no kidding cara ... stay at home dad here ... i trained my kids.. by handing them a baggie of snacks as i kicked their butts out the door.. and told them that ONLY daddy gives them food to eat .... and as the years rolled by .. i got rid of the attractive nuisances [and that is the key here with the pretty berries] ... and taught them which ones they could eat ... e.g. mulberry.. raspberry strawberry ... etc ... got to the point.. they would find things.. and ask.. and we would go explore.. and i would rip out the bad ones.. its not unlike the peeps who have dog problems.. and it takes all i have.. to not yell .. TRAIN THE DOG ... lol ... ken

I figured they had to be weeds since they grew so quickly. Why can't our good plants grow that quick? GL-GL and Kylie, you read my mind. I so much want to clear that corner out and start over with different plants and brugs would dif. be included along with some hostas. :) Patricia, thanks for the info., I will try to find the 2-4D or something similar and try to get rid of these tree weeds. I have a feed store and a Tractor Supply right down the road so I will check those out. Kristy, My plant bed is also over 20 years old. I too make my hubby wade through the sea of jasmine to cut those darn trees out. I've seen too many snakes in there. Yikes! :O And yes I also have that vine with the killer thorns. What is up with those? They seem to grown where there is an everygreen tree. They are a booger to get out of the trees and gloves are no match for those thorns. Ouch! I have noticed that I now have a canopy of that vine in this same bed and it is growning over a boxwood shrub and attaching itself to the brick of the house. Good grief :( Lets see, what is growing in there....Starting at the drive way and going toward the front door, there is a Nadina, mock orange, a holly with the red berries (I call it a Christmas holly), a dwarf youpon holly, a boxwood holly, and a tea rose bush with a sea of jasmine engulfing everything. The more I trim that jasmine the more quickly it spreads. It's even growing under the sidewalk and invading the other side of the front yard. Oh and yes GL-GL, there is a huge evergreen tree in there also. Don't know what kind it is, I call all tree with needles a pine tree, but my hubby always corrects me saying it's not a pine tree. The previous owner spent $$ for a landscaper to design and plant the shrubs and trees. What idiot would plant trees so close to a house is beyond me, but they have been there over 20 years and haven't damaged anything. There was also a plum tree in there but we cut that out a couple of years after we moved here. The only thing this bed has going for it is I never have to water. Well ladies thanks again for the stories and the information. Deb

Sorry. This will be a long one. It always is with me. (blushing) I'm with the OP on this one. Even if no one but me ever saw my lawn, I would want it to be dark, rich green GRASS...and nothing else. (I'm known for wanting everything to be beautiful. I'm also a bit of a home body, and enjoy spending time in my yard. Many guests have remarked that, no matter where they look (on my property), there's always something beautiful. I'm always taken aback by those comments, since while that was MY goal, I never expected others to pick up on it.) Case in point about the intentional act of putting down grass, and not other (lower maintenance) plants. I own a small, remote island. I made the decision to create a lawn area and, once you include the slow-moving barge fees (3 days to get from its port to the island), labour, equipment, and materials, that lawn cost me $14,000. That obviously begs the question, why, on earth, would anyone spend a nickel putting in expensive, high-maintenance grass, only to let it be taken over by clover and other weeds??? My husband and I recently purchased a 19th century farmhouse in need of roof-to-foundation renovation. As such, I inherited a lawn that is EASILY 70% weeds, including clover so thoroughly interwoven, it would be impossible to pull by hand. I pride myself on my beautiful lawns and gardens, and can spend/have sent hours, each day, ensuring everything is healthy and how I want it. At my last home, I developed a bit of a reputation for being out weeding my lawn by hand for hours, plus how awesome my expansive lawn was. My point is, I want my lawn and gardens to be a certain way; plant the plants I want; pull the plants I don't want; unafraid to put-in the effort to achieve that. I prefer not to use any kinds of "chemicals", other than the ammonia and mild soap I include in my homemade fertilizer recipe. (My last home was a beach house. So, that only reinforced my desire to go chemical-free.) But this new-to-me house is demoralizing me...practically to the point of tears, much of it because of the state of the (laughing) "landscaping". Sure, mowing can cut off 60% of the sea of clover flowers that make my lawn look white (or dying...can't decide which). But there are still lower flowers that seem to sprout up to full height within the next 24hrs after a mow. These flowers last from late spring to fall. In short, I'm plagued by clover flowers throughout the entire season I want my lawn to look great. It's just such a shame the previous owners didn't nip the clover in the bud, when each plant was jut a little, round cluster. I love catching them early, knowing I've stopped additional infiltration. But I'm helpless, overall. Looks like I'll have to replace the entire lawn; start from scratch; do what the previous owners SHOULD have done, and pulled weeds when I first see them. I'm not really buying the whole "benefits of clover" thing, amidst a grass lawn. If I wanted a clover lawn, I would plant a clover lawn. Putting down and maintaining grass is an expense in time and resources. Clover is virtually free (since it shows up on the wind), and is seemingly mantenance-free. Since most sod and grass seed are sold with some guarantee of being weed- (and clover-) free, I just don't believe that most people who spend the money and effort to put in a grass lawn, are okay with losing any percentage of it to other, invasive, undesirable plants. I kind of liken it to suggesting that a Ferrari owner would be okay with someone switching it with a Cavalier, and just saying, 'They both get me from point A to point B, so I don't mind.' I can fully envision putting in other kinds of ground cover, and have considered it at past properties. Not being my first rodeo, I already have substantial plans to reduce the amount of lawn area, and increase planting beds. But much of this current property begs for a beautiful, thick, dark green lawn...of grass. No dandelions. No clover, but particularly no clover flowers. (I'd be more okay with clover, if not for the flowers.) The desperation was so great, I did something I thought I'd never do, and tried the iron-based WEED-B-GONE product. (Harsh, chemical herbicides have been banned in my area for years...resulting in public parks being taken over by weeds, for the most part. It's such a shame, in the sense that a healthy, well-maintained lawn is not only beautiful, but fantastic underfoot.) That is really my philosophy, beyond the aesthetic. A lawn should be cool, soft, and luxurious under bare feet. Weeds, even overgrown grass, also tend to make barefoot walking less than a joy. So far, I haven't found a way to get rid of mats of clover. The WEED-B-GONE did nothing I could notice. I'm at my rope's end on ths matter, and likely will have to pull up the entire lawn, to put down new, almost-weed-free sod, where I can physically manage pulling individual weeds as they appear. I guess I'd plead with people to pull unwanted clover plants when they're small... if not for yourself, then for the next property owner. Sure, it means time, every day, or every few days, combing the lawn, looking for weeds. Yes, it can be back-breaking and time-consuming. But that grass lawn didn't get there by accident. A grass lawn is intentional.

I'm totally against herbicides,on principal. The D##NED things are apparently working their way into food crops by now,and there just is no need for them. My woodland /wild "garden" is full of some of the worst plant thugs known to man: brambles, vitalba, ginestra (broom)...in comparison to these ,the weedy trees are like petunias , lol. All you have to do is cut them level with soil and cover the offenders with cardboard,and put mulch on top of it. If it's really bad, use several layers of cardboard. If it's really, really bad,use black plastic. Roses are extremely sensitive to herbicides, but in any case, these things-herbicides- are poisons,and we don't want to be spreading about more poison in our world,now, do we? No, we don't.