If you're trying to maintain a gorgeous garden in your yard, you'll need to watch out for invasive weeds masquerading as beautiful flowers. Although flowering weeds look gorgeous for a short time, they will continue taking over the landscape, strangling everything in their path. You will lose all of your purposefully selected flowers and have to start over next year. By keeping invasive weeds far from your garden, you protect your plants from utter devastation. Read on to learn about four weeds to keep far from your yard.

Ragwort

The European born ragwort plant looks just like a bright yellow daisy. Seeds traveled along roadways where the plants grow in abundance in ditches along the way. State agencies actively attempt to control the growth of this weed due to its toxic nature. When livestock and other animals eat ragwort, they can become seriously ill or even die.

If ragwort works its way into your garden beds, it could be hard to spot at first. Its expansive root system quickly takes over the space in the bed, which pushes your plants out of the picture. If you have a lot of daisies planted there, you might not even notice this small flower push its way out of the dirt until it's too late for your other flowers.

Dandelion

Many people have mixed feelings about the bright yellow topped dandelion. Some people allow this weed to grow freely in their yards while others spray every appearance to eliminate their presence before the flower tops grow. Dandelions grow out of a cluster of hearty greens that create a thick layer of ground cover within a few weeks.

You'll need to pull the dandelions out by the root to attempt to stop their growth. If the smallest piece of root remains, the dandelion will grow back fairly quickly. Spray chemicals are usually quite effective, but can harm your other flowers if applied during the growing season.

Giant Hogweed

The cow parsnip quickly grows to an impressive 15 feet in height over its lengthy growing season. Upon reaching full height, the stem on this large weed can grow to a few inches in diameter, making it extremely difficult to cut through. Although the hogweed creates a beautiful display of tiny white flowers, its presence in your garden is bad news.

A weed this tall needs to create a huge root system that will block all other plant life from taking root in that area. To remove the roots, you'll need to dig up the entire garden bed and remove every strand. Pull the hogweed up early by the bottom of the stalk to gently remove the roots from the dirt.

Scotch Broom

The tiny yellow flowers on scotch broom bushes look beautiful, but elicit a serious allergic reaction in pollen sensitive individuals. Since this plant can reach ten feet in height in one growing season, you might be shocked by its quick rate of growth. Make sure to completely remove the shrubbery as it appears to keep the bushes from flowering.

Once scotch broom flowers, it sends all of its tiny seeds across the land to grow even more shrubs. The seeds can take hold in garden beds, ditches and lawns across the neighborhood. If the seeds do not sprout right away, they can lie dormant for decades until the right conditions develop.

Controlling The Invasion

You can use weed killing chemicals to remove invasive plant species before planting your seed and bulb selections. After sowing the seed and planting bulbs, you'll need to use manual efforts to remove stubborn weeds that grow back in your garden beds. Pull the weeds one by one to keep them at bay. Check your garden beds on a daily basis to remove weeds before they establish their root system. If you cannot stay ahead of the game, hire a professional from a place like Snyder's Weed Control to perform the weekly removal process for you.