Thistles & Briars growing in garden grass

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I seem to have a bit of a lot of Thistles growing in the grass in the garden, they seem to be popping up everywhere and in another part of the garden briars are popping up.
I've young kids that could be running around barefoot so really want to kill them off.
Any ideas, I put a lot of effort into getting rid of the briars last year but feel like i'm playing whack a mole.

Grab them with a good leather glove whilst hosing the root and pull them up.

If you're mowing regularly then thistles won't mature to the point where they produce seed, so maybe the seeds are coming from elsewhere.

You have three options...

1. Work at getting your lawn healthier with all the usual methods (correct mowing, aeration, de-thatching, overseeding) so that the grass outcompetes the weeds.
2. Blast it with chemicals (e.g. feed & weed, or better still feed then weed).
3. Get the kids to wear shoes in the garden.