Your guide to tackling common weeds

Don't let weeds in your garden get the best of you. While not all weeds are require the same treatment, there are measures to take against each. Here's how to rid your garden of some of the most common ones.

• Creeping thistle is not only tough, it also attracts pests. This root-spreading weed grows up to 1.2 metres (four feet). Remove its blooms first, then dig up the plant, roots and all if possible. Don't dispose of its remnants on the compost heap, since the roots could multiply.
• Common horsetail, also called bottlebrush or cat's tail, has a far-spreading root system that is hard to pull out. The plant breeds by means of spores and roots. Since it likes moisture, you can effectively combat it only by draining the soil or through sporadic liming of the ground. Again, don't throw it on the compost heap; it will continue to multiply there.
• Stinging nettles are unassuming weeds that like nitrogen-rich soil. If they go unchecked, they grow rampant and form whole clusters. They are shallow-rooted plants that must either be mowed once a week — the roots will wither away within two years — or pulled out singly from the ground along with the roots.
• Veronica, or speedwell, thrives in loose, nitrogen-rich soil. This weed is spread by seeds and usually blooms between March and July. It has to be removed by hand.
• Coltsfoot, or ribgrass, grows even in the smallest cracks between flagstones or on house walls. Dig out each plant singly before it flowers. The weed, whose flowers resemble those of the dandelion, tends to grow in clusters. It propagates by seeds and can be composted.
• Chickweed blooms from March until October, establishing itself not only on the lawn but also in vegetable patches or shrub beds. Before the seeds form, you can easily pull the plant out of the ground by hand.
• Vetches such as the bush vetch or tufted vetch are tough climbing plants whose shoots — which quickly grow long — are hard to control. They multiply through seeds and shoots that develop long taproots. Weed and hoe them regularly and, most importantly, remove their roots.