Hostared...Thanks for the ID. I looked up Lysimachia Ciliata and it is the purple leaf variety - the invasive Loosestrife. The nice thing is that it blooms for a long time, but is definitely invasive. The second one is definitely a weed and it was there last year, but I had pulled them all and thought they were "history." I was wrong and now they have taken over alot of space in one garden. There is no scent to the leaves. Guess it's time to get out and dig. Thanks for ID's. Duluthinbloom - I checked on White Campion, and the flowers are too tiny on my plant/weeds.

Equisetum (Field Horsetail) is resistant to many herbacides. I would check with your local weed board for what is the preferred non-restricted (home use) chemical in your area. Digging them may only produce new plants if even the smallest pieces of the rhizome are left behind. Also understand that there are 2 different plant forms of the same plant....one like you see (which is steril) and the other which produces just a spore head and is not branched and steril. The un-branched comes before the branched and once it starts to mature and die back the one you are looking at now comes up. The Equisetums are not true plants but are Sporophytes (ferns) with seriously extensive root systems, hence the reason why many broadleaf selective herbacided don't work. The plants are native to Ontario and other north American locations including here in WA. Many species of wildlife feed on them and they are only a 'weed' where not wanted. Another Equisetum you may be familiar with is Smooth Scouring Rush E. hyemale. My Weed Science instructor stated that a tea could be made from this to control slugs and was also useful as a pesticide, but I don't have all the details on that :) Vera

Oh and the organic solution for creeping Charlie is to dig it out by hand. Here's the process. Start at one corner and dig out the grass down 2 inches deep. Move through and throw away everything that looks like grass, creeping Charlie, or roots. You will not finish this very quickly. Wait a week for your back to heal. When you start again, start at the same corner because something will have grown back in. Likely it will be the creeping Charlie. The area you already dug up will go much faster this second time. The keep pressing on out into the grassy/weedy area. The next week when you start again, start at the same starting point again. This time it will go even faster because you'll be able to see fewer and fewer sprouts of anything. It is very tedious, but it's organic. Once you decide that being completely organic is a great idea in theory, you can spray the Weed-G-Gone CCO or Brush Killer. Remember you aren't saturating the soil with the herbicide. You're really only wetting the leaves of the weeds themselves. When you are satisfied the weeds are out and not coming back, then restart your organic fertilizer routine. Sometimes a chemical spray is needed for your sanity.

Horseherb is one of those plants that seems to languish where I'd like it and thrives where I don't. Stayed too small/sparse to work well as ground-cover in the total shade spot we first tried it, but has filled in nicely in other areas with a little sunlight. Always thought of it as a "shade plant", so was surprised how quickly it dominated gaura, Russian sage, and other plants when I let it expand into a sunny bed last year. I wrongly assumed it would start dying back by the August heat, but instead got more flowers and seeds than ever. The plants were not difficult to pull, but am just a bit over halfway through a second pass at removing 100 sqft or so of dense volunteers in the bed and adjacent lawn. Have never had them put out this much viable seed in partial sun or total shade locations over the years it's been growing around our lot: