No, my weeds are just as bad as ever. Must be your new locale. My favorite weed control is having wall to wall vigorous plants to outcompete them or hide them. Still certain weeds will always be persistent. Sometimes it is better to dig the weed out instead of letting them grow back.

I am still battling and battling weeds and my only solution is to yank and pull vigorously. I am in a residential neighborhood that is slightly urban, not much on woods but everything "wrong" seems to be doing well.

This year is really bad for me too. Last year was the first time I used a weed and feed. I think it was too late in the season. It seems that might have contributed to the problem but I'm also seeing weeds in areas where I didn't apply any fertilizer.

Weeds I've never even seen before. It started late last fall with a lot of oxcalis. I even noticed a couple of mushrooms.

My belief is that it's due to the wet weather as I am over run with that very succulent weed with opposite leaves and tiny green flowers - I can't get the NJ Weed web page to open to give you the proper name - as well as oxalis and Impatiens capensis - not a weed but it might as well be.

It just seems to be getting worse every year :(

One thing I have this year that I've never reallly had before is some type of ivy. Might have had some creeping charlier earlier but not sure as it has died off. Have some lilipad looking things that are sometimes as big as 3-4" in diameter in some places. I think it might be common mallow.

Some other stuff I haven't identified yet growing under some trees and shrubs too.

Last year was the first year I really fertilized and kept a good watering schedule. I wonder if that woke up some dormant seeds in the soil. Hopefully next year will be better.

Previously dutch white clover was the only thing I had and some dandelions. This year it's just nuts.

Yes, the weeds did seem worse this year. On the other hand, I've found a few new things I've identified as native woodland wildflowers in my yard that I've never seen before and am glad to have them, especially since they don't seem to be the invasive sort.

Also, a lot of people in this region have been commenting on how vigorous many of their herbaceous perennials and flowering shrubs have been this year.

Maybe it's a case of taking "the bitter with the better" ... hope you got some "better" too.

What is this weed that looks like a Morning Glory vine (pretty
flowers and all). I never planted any Morning Glories yet these vines are growing into and strangling the conifers, euonymous, and azaleas. (Always thought Morning Glories were a
tropical annual).

Could be just that: a morning glory; the plants don't survive our winters ... but, like many other tender plants, their seeds sure do!

Some seeds (like dandelion) are dispersed on the wind, others by birds and other wildlife.

Hedge bindweed?

Here is a link that might be useful: Hedge bindweed

Today was the first time I ever saw anything in my lawn that looked like dutch white clover except it was purplish. Apparently it's called red clover.

This is one of the many weeds I'm seeing for the first time this year. Apparently it's a biannual so I shouldn't be too concerned.

Anyone else in Jersey have this?

Is mowing clover (white or red) after it has flowered a bad idea? Is that how it spreads? There are usually just too many to pull.

Wild grape and Chinese wisteria growing like MORE than just weeds. Sometimes I think Monmouth County is just one big Chinese Wisteria farm run amok. I hack at them every week or so pulling up underground vines as far back as I can get them up out of the ground but it's a losing battle.

Maybe it's because this is my first year gardening so I'm actually noticing but there seems to be more pests of every kind this year...flying, crawling, burrowing, slithering and walking on 4 legs eating everything in their path above and below ground.

I even had a Peahen who just began making a weekly appearance start eating my Alyssum which took forever to bloom from seedlings! My own fault because I felt sorry for her and thought she might be hungry. I threw a tiny bit of cracked corn on the ground for her to eat. The way her head whipped around when she heard that corn hit the driveway and how close she let me get to her tells me she belongs at a farm on the other side of a county road outside my father's neighborhood...not a starving wild foundling I need to help survive! She had her corn and my flowers. Didn't respond to yelling and clapping so I had to shoo her away until next time.

This is a not-so-funny newbie weed example. My father found some Chinese Forget-Me-Not seeds in his car which were within package date. I sowed them in bare spot at top of driveway just for a little throwaway color. Green starts sprouting and I keep watering seedlings for a few weeks. As I'm cutting back baby vine foliage around seedlings one evening my father tells me they look like weeds. I say, couldn't be...denial. Finally I take a stem and compare it to the weeds I've been pulling out of the Bearded Iris for weeks. Yup...same weeds instead of Chinese-Forget-Me-Nots. It's combination Quack grass & "Nimblewill" far as I can tell. Yank some more and still a bare spot at top of driveway since 4 legged critters ate every single Cosmos seedling I planted there three times. Direct sowed some seeds but birds got them.

