Ruthie, I wish we were neighbors...those weeds would not stand a chance. I take direction real well and all you'd need was a chair in the shade and a bullhorn! :)) You'll be in my prayers and thoughts...good thoughts of not only tolerating the chemo well, but SAILING through it. BTW, I think the onions and garlic may be lonely without a few greens to go with them ;) Hang in there!

I can't thank everyone enough for the trades - I have almost all the plants I lost last year! Of course our plight was very minor compared to many others. Family and critters are doing well and "things" can be replaced. Sorry, the water lettuce is gone for now, but I still have frogbit, duckweed, and umbrella palm. Still hoping for small pieces of zebra rush, sweet flag, gamecock iris, and dwarf bamboo. (I can dream, can't I?)

Something in the Brassicaceae, maybe a gone to seed radish or turnip - or one of the many wild members of the cabbage family.

One of my favorite books, now passed on to a horticultural library, concerned farming in MA during the Civil War. Several pages are devoted to eradicating this thistle which always has been a costly, troublesome weed. The 'solution' then was to mow grasslands in the fall to a height of about 6" which left the hollow centers of each thistle exposed to the winter elements which killed the plant. Based on this writing and years of experimenting when living in Yankee land, I dealt with the thistle by cutting each stalk back to about 3" in height during active late spring growth and placing 2 drops of clorox into the exposed hollow stem. Clorox keeps on working and will slowly kill the extensive root system. Patience! Hand pull the weed near your prized tree as even a single drop of clorox is effective for quite a radius around a treated plant. And, if the decision is made to use no chemicals then remove each thistle, cutting below soil surface. Repeat until root system dies off. Try using a linoleum knife as a "down on the knees" weeding tool. Most effective weed controller I have in my gardening tool kit.