How to get rid of sow thistle in the garden: several effective ways

Sow thistle is one of the brightest representatives of the family Asteraceae. In nature, there are more than 70 species, most of which are annual or perennial herbaceous plants, sometimes growing thinner at the base. The most common varieties of sow thistle are garden sow thistle and field sow thistle, which although they have certain healing properties and are sometimes used in cooking, are most often perceived as weeds. How to get rid of sow thistle in a garden or infield once and for all? Many people ask this question, but it is almost impossible to completely eradicate this weed. But at the same time, there are several very effective ways to deal with it.

To understand how to get rid of sow thistle in the garden, using this method, you need to know that in spring the rapid vegetation of young plants occurs mainly due to the nutrients accumulated in the root system for the previous season. And only when the aboveground shoots grow properly, they will begin to store nutrient material in the roots. Thus, in the first two weeks of active growth of a new generation of sow thistle, the root system is significantly depleted, so if thorough weeding is carried out at this time, destroying all young shoots, it can be achieved that sow thistle will again restore the aerial part again at the expense of the roots. We do such weeding every 2 weeks - and as a result we completely deplete the annoying weed.

Method number 2: get rid of rhizomes

Another effective method regarding how to remove sow thistles from the garden is to dig a site with the most thorough selection of weed rhizomes. In spring, the remaining plants can be easily uprooted while the earth is still damp and loose. Of course, this does not give an absolute guarantee of the disappearance of sow thistle in your area, but it will significantly reduce its quantity.

Method number 3: the fight against sow thistle in the garden by the method of landless tillage

Subsurface cultivation is a technology in which in the fall the soil on the site is not dug. Thus, sow thistle seeds remain on the surface of the earth, and, sprouted in the same season or early spring, are destroyed by frost and the first spring tillage. If in the autumn, a plot is opened or dug up, then the weed seeds will spread throughout the entire arable layer, partially germinate, and the rest will lurk in the depths of the soil, waiting for more favorable conditions for growth and development. It should be noted that the germination of seeds of sow thistle persists for up to 20 years.

Method number 4: seeding siderates

How to get rid of sow thistle in the garden with the help of legumes familiar to everyone? It is very simple: in the spring on a plot overgrown with weeds, you can sow peas or other siderata crops. When the pea crop is harvested, its lashes along with the shoots of sow thistle bend to the ground as densely as possible and cover it all with several layers of newspapers. All kinds of plant debris and trash can be thrown over newspapers. Under such a “blanket,” siderats, along with sow thistle, will rot very quickly, leaving the area completely clean.

Here are some popular ways to get rid of thistle in the garden. In fact, there are a lot of them. Summer residents and rural residents act, as they say, who is what they are, experimenting from season to season on their sites. After all, what can’t you do to get rid of annoying weeds and enjoy the look of clean neat beds!