sticky weed

hi
anyone out there know of an easy way to get rid of sticky weed/goose grass? spikey stuff that sticks to clothes and takes over your garden!!!!
cheers

 

Wish I did - never seen so much of it before this year - funny how weeds seem to go in seasons!

I just pull the stuff up and make sure I get it all from the root. A mulch helps.

 

just keep pulling it out..before it strangles everything.. The best thing to do is look at it as a very usefull wildflower/herb...you can make tea with it 1oz cleavers to 1 pint of boiling water ..it is excellent for skin disorders..and the leaves and stems used to be used as a poultice for ulcers..you can make a face wash which is excellent for sunburn and freckles!!apply to your face with a sponge..it can also be made into an ointment for scalds and burns..and it was said that it was a remarkable cure for snake and spider bites..they used to eat cleavers with mutton and oatmeal!!you can use the roots to dye things red also...see what a usefull plant it is..as an afterthought i am over run with it this year also..

 

can you compost sticky weed???

 

I compost mine - its only soft stuff and rots down well.

 

When we were kids out on a walk, my dad used to get bundles of it and throw it at me & my brother, hilarious! Lol!! ;D

 

I have loads of it at the moment too. My daughter (19 months) has just found it and thinks it is great to stick it on me.
Problem is she thinks if it was funny once it will still be as funny the nudredth time :rolleyes:

 

...and it will.. I still think it's funny to stick on people 30-odd years later! *snigger* ;D

 

Call me stuffy but I wouldn't stick it on others or on the compost once it's set seed just cos its such a pain to get rid of. Waco's composting it might explain her unfortunate infestation. Strangely I get some pleasure from weeding it as such large amounts come from such feeble roots.

The trick is to get right down to where it is coming out of the ground, below the basal branching point, and pull from there. If it snaps here it doesn't regrow as it has no buds, and usually the roots come out anyway.If you pull it out higher up then it snaps above the basal branches and regrows.

Another point is that the seedlings sprout in the autumn, once the late summer rains have arrived, so conscientous hoeing at this time will save hours of backbreaking work later. That is not to say that they don't sprout in the spring as well, just that nobody has the time to deal with it then!

 

Goosegrass or cleavers is a valuable plant to the herbalist as Wildflower has already pointed out. It is really easy to pull up when it is scrambling around and yes - as it is full of minerals, it will make valuable compost. However - compost it BEFORE it sets seeds. That is true for all plants that you want to put in the compost bin. It is a myth that heat generated by the decomposing vegetation will kill weed seeds - it won't! Blackberry seeds have germinated after having been boiled for jam making!