The bindis' story continues...

In a previous post here, I commented on the lawn weed, bindi, which have become my nemesis, as I struggle to eradicate this pest from our yard. The other occasional weeds in the lawn don't bother me, just the bindis with their awful prickles. For some reason the bindis are thriving; I'm sure there are more here now than when I moved here 9 years ago. This year I was trying out something I read in a gardening magazine, that is watering the bindis with a solution of iron sulphate. That has appeared to have worked quite well but it used a lot of my precious tank water.
bettsylyn left a comment on my blog post telling me of the method her mother used to get rid of bindis on their acre block. It involves putting some needle-nosed pliers into the stem of the bindi underneath the leaves, and then pulling it up. It is a long and slow process but I have been weeding a small section of lawn for a few days now. I had a break today because of the rather heavy showers but when the weather clears, I'll be out there again. The rain actually makes them easier to pull out I've discovered!

Eduardo, my little helper

Some of the bindis I've pulled out

There's one thing that has puzzled me though...for a number of years, I used chemical poisons such as 'Bin-die' to kill off the plants before they set the prickles. And the plants did die...but the next year they came back up again. This suggests that under the ground, maybe the roots remain alive ready to shoot up in the next year???