Weeds - Part 3: Common Burdock

Some thoughts on weeds at Common Ground Community Garden, Greenwood Lake

Sona Mason - September 2023

We have a lot of these deep tap-rooted garden thugs. As with all weeds, Common Burdock starts off small and innocent-looking, complete with slightly fuzzy leaves shaped like puppy-dog ears. And then they grow. And grow some more. Until they're the size of hog ears. Adult hog ears, all joined by soft flat stalks to the same point in the ground. And then they produce a flower stalk, with prickly pom-pom-like flowers. When dry, those pompoms put velcro to shame. In fact, the story goes they are the inspiration for velcro, with their slightly hooked tips as Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral discovered while walking his dog discovered. He was impressed how tightly they stuck to all sorts of material, including hair.

The trouble with tap roots, as anyone has found when trying to extricate dandelions, is they grow bigger and longer every season, and cement themselves firmly into the ground, so that removal becomes an excavation.

Weeds also like to break off parts of themselves underground when pulled, leaving a legacy behind, from which to regenerate. So you want to get it all out. The trick is to get them when they're small. And after a rainfall, when the soil is soft.

Just like that old proverb about " a stitch in time saves nine" (more stitches in your fast-unraveling hem, that is), picking off weeds when they're small saves so much more time and effort. Not to mention clenched teeth.