A New Enemy?

They say a weed is a plant where you don't want it.

Well . . . I guess I have a new weed that I don't want around.  It may even supersede knotweed as my arch-enemy.

What is it?

Galium Aparine (aka stickyweed, gooseweed, cleavers, bedstraw, stickywilly, stickyjack, etc.)

It seems to be everywhere this year!  It is in the white garden.  It is back in the corner of the property covering the neighbor's fence.  It is over by the barn near the daffodils.  It is over by the compost bins.

I've seen it around many years.  It has never been a problem.  This year it is rampant.  I don't know if it was the mild winter, the warm spring, or us traveling a lot last year and me not weeding enough (you can never weed enough).

The weed is sticky, and it has tiny, velcro-like prickers which can scratch you when you touch it.  It is a creeping weed and can get 1 to 2 meters long.  I can fill wheelbarrows full of it.  I hope I can really knock the rest of it back this weekend.

Maybe it could choke out the knotweed!  It doesn't get a big as knotweed.  Then again, maybe I'll keep the knotweed (better the devil you know than the one you don't)!

Do you have it where you are?