FIMBY: Win the weed war by tackling them in winter

This is another installment in our Food in My Back Yard series, dedicated to edible gardening.

It's cold and foggy, and you haven't been outside much. The garden looks dormant -- until you look down.

Those little bits of green near the patio, those tiny blades along the fence, the minute leaves emerging in the vegetable bed? It's a very good bet that those are all weeds. And now is the time to get rid of them.

Why? Because if they get any bigger:

-- They hog water and nutrients that could be going to wanted plants.

-- They harbor pests (insects and rodents) and pathogens that can sneak up on seedlings and transplants.

-- The roots only grow stronger and tougher to eradicate.

-- Allowed to grow and flower, some weeds then spread by underground runners, tubers or rhizomes, or burrs that attach to pets' fur. Others produce allergens.

Right now, I'm seeing small sprouts of the following weeds, in my garden and around the neighborhood. Others will pop up later as the weather warms up.

1) Catchweed bedstraw (Galium aparine), also called cleavers and stickyweed, among others. Its sticky hairs catch on everything: T-shirts, socks, cat fur,  dogs' tails, you name it. And it spreads that way. If allowed to grow large, it forms little burrs that are even harder to pull out of  fur or socks.

2) Little bittercress (Cardamine oligoosperma), also known as shotweed or snapweed. I call this weed "pop-bead plant" because of the way the seeds explode out of their seed pod when you so much as brush past it. Dig it up before or while it's flowering to prevent it spreading far and wide.

3) Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris). With their deeply lobed leaves, these look like small, unspiky thistles as they grow, but once they develop stalks and flower buds it's easy to tell what they are. The yellow flowers turn into white puffballs not unlike dandelions.

4) Dandelion. (Taraxacum officinale) Speaking of this scourge of turf fans ... I think of dandelion as a spring weed, but am already noticing seedlings around. They of course have long taproots and will only become more difficult to dig up whole as the soil dries out.

5) Grassy weeds such as annual bluegrass and ryegrasses.  As these weeds grow, gardeners tend to attack them with weed-wackers, which leaves the roots behind. Now is when they can be dug out out individually.

This is just a few varieties, of course, but if you make it a habit to get them out now, your spring gardening will be much easier, especially in the vegetable beds. And weeding is a great activity to expend frustrations on. Just saying.