Blessed thistles

Don't bother trying the white vinegar and salt method either.

Thistles and some other weeds are resistant.

I decided that part of our lawn should be a wildflower meadow but it got taken over by yellow flowers which someone said were ragwort 😯 so it's lawn again now.

Something in the back of my mind says farmers used to cut thistles in the meadow during July for best control presumably before they set seed

I dont know if you try to garden totally organically but you could try putting on a glove and put weedkiller on it and the reach the thistle and rub that but not your seedlings. But sounds as though with thistles next door you will always get some in your meadow and then it is keeping an eagle eye so that you can get them up quickly before they grow much.I would not put any weedkiller on in any other way. Cutting them down as soon as you see them will at least weaken them and enable your plants to grow a bit more

I have a brilliant weeding tool which has 2 prongs that goes into the ground either side of the weed and you rotate it and pull it up with the weed in. It has a plunger that you use to eject the weed into a bucket ... even I can use it!

Septimia

I was told that if you cut thistles off so that the base of the hollow stem is exposed the rain will get in and rot the roots etc. Easier than trying to pull them up.

It rains a lot where I live. You have to dig thistles out of you want rid of them. Chopping them down to the ground is only temporary. They resprout with ever more vigour. At least, marsh thistles do.

They are hell to dig out so get them out while they're small, Lucky.

I was told that if you cut thistles off so that the base of the hollow stem is exposed the rain will get in and rot the roots etc. Easier than trying to pull them up.