I have tons of mulch on everything but I have the sinking feeling I'm not going to fully understand the meaning of rampant selfseeding and weed seeds breaking dormancy until NEXT year...LOL.

Those cute little kidney shaped leaves I thought were some kind of wild ginger were correctly identified for me by someone on a forum as Garlic Mustard. In Spring I hand pulled them from one side of the house for 7 hours. They'd overwintered as cute little "ginger leaves" and grew into upright weeds with white flowers but I never made the connection. Have to pull and put in garbage because seeds still viable if just dumped in woods or composted. Now it's all over the place moving further and further along although Rutgers Extension weed ID site says it's "not yet a problem in cropping areas." The seed cycle is 5-7 years for eradication!

How about the way all these aggressive weeds have destroyed the understory of woods and allowed other weeds to take their place instead of natives?

The side of house where I pulled all upright Garlic Mustard is now covered in some other upright weed that's not Pokeweed but I can't identify it. Some other Jersey girl asked for identification on another forum but I don't think it's been identfied yet.

Well, since I've been checking forums I've delayed by well over an hour watering all those darn containers that were my alternative to making any more new beds in cement clay and seedlings still needing attention.

Besides, I think I've used up my "whoa is me" whining quotient for the day! :)

There is a lot of interesting scientific literature out there (sorry I don't have a reference at the moment) about the relationship between global warming, enhanced C02 in the atmosphere, and the proliferation of weeds and all sorts and of insect pests. Sounds like an interesting study could be made using our backyards as ground zero.

newbie_in_nj good post, you helped me identify at least 2 more weeds I couldn't by googling for images of the names. I think I had some chinese wisteria in the early spring. The garlic mustard looks like some things I have around the wild ivy, oxalis and other areas. I'm pretty sure I have some common mallow but I think I've also been mistaking some of the garlic mustard for it.

njoasis, I read an article the other day about global warming contributing to weeds. They had a weed rice and a cultivated rice in chambers with higher levels of C02 and the weed rice did better. Also read an article about how there are more plants because plants like C02 and warmer weather. Unfortunately the plants that are thriving aren't the ones you'd want. The one doing the best from the effects of global warming is poison ivy. There was also a comment about the nutritional value not being the same.

The poison ivy population seems to have increased in proportion to the Garlic Mustard infestation. Poison ivy seems to spread sympathetically or symbiotically with other weeds and you can't see it under the cute little ginger look-a-like leaves.

I only mention it because I have a bad habit of impulsively reaching down to pull some weeds out everytime I see them as I walk outside. Don't always have on gloves and it's too hot for long sleeves.

I'm not desperately allergic as many people are but it isn't pleasant none the less. "Be careful out there..."

Bergenjersey, Chinese Wisteria wraps itself around whatever it can find "clockwise" and Japanese Wisteria wraps itself "counter clockwise." Both are highly invasive and destructive. The underground runners become the size of tree roots with terminal nodes and stands become the size of trees. Two years ago I decided I was going to take a saw to base of Chinese Wisteria and Poison Sumac "trees" that were hopelessly strangling a few 30 year old evergreens at my father's. Cut at ground level and again at about 5 feet. Turns out they were all that was still green when the foliage on the Wisteria/Poison Sumac died! Left a "little" blank space in the wind break on north side of driveway but it's filling in. New growth from stumps and/or cut ends of pulled underground runners have to be cut at least monthly so they don't wrap around trees, bushes, plants or anything else in their path again.

Makes all the ground weeds seem tame by comparison considering 11 trees at my father's have been so weakened by them they came down in bad weather they should've been able to withstand. Chinese Wisteria is still alive on downed trees and spreading through wooded area.

Poison Ivy is extremely common; I can only assume most people don't know what it looks like if they're surprised to see it. It's actually a pretty good wildlife food. And as far as Garlic Mustard is concerned, it may not be a problem in 'cropping areas' but it sure is rampant everywhere else.

As far as clover is concerned, seems to me I read somewhere they actually used to include clover seed in lawn grass mixtures (it is a legume, probably helps fertilize the grass.) Then for whatever reason, 'they' decided to declare it a weed. I think it's pretty. I also read somewhere that rabbits like to eat clover; if they can get clover in your lawn, they won't bother the other plants so much. I have no idea if that's true...

WW