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BiffStroganoffsky wrote:

I find I can kill most 'weeds' in my yard by peeing on it. Unfortunately, I don't have enough beer for the three acres.

Perhaps you can turn your hobby into a business opportunity in yard care

dmjifn wrote:

Huh. I've always mistakenly referred to these as nettles. Actually, I see one of the wikipedia pictures for Bull Thistle is named Nettle.jpg.

I get these (or something very similar) in my yard in Indiana a couple times a year. While spot treating with Round Up is often an ugly affair, for this plant I gladly make an exception. I've never noticed the same plant come back.
If it's already 2' tall, though, cut/mow it first and get it on the rebound. A full 2' plant is too large to cover in a controlled manner.

I'm in Indiana, too, and have always known thistles as thistles. Nettles are a helluva lot more annoying in my experience, especially if there's a big tall stand of them (they're edible!). Thistles aren't so bad. It's easy enough to handle even big ones with a spade (provided you're dressed appropriately). Just push them over with a foot and run the spade through the root from 3-6 inches off center and pull it out. Obviously, if it's gone to seed you're already up a creek for that year. If you have to be dainty about things because it's in a lawn, then my advice is to stop having a lawn.

UberGerbil wrote:

BiffStroganoffsky wrote:

I find I can kill most 'weeds' in my yard by peeing on it. Unfortunately, I don't have enough beer for the three acres.

Perhaps you can turn your hobby into a business opportunity in yard care

Sweet...I can officially drink on the job. Of course, my aim tends to suffer later in the day so there might be some collateral damage to the yard.

I have this stuff in my back garden, and it's completely annoying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddleja

It grows at a ridiculous rate, you can cut it down to the ground in the winter, and it's like 10 feet high again the next summer. It also loves to get into brickwork and pull apart walls. I guess I need to get in there and dig out the roots, but I honestly don't really care for gardening, nor sitting out in my garden. It doesn't get much sun anyway.

We have two that drive me nuts: Black Swallow-wart and Garlic Mustard. The first is a real problem as it takes over, and once it does, there is not getting rid of it within reason. Have to always stay on top of it, dig it out and burn it. Garlic mustard is just plain everywhere now. Useless to tackle and ugly. Even the deer detest both of them.

The thistle, I let them grow as they are natives. The goldfinches love the seeds and are fun to watch dangling on the seed heads. I have two that have to go though, up around 6 feet high now, and getting in the way of the view out the window.

How to get rid of them? If you know anyone who has hypodermic needles, load one up with a little straight-up Roundup concentrate and give the plant a little drug trip. Only a few drops will do, but for speedier death inject right at the base of the plant. Once the plant is dry, the plant will crumble when stomped upon, then you can remove the stems.

liquidsquid wrote:

How to get rid of them? If you know anyone who has hypodermic needles, load one up with a little straight-up Roundup concentrate and give the plant a little drug trip.

Most rural farm stores sell syringes for livestock purposes.

So to dig this back up, I weeded some back gardens which meant I needed to tangle with the Bull Thistle's back there. 6' tall and bushy and frankly mean looking. Anyhow I threw on my fall Carheart and my insulated leather winter work gloves, saddled up along side it, grabbed it firmly near the base after soaking the ground around it, and pulled. It all came up with a surprisingly small root system for such a large plant. I then laid it in the pile of other weeds and used my large mower to grind it all to pulp.