There are two ways to "get rid" of unwanted plants in any garden. One is to carefully pull them out making sure to get roots and all and two is to cover them so you deprive them of access to the sunlight all plants need to grow.

Newspaper, cardboard, etc. covered by shredded leaves, wood chips, etc. would be a good cover for that.

There is no way to prevent unwanted plkants from growing since the seeds these come from are deposited in gardens by the birds, the wind, animals moving around. etc. Working to keep unwanted plants from growing in our gardens is a continuous job for gardeners.

Yes I would carefully dig them out and agree we can't stop weeds entirely. I do see a flower in your 1st pic so if you don't get them all out right away at least remove the flowers before they seed. It will go a long way toward breaking the cycle.

The weed is an Oxalis species. Sorry to say it is extremely difficult to beat. You need to dig out every scrap as they have tiny bulbils under the soil and leaving a single one behind will produce a new generation.

Alternatively you could just give in and call it ground cover. It is not an unattractive little plant among shrubs as you have there.

Determining which Oxalis would be my first step in formulating a plan to eradicate. Some Oxalis have regular roots, and some have bulbs.

"There is no way to prevent unwanted plkants from growing since the seeds these come from are deposited in gardens by the birds,"

Actually, there is. They are called pre-emergent herbicides and in some situations, work fantastically well. I rid a large portion of my yard of the terrible invasive Microstegium by using Suflan/Oryzalin. They prevent weed seeds from germinating. This is especially useful for Japanese stilt grass because the only selective for it is very expensive and slow acting.

In this case, Oxalis is pretty easy to control with any standard selective or non-selective herbicide, just add a extra 1/4 teaspoon of dish soap (detergent) per gallon to make sure it spreads well.

The nice thing is if you use herbicides intelligently and consistently, you will have to use them less and less because local weed seed reserves will be largely depleted. Many of the most annoying weeds are NOT spread by birds and merely spread by wind or mechanical means. (the mustard family thingie that has exploding seed pods - just sprayed the last of those from my acreage, there used to be thousands of them!) I have probably gone from needing almost 2 gallons of various herbicides per year to now needing 0.5. I don't even have to use oryzalin anymore because there are basically no more crabgrass or stilt grass seeds in the top layers of soil.

You cut off the quote right before the words, "the wind, animals moving around. etc." It doesn't make sense to rail against a quote if the quote did address the rail but was cut short.

I use pre-emergents also in some areas but usually not in plantings. I like reseeding of my desirable plants like stylophorum, lamium, brunnera, Phlox divaricata, hellebores, the list goes on.

There's a difference between railing and responding. Learn it. More importantly, the substance of what I was responding to was not related to the way(s) the seeds spread, but to the notion that there was no way to control them.

Kyle, brave of you to consider Lamium desirable! One of those is a top 5 species I am happy to now have under control! I assume you are talking about one of the more mild-mannered ones.

There are a lot of Lamium species and hybrids. Some are weedy. Many are desirable garden plants.

This is the only one I have. I bought one plant in a 4" pot years ago. Anyone have any idea what variety it is? Here in my area of TN it is evergreen, spreads at a moderate rate and reseeds modestly in welcome places. And so far I haven't seen a single weed come up in it.

In the foreground of the second pic is Chrysogonum virginianum 'Eco-Lacquered Spider'. Same characteristics except I haven't seen any reseeding.

Kyle your Lamium could be L. maculatum 'Purple Dragon'

Thanks. I looked up pics of PD. Sure looks like it. Wonder if there's any way to be sure. But I don't mean to hijack this thread.

Kyle you could post to the Name That Plant forum.

Sure will. I came across a name which sounds familiar. Beacon Silver?