Please Help ID these 2 weeds! (Bangor: houses, landscaping, garden)

[MacMaine]

I moved right outside of Bangor two years ago. At that time the lawn and landscaping was pristine. Since I wasn't familiar with what plants they had planted, I didn't know what was a weed and what was a plant. Since then two species have gone out of control and are very obviously weeds.

1. Weed with a fan of narrow leaves and a very long spaghetti-like root system. If left, purple flowers will bloom. This weed is very fast growing and attacks other plants. The long network of roots that it grows makes it impossible to get rid of by simply pulling.

Please help identify this weed and help me get rid of it!!

2. I noticed one bush of this last summer and now it is growing everywhere. It has 3 teardrop-shape leaves at top and along branches and has very sharp prickers all along stem making it a pain to pull. The roots are long and don't come up easy.

I appreciate any help identifying these two weeds that taking over all the beautiful landscaping in such a short amount of time.

[Maine Writer]

The first is vetch. It's a nitrogen-fixing legume often used in green manure crops. That probably has a purple flower that attracts bees, a good thing. The second looks like a variety of raspberry.

[dramamama6685]

WElcome, MacMaine. I love your screen name!

[maureenb]

Agreed on both. The first weed/wildflower is vetch - in the Pea Family. If it gets a purple flower, it's Cow Vetch; pink flowering variety is Crown Vetch. More than you might like to know about vetch. Anathema to some, but remember, you have the opposable thumb...

[tcrackly]

Yes, I agree with the other posters. The raspberry is most certainly blackberry and VERY invasive if you don't want it. It has extremely hardy rhizomes that spread.

[MacMaine]

Thank you so much for identifying these!!!

The first is the cow vetch variety... I've been looking and looking to ID this plant since last summer when I realized it was becoming a problem. At that time I was very pregnant and not keeping up with pulling it so now it is REALLY a problem. It's on a slope landscaped with creeping evergreens that my house sits on. And is attacking the evergreens and hopping over to other landscaped areas of the yard.

I was thinking about cutting it way down... then using the Mantis to chop up the roots and then spraying the soil with vinegar. But I'm thinking that maybe the roots will still regenerate... and tangle up in the Mantis blades.

Based on the fact that I am seeing so much of it... I think it's going to be something I will never get rid of fully.

Too bad the raspberries are so invasive too. I would love to have a berry garden but not in this part of the yard.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

The first is vetch. It's a nitrogen-fixing legume often used in green manure crops. That probably has a purple flower that attracts bees, a good thing. The second looks like a variety of raspberry.

good job mainewriter!!
you certainly know your weed

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

good job mainewriter!!
you certainly know your weed

MBM, you sir, are totally rotten!

[cdodge04]

When I worked at Robbins Lumber we had a serious vetch problem in the Christmas tree fields. We were forever spraying the fields to kill it off every spring. That stuff will grow up in to trees, flowers and anything else around. It will completely over come the stuff around it.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

good job mainewriter!!
you certainly know your weed

I've pulled a lot of both. You wouldn't believe how big my pot(ted) plants are! I'd stay to chat but there's a large helicopter landing in my yard and someone's pounding on the door. I think they want to see the greenhouses...