Common Weeds in the Yard

Weeds, we all get em in our gardens but these 3

are some of the bigger pains.

One has edible berries and thorns, one has burrs and one of

them not only stinks it has poisonous berries.

Bittersweet Nightshade
Pretty flowers, pretty red berries, spreading vine, stinky plant

and poisonous. No matter where in the country I've lived,
(except for Alaska) I've encountered this weed.
It stinks when you pull it out so you know

you've touched it. Too bad the flowers are so pretty.

Do the flowers remind you of something - they should

they are quite similar to the potato flower because

they are in the same family - Solanaceae.

This little bugger galium aparine or burr weed is a major pain in my

yard. I have little dogs and they love the area this grows in and

the burrs love them!!!! Of course they love them, gets all in their

hair - my dogs have no fur on their bodies instead

 human-like hair on their heads and burrs stick to it wonderfully!!!
The dogs if you are wondering are Chinese Crested and Xolo.

Back to this weed, it is edible before seed set - I've not eaten

it but I'm going to try that this spring since it grows well in our yard.

Himalayan blackberry.
Beautiful, delicious blackberries are attached to a bramble that is covered

in thorns and tries hard to take over my world.

This area along the fence is where all 3 of these weeds grow together

but is mostly under control. We've been cutting them back and 

smothering them with everything from the yard - weeds, cuttings,

trimmings, Christmas trees - this is becoming our version of 

a hugelkultur bed. A hugelkultur bed turns your yard debris

into a mound that you cover with soil and then plant on
 with say fruit trees. If you go to the link you can

read all about it in better detail.

The weeds, how do we get rid of them?
The old fashioned way, we hand pull them.