• Home
  • General Gardening
    • Flowers
    • Fruits & Vegetables
    • Garden Diseases
    • Garden Pests
    • Gardening 101
    • Specialty Gardening
    • Soil & Composting
    • Product Reviews
    • Landscaping
    • Trees & Shrubs
  • Growing Vegetables
    • Tomatoes
    • Fruits By Name
    • Vegetables By Name A-M
    • Vegetables by Name N-Z
  • Nutrition

Gardening Channel

Advice and Tips on How to Garden

You are here: Home / General Gardening / Garden Pests / 6 Most Common Weeds and How to Deal with Them

6 Most Common Weeds and How to Deal with Them

1 Comment

While one gardener’s weed is another’s pretty green thing, most everyone will agree that uninvited plants simply get in the way of what we want to grow. Here are profiles of six of the most common annoying weeds to help you identify and get rid of them.

Dandelion

Taraxacum Officinale

  • Perennial
  • Spreads by seeds
  • Height to 1 foot
  • Found in the U.S. (not southernmost TX, CA, AZ, and FL) and southern Canada
  • can flower at any time when temperatures permit.

Dig out the entire taproot, hoe plants before they flower, and spread corn gluten in early spring to suppress seedlings.

Dandelion - Taraxacum Officinale

Annual Sow-Thistle

Sonchus Oleraceus

  • Perennial
  • spreads by seeds
  • height to 18 inches
  • found across the U.S. and southern Canada, mostly in lawns
  • flowers July through October

Dig out entire root, or cut at soil line until root stops sprouting. Aerate and add organic matter to lawn. This weed tolerates compacted soil and shade.

Annual Sow-Thistle - Sonchus Oleraceus

Carpetweed

Mollugo Verticillata

  • Annual
  • spreads by seeds
  • stems grow to 1 foot
  • found across the U.S., except for ND and parts of MT and MN
  • flowers June through November

Hoe or pull plants when they appear. Mulch deeply to smother any seedlings.

Carpetweed - Mollugo Verticillata

Large Crabgrass

Digitaria Sanguinalis

  • Annual
  • spreads by seeds/roots at leaf joints
  • height to 3 feet
  • found across the U.S., except ND and parts of SD, MT, and MN
  • flowers June through October

Pull out entire plant, including roots. Mulch or let grass grow to 3 to 4 inches high to prevent seed germination. Mowing will not kill this plant. Spread corn gluten in early spring to suppress seedlings.

Large Crabgrass - Digitaria Sanguinalis

Poison Ivy

Rhus Radicans

  • Perennial
  • spreads by creeping rootstock
  • found across U.S. (not AK or CA) and southern Canada, as vine or shrub
  • flowers in May and June

Entire plant is toxic. Wear protective gloves and clothing. Cut plant at base, let it dry out, and bury or put vines in trash. Do not compost or burn (inhaling smoke can be fatal). Mulch with cardboard.

Poison Ivy - Rhus Radicans

Prickly Lettuce

Lactuca Serriola

  • Annual/biennial
  • spreads by seeds
  • height to 5 feet
  • found across the U.S. except for southernmost FL
  • flowers July through September

Hoe or pull plants as you see them, or cut taproot below soil line. Wear gloves. Attracts beneficial insects and so may be fine for outlying areas, but can play host to lettuce diseases.

Prickly Lettuce - Lactuca Serriola

Related

Filed Under: Garden Pests

Comments

  1. Karen Wright says

    April 11, 2021 at 6:14 pm

    How do you get rid of sand spurs. They came in about 2 years ago and weed and feed does not kill them, pulling them does not get rid of them. So I am at a lost.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join 1.5 million Facebook Followers!

Join 1.5 million Facebook Followers!
Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

Our gardening obsessed editors and writers choose every product we review. We may earn an affiliate commission if you buy from one of our product links, at no extra cost to you.

Gardening Channel. Copyright © 2025. All Rights Reserved.

 

Loading Comments...