How To Get Rid of Invasive Plants

Happy October from Desert Rose! In this month's blog, we will review some tips on how to get rid of invasive plants that may be taking over your yard. While it can be easy to ignore these plants, they can quickly become a nuisance and be difficult to remove. If you have been neglecting the following plants this season, it is important that you work quickly now to prevent headaches for next year.

Although Morning Glories can be beautiful when they are in the right location, they often end up climbing over and in between plants. It is important to pull them if they are in a location you don’t want them to be, but more importantly, you need to remove the seed sacs as soon as you spot them. If you do not want Morning Glories to reseed and spread, the seed sacs need to be managed. However, you can always collect the seeds and plant them wherever you desire.

The next plant that can be a huge headache is a Bindweed. These tricky perennial vines will grow back wherever their rhizomes are present. This means that even if you pull them out as best you can, they will most likely grow again in the same area. In addition to their problematic root system, they also reproduce via seeds. Even though it may seem like a losing battle, make sure you stay on top of these invasive plants.

Lastly is everyone's favorite in New Mexico, Goatheads. The spike-covered "fruit" of this plant manages to not only get everywhere (including dog fur), but they are very painful when you manage to accidentally step on one that found its way into your home. The "fruit" contains a very fertile, hardy seed that rapidly multiplies the number of goatheads the following year. It is very important to pull the plant out before the flowers start to transform into the "fruit". Desert Rose Pro Tip: if you have a ton of Goatheads the easiest way to get rid of them is to walk around their concentrated area in a pair of soft foamy shoes such as Crocs®. Once the bottom of the shoes are full, sit down and pick out the goat heads. Throw them in a paper bag and dispose of them in the trash. Keep doing this until you cannot pick up any more Goatheads on your shoes.

Desert Rose hopes this blog will help you get rid of some of these invasive plants that can be extremely problematic on your property!