Novice gardener seeks advice after innocent purchase causes 'never-ending fight': 'Is this gardening!?'

There's nothing more frustrating than watching a supposed invasive plant take over, especially if you're new to gardening. You want your plants to flourish, but non-native species can smother the root systems of nearby vegetation. 

That's why a novice gardener took to the r/GardeningUK subreddit for advice after a plant they bought started spreading beyond its container. The Redditor posted two photos of an unnamed plant growing in two separate planters, much to their dismay. 

They then asked the community if they should throw everything out and start from scratch or if there was a way to salvage the plants.

"Just pull up the bits you don't want, including any roots," one commenter suggested. 

"I should've said, I have done that but they just keep coming back again and again. Is that normal? Is this gardening!?" the exasperated OP replied.

The commenter said that, yes, if you have a garden, regularly pulling up weeds and roots just comes with the territory. 

However, it can get pretty old having to constantly dig up new shoots from the soil. The site Week& recommends digging up roots at least six inches below the soil to prevent plants from resprouting.

Even though gardening is certainly a labor of love, it's well worth the benefits. If you have a native-plant lawn instead of a typical grass lawn, for example, you can save time on maintenance and roughly $275 on water, $50 on fertilizer, and $50 on pesticides and weed control each year. 

Rewilding your yard can reduce your annual water consumption by a whopping 175,000 gallons since native plants are meant to grow in local climates, and even a partial lawn replacement can make a big difference. 

You'll also attract bees and butterflies to your yard, which benefits everyone since animal pollinators support about 35% of the world's food crops, such as apples, bananas, potatoes, and coffee. 

Commenters in r/GardeningUK seemed to agree that pulling up the shoots and roots was the best option.

One commenter identified the plant — surprisingly, a native species — writing: "It's a variegated Glechoma hederacea — ground ivy. It's native but mat-forming, so just keep pulling out bits and it'll be kept in check / gotten rid of."

Another suggested a more community-oriented solution: "You could always put the bits in yoghurt pots of soil and give them to friends to spread the joy."

"The never-ending fight against nature doing what it wants, not what we want, yep that's normal, welcome to [your] new second life long job," one person joked.

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