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Early Weeds

© Marge Talt

Part of gardening is dealing with "weeds". A weed, by definition, is "a plant growing where it is not wanted". This can include any plant. Rare treasures to some are obnoxious to others.

Nonetheless, there are certain plants that few want to have in their gardens. These differ with locale and whether your garden is sunny or shady. The ones in my garden can be totally different from the ones in yours. Plants that I consider true weeds are those who have to be fought year after year because their methods of propagation are so successful that they can take over a garden and you can never be entirely rid of them.

In my USDA zone 7 Maryland garden, I consider some of these bad guys "early" or cool season weeds and some as late or warm season weeds. The early weeds either germinate or start growth in fall and keep it up during mild spells in winter or show up in very early spring, do their dirty work (set copious seed) and die down or simply look ratty by summer.

Wild Onion or Garlic

If you garden on this planet, you probably recognize this fellow. It is actually with us all year around, but I mentally class it as early, since very early spring is the best time to pull them with any success.

If the ground is soft and damp, a yank will often remove an entire clump, along with the surrounding soil. I discard the entire thing in the trash. If I have time, I will investigate the resulting hole and remove additional soil that appears infested. This is the only way I've found to really get rid of this pest.

This "technique" only works in early spring. By May, it's too late, as the ground starts to dry out and the clumps dig their roots in so that they will not come out with a tug.

You never want to add these plants to your compost heap, since they will simply return to haunt you. If your compost heats up incredibly well, it might kill the bulbs, but it's not worth taking the chance. Like most bulbs, these will regenerate from bits, if the bits contain any sections of basal plate (the area at the bottom of the bulb attached to the roots).

I always think of these as "wild onions", but pinning down a correct name isn't easy. After much research, I think what I have is Allium vineale, which is called, variously, onion grass, wild onion, wild garlic, field garlic, crow garlic, and likely several other names.

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