ProfessorRoush has briefly referred before to my exasperating experiences with "cleavers", or Galium aparine,also known as "bedstraw", "catchweed", "goosegrass" (geese eat it) and, in a modern twist, "velcro plant". Some years it grows much faster and thicker than others and this year I almost had two different beds completely consumed by it. So, once again, the enemy is at my gates and I'm in a wartime footing against this smother-acious pest.
Some may ask about the "catchweed" name, or wonder why I write with such vehemence about it, but if you have ever touched it, you'd know. This weed-from-Hell attaches itself to anything and everything with the small hooked hairs on its stems and whorled leaves. It frankly feels "icky" to touch it with bare hands.Catchweed is an annual with sprawling stems that grow up to 3 feet long and branch and spread along the ground and climb over other plants. It tries its best to cover and smother neighboring perennials and shrubs while the sadly smothered plant props up the square stems. And Galium is quite successful in that regard. In my front bed, for one example, I've got a 6'X8' area where the only recognizable plant is the catchweed on top of everything else.
Since I don't have a pet goose on the premises (nor am I willing to abide the resultant goose droppings that come with one), I've previously recommended pulling catchweed out while wearing cotton gloves as an efficiency measure, but this weekend I found this long-handled cultivator marked down on sale from $7 to $2.50 and I correctly recognized it might be just the nuclear option I was looking for. My motto is "never use a grenade when an atom bomb is available."
Anyway, a "picture being worth a thousand words", I'll let the next two photos speak for the efficacy of my inexpensive and effective tool. Here, at right, I give you a daylily smothered by catchweed.