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What is this please?

Hello everyone,

Could someone identify this for me?

Is it weed? Or is it not? Is it friend, or foe? It grows fairly rampantly and seems fairly rough to get rid of and insists on growing in the shingle border around my house right where I don't want it. If it's not too beastly, could I put it down somewhere else?

Bit tricky with the sun and then shade today but hopefully the pictures are clear enough.

Thank you, Heather

 

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Posts

  • LucyLLucyL Posts: 163

    Don't know what it is called but my gran gets that plant, i've always regarded it as a weed, it too liked to grow in the gravel. But it does have alot of nice little white flowers on it image 

    It also depends on what you call a 'weed' a weed to one person is a flower to the next image

    It can be planted somewhere else i think n' shouldn't take over. But i could be wrong, an expert on here will put you on the right track image

  • Thanks Lucy, I do have somewhere I can put it thankfully, if it turns out not to be too much of a monster, in this case I don't mind if it's a bit rampant but would like to know that it's not going to poison soil etc, if that's the case I'll just keep pulling it out from where I don't want it and disposing of it! Agreed re weeds though, one persons weed, another persons beauty!

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Heather, that is hairy bittercress and a real nuisance.  It is just about the fastest known plant from germination to seeding and, worse, the seeds fly off a long way when they are ripe!  You need to keep pulling it up before it goes to seed but you will be plagued with it forever once you have it, unfortunately!

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • LucyLLucyL Posts: 163

    I just realised i have some of these in my pots image but i'm happy with it, mine certainly arn't near the size of yours though heather image

  • Mark 499Mark 499 Posts: 380

    I went around the garden last week pulling up every one I could find before they set seed.

  • OK BobTheGardener, thank you. I did have an inkling it might be that. Same old routine then, pulling it up as soon as I see it and just keep going! If only there weren't so much of it, some of it flowers before I can even get that far! If it were growing somewhere else I'd probably leave it, but I just can't leave it to grow there it looks a fright!

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    As it is on gravel, it might be worth using a flame gun - that would kill 'em and zap any seeds, too, so you'd be rid of it for much longer.  They cost about £25 on amazon and come with 4 cans of gas.  Cost for hiring one is about the same for a day, but the pro ones are a lot more powerful and better for large areas.

     

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • janebaljanebal Posts: 130

    I use glyphosate on this - it is all over my gravel paths and in the lawn. Every day I go out and pull up any odd bits I see in pots.  I am gradually getting on top of it but once those pods are allowed to develop (they come very soon after the white flowers) the seeds go everywhere and hundreds more develop.

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