How to Get Rid of Burdock Plants
- 1). Mow your lawn regularly. Burdock plants can't produce blooms if you cut them back often enough. Cut stray individuals back to ground level with shears. This is significant because Arctium propagates by seed. Toss non-flowering plant parts onto your compost heap, but burn or haul blooming material away from your property.
- 2). Hoe and weed gardening areas often. Burdock is unable to establish itself in areas that are disturbed by frequent cultivation.
- 3). Dig up small burdock plants that haven't begun to bloom with a garden spade or hand trowel. Dump the material on your compost heap.
- 4). Cut large flowering burdock off at ground level with shears from July until frost. Don't bother digging up the roots because the plants are already on their way out. These weeds are bi-annual, and die after they bloom a single time during their second year. Do not add blooms, burs or seed pods to your compost heap. Burn or dispose of them to prevent seed dispersion.
- 5). Turn goats out into the infested area to systematically annihilate every single burdock plant within reach.