives from weed-free space:
- It boosts pollination. Removing weeds makes it easier for plants to attract pollinators that help them produce seedlings. No pollination means no reproduction which decreases the chances of a plant species surviving.
- The soil retains more nutrients. Weeds tend to take up the soil, water, and nutrients that would otherwise benefit the plants you’re growing. The absence of weeds gives garden plants a better chance of meeting their needs and staying healthy.
- It makes garden care and maintenance more manageable. Overcrowding is common in gardens that are abundant in weeds. This makes it easier for pests to hide and spread diseases unnoticed which could kill plants. The removal of weeds allows gardeners to check soil conditions and maintain an optimal environment for garden plants to thrive in.
- It creates more space for growth. An invasive weed has a root system that branches out in great distances which can interfere with the root system of a garden plant. Plants are generally restricted by the space they’re given to grow and without weeds in the area, they’re able to do so without stress.
How Often Should You Remove Weeds?
Most professional gardeners suggest removing weeds at least once a week for maintenance. However, it’s a good idea to monitor your garden daily to check for pests and other environmental problems. Setting aside 10-20 minutes every day helps you detect potential weed growths to prevent them from spreading.
Additionally, the best time to remove weeds is either in the morning or after it rains. At night, condensation forms dew in plants, and these droplets remain on the surface of leaves until the sun induces evaporation. As a result, the soil is most likely to be damp and less compact early in the morning which makes weed removal less taxing.
Tips For Weed Control
Encountering a weed problem in your garden can be intimidating, especially for novice gardeners. To provide you with more helpful information, here are some tips on weed control and garden maintenance.
1. Remove The Seedlings
Both annual and perennial weeds produce tons of seeds that have the potential to germinate even several years later. It may be best to remove as many seedlings as possible first before focusing on getting rid of the weed itself.
2. Get To The Root Of The Problem, Literally.
Removing the roots of perennial weeds is essential in preventing regeneration. Using the pinch and pull method is an effective way to take out as much of the root as you can. Even if a small portion is left buried deep in the soil, it won’t have access to sunlight and will eventually die.
3. Use Fertilizer
After spraying herbicide on weeds, wait one week before fertilizing. Generally, gardens should be fertilized 3-4 times a year to flourish and maintain healthy soil.
4. Mow The Lawn
Mowing inhibits weeds from blooming and producing seeds by removing their flower heads. Ideally, you’ll want to cut the grass down to 1.5-3 inches tall depending on the type of grass you have. Consider investing in a high-quality lawnmower to get the job done efficiently.
No Need For Weeds
A little research can go a long way in finding the best strategies for proper maintenance and control. By identifying the different types of weeds in your garden, you can prevent further growth before weed plants establish themselves in the soil. To learn more about reducing plant stress in your garden, stay tuned for more hot tips! Also check out our guide on child and pet friendly weed killers to use here.
