They look like jewelweed, the native Impatiens capensis if the flowers are orange or Impatiens pallida if they are yellow.

you are going to have to break the cycle of reseeding ..... if you wish to be done with it ....and if its flowering.. its already starting next years cycle ... then you will have to deal with all the seed already in the soil ..

it wont be easy ... no matter what you try to replace it with

Ok, so after reading up on the jewelweed...I agree that this is what we are dealing with. Am I correct that they are actually an annual but once they flower the seeds are then deposited in the ground for the next year. So in order to end the cycle, I would need to dig up the plant before it starts to flower? We do like how they fill out and makes our hill look very lush. We would just like to plant something else directly behind our fence so it is not taken over every year.

Then plant something vigorous and tall growing (and obviously perennial or woody)...it should out compete.

I will say that they are loved by hummingbirds. I pulled up all of mine one year, as they are extremely easily to pull by the roots. Still had seedlings, though few, the next year from neighboring areas. But, now I let them grow in some areas because they do prevent the growth of other more pernicious weeds. Somebody on a another forum thread lamented that after they pulled all their jewelweed the area was populated by far more difficult weeds. I'm not recommending keeping them, but rather encouraging you to pull judiciously. I pull in the areas where the soil will already be shaded or covered by plants, which discourages weeds. Any open soil areas, or areas where I don't have a plan for plants to go there yet, I keep the weed. If you don't want reseeding but want to protect the soil from other weeds growing you could always just shear off the flowers this year. Just more information if it helps.

Definitely do not want to deal with weeds growing...and they do grow like a spreading wildfire around here. With all the new info, I will most likely pull a few out every year hopefully cutting back on the new growth for the following year. Hopefully we can just control the growth near our fence. We don't want to completely lose our lush green hill. Thanks for all the info.

Not likely to ever damage the fence.

How about just cutting the plants this year that you want to remove and leave the rest. For these I wouldn’t bother pulling. And I agree that you will need to start with larger, woody, (eventually) tall plants that will be able to fend for themselves. I don’t think of them as a weed, and I don’t think they are ‘thugs’.

look closely at plant.. find the bottom most flowers.. cut back that far ... check again in fall. to see if they reflower ...

there are probably billions of seed in the soil .. many seed can last forever ... so you would need to mulch heavily ... many seeds need to be on the soil surface.. and have access to the sun to sprout .. so by covering them.. you can significantly reduce germination ... [this is very simplified to express the point ... no need to bury you in tmi ....]

but if you leave the rest.. and they start dropping seed on top of the mulch .... the cycle is not broken .... etc ....

there is no easy fix ... short of spraying a veg killer .. which is your choice ...

ken

Strangely enough, I am REALLY liking this weed with my echinaceas. The orange blossom of the jewelweed coordinates perfectly with the center of the echinacea. Nice surprise for a weedy plant!

Deanna this does look beautiful. I hope that I can obtain the same look in the near future. Our Jewelweeds are lovely, however they are taking over. Hopefully we can plant a few other things to grow along with them.