I’m not sure which species of dock I have, but I have a few areas of the garden that this deep-rooted perennial weed call home. Forever. Beause they are pretty tough to get rid of.

The worst part is that I really appreciate them as a plant. Their foliage is strong, and the spikes of flowers are not showy, but the seed heads make up for that–they can have remarkable color and form. Alas, they maleficently maraud so I need to root them out over the rest of my life.

Pulling them is extremely challenging, as the roots are deep in the glacial clay around our garden, and breaking them off just results in stronger regrowth.

There are native Rumex species, but most of them are invaders, and I’m sure mine are aliens. They do get eaten by something, though, as you can see from the above photo.

Future plans are dig, dig, digging until they are gone, gone, gone.