The bane of my life in the garden now

[Catname]

Sycamore seedlings. Thousands of them!

I’ve only tackled the ones in the flowerbeds but I’ve pulled out loads, and then I go back the next day and there are more, and more, and more. They are quite easy to pull out when it’s just the seed leaves but once they develop the first proper leaf, they get such a hold, and I’m doing it by hand as I want to see which of my lovely plants has self seeded (as I cannot grow anything from seed myself it would seem). I’m concerned that the ones in the lawn will get a good hold before it’s dry enough to cut the grass and then I’ll have a forest 🥴

Does anyone else have a plant they despise as much as I do sycamores?

I lived in this house for 3 years before noticing the huge number of seedlings. I don’t think last year was as bad as this, but the year before was just horrendous. I’m not sure if they are more prone to germinate in certain growing conditions (wet and broadly mild - or maybe a cold snap at a particular point???).

Personally, I’d pull up your seedling now. We have at least 6 20-30ft sycamores that probably all started from the one at the bottom of the garden. They are triffids! And we must be feeding our squirrels too much of the good stuff as I’ve never seen them eat a sycamore seed.

However, I wonder if, since Sycamores and Maples are from the Acer family, I could live in hope of my Japanese Acers self seeding…. 😊

Bindweed. House behind dug up their garden and appear to have unleashed the bindweed beast.

Me too with added bamboo to complete the hat trick.

Apart from the bamboo which I inherited with the garden, the other two are from neighbouring gardens whose owners don't garden - at all!!

I have steam coming out of my ears at times trying to deal with bastard stuff! 😡

Useless non-borage (alkanet)

Dug so much out last year, still teeming back

Thank you
I am bracing to do this over the weekend, dig out as many bulbs as possible, cover with cardboard and soil for a no dig approach
Hopefully what I have on top will also suppress the wild garlic - it’s rampant ( moved to this garden so not because I let it go 😂)

Lesser celandine which is like a blanket! At least it dies back of its own accord each year.

You could hoe them. Should work fine if they've only got seed leaves.

Pumpkin seedlings coming up all over the front garden. Entirely my fault, I put the Halloween pumpkins out to rot down last November.

Sycamore tree prisoner here too OP, and am constantly clearing out seedlings and bushels of seeds.
Ours is now around 75-80 ft and thank fully is right at the bottom of the garden.
Even though it hassles me, it also gives beautiful cool shade in the summer, and brings in joyful sounds from the songbirds.

So I can live with that.

That would require getting a hoe.
We are very newbie gardeners
I'll see if we can borrow a neighbors.
Job for the weekend I think.

I don't want to boast but I don't have any bad weeds or invasive plants.

Instead the bane of my life are fauna- squirrels which dig up most things, but also wood pigeons which shit everywhere. Literally. You can't go in the back garden without 'outside shoes' as you WILL tread in it, no matter how careful you think you're being.

We have about an acre of wild garlic. It goes absolutely nuts here. You can't walk down the path without coming back smelling like a Frenchman's underpants!

Bloody bloody creeping buttercup in my lawn. Horrible stuff, so hard to get rid of.

Yep. My detestation of these bastards runs to a whole new level of hatred. Almost to the point that I regret buying this house.

we have a big garden and we have…

wild garlic
forget me nots at an uncontrollable level
celandine
creeping buttercup
willow bay herb
the reappearing remains of a bamboo from next door
mice
2 wild ducks
a plague of squirrels

but NOTHING is as bad as evil weevil.

Yes sycamore seedlings worse than ever this year. Vaguely satisfying pulling them out of beds, but it's like painting the forth road bridge...

Same here I hate this stuff with a passion. I nearly got it all during covid lockdown but the bastard stuff hides I swear. I can see it in the neighbours garden too.

Thistle seedlings. All over the garden. I showed some once for the goldfinches, which loved them, but they spread their seeds all over the place with their dandelion type clocks. They have spikes on their leaves even at such a small size too ☹️

I've had bindweed and dandelion, but now I have wallflowers, which I'm finding are rampant spreaders. Two small plants 3 years ago, 9ft long display this year.

Oh, I'd forgotten about the creeping buttercup when I said I had no awful invasive plants.

Well, that's because I have submitted to its will. It OWNS my back lawn now. It has won.

My full sun front lawn is oddly, 98% moss. And it is delightfully springy.

I discovered a sycamore tree growing on my car roof the other day. They’ve gone bonkers this year

Bamboo🫣

the only way to control it is by cutting down each cane and injecting or painting Round up onto the stump straight away. If you wait for 20 seconds it will seal and won’t penetrate.

we used to do this in new canes as soon as they appeared, DH cut and I painted. It was a slog but we kept it within bounds and even reduced it. It really shouldn’t be sold , it’s a menacé ( unless you are a panda, I suppose ).

You have a more forgiving nature than me LittleHare. Our biggest sycamore is also at the bottom of the garden and blocks out most of the sun to the garden from September to March, even with no leaves. It is a roost for mostly wood pigeons but I have planted a Silver Birch in front of it which will hopefully perform the same function when it has grown sufficiently - and that will allow me to feel no guilt when I either pollard the Sycamore or turn it into a totem pole. The birds have several other trees and big hedges to use too.

This made me laugh 😂 I imagine I being said by the Elizabethan Blackadder.

Sycamore seedlings? Pah!

You lot don't know the meaning of pain until you've had to unravel a monster Russian vine out of a 12ft pyracantha bush and a large holly.

Same here! The smell when I pull them up makes me heave! Fiends say they are envious and would love some but don’t come round to dig some up! They are in a flower bed and in the lawn near by and are spreading further each year.