Help--Weed Problem

Jillybean89

Hi All, 

I am very new to gardening and have such a weed infested lawn I am digging it all up and starting again! I have what I believe is Virginia Creeper everywhere causing me lots of issues. Lots of dark purple sprout like roots and purple vines throughout my lawn? If this is or could be something else I would love to know as I have had to Google to identify it. 

However another weed that I have been unable to identify has a long horizontal ongoing root  (yet to find the source) that is woody with lots of tree like weeds growing from it. They cannot be pulled from the ground and have had to be dug up. Lots pop up from the same area in the lawn, so there are several little patches of them. I would just like some help with what this could be so I can find the source and stop it in it's tracks if it comes back again! 

Although I am really starting to enjoy being outside and gardening in general...my garden is a mess and such hard work at the moment! There is an overgrown meadow with lots of different overgrown trees!! Any advice or suggestions would be great appreciated!

Thanks in advance. 

Hostafan1

Can you post some photos for us to ID?

Jillybean89

Oh yes sorry I can and will once I am back from work. Currently in the commute! Sorry should have thought of that! 

Hostafan1

no worries. We're always around. Click the little icon at the top which looks like a postcard of a mountain and follow instructions. 
Don't work too hard.

Fairygirl

I'm having a guess that the 2nd one could be horsetail.
If you have that Sumach growing [that pops up everywhere when it's pruned] it could also be that. Scale is important when helping with an ID though!
Your photos will help enormously Jbean. 

BobTheGardener

The 'tree-like' ones could be suckers from horizontal roots of a nearby tree.  Cherry trees do this a lot.

Jillybean89

Googled it and looks like the tree-like ones are suckers. Here are some pics first ones will be of the ones I didn't know at all but seems to be suckers. One I have already excavated and one still growing. Apologies for the grass but seems pointless mowing the lawn when I am just digging it up.  

Jillybean89

So here is what I think is Virginia Creeper... All the leaves stem from hundreds.. Actually probably thousands of these little (sometimes big) purple roots. Couldn't find a fresh one but this is one I dug up last night. 

Jillybean89

This is just some of the trees behind my house... I have complained to the council but nothing. You will see my issue!! Ivy, something with lethal thorns all clambering to get into my garden. I just want a nice lawn and somewhere safemy 2 year old won't get pricked my a thorns.. Nothing fancy. Thanks for all your responses so far I really appreciate it. 

Dovefromabove

Ash trees, ivy and blackberry bushes ... all perfectly normal hedgerow and woodland plants and brilliant for wildlife.  I grew up surrounded by them. 

There are many worse things to have the other side of your fence ... barking fierce dogs, used hypodermics, plastic bags, human waste, fly tipped rubbish ... all sorts of stuff could be so much worse than the little patch of nature with birds and bees and other wildlife that your little one is growing up with. 

Cut the blackberry brambles back when they invade too far... the same with the ivy.
Otherwise it’s doing no harm.  You don’t want the council to send someone along to spray the are wing harmful noxious chemicals do you? 
🙂

BobTheGardener

The one you think is Virginia creeper is Potentilla reptans (creeping cinquefoil) I reckon.