How Does Your Weed Garden Grow?

I've said it before, and it bears repeating: I cannot keep anything (save for Little L) alive. My history is littered with pet fish corpses, shriveled and/or drowned houseplants, and a few other ill-fated pets (read: chicks).

So good am I at killing living things that I am optimistic that my superpowers will extend to the elimination of the thistles in our front, uneven patio-bricked area. My weapon of choice (besides me)? Boiling hot water. No chemicals, no toxic elements, just plain old H2O. And so far, so good. As I was pouring, you could literally watch the prickly leaves cowering into a cooked pile of inedible greens. Even though I'm not a psychopath, I have to say that it was really really satisfying to watch the weeds wither.

After I let them sit for the night, I went out to pull them out. With gardening gloves. Those prickly little buggers, while dried to a dull crunchy orange, still managed to pierce through my hand armour and give me a good vengeful poke. I decided not to chance it further with my hands, and grabbed some kitchen tongs to extract the leaves.

Sadly, the roots didn't seem to come out as easily as I had hoped. There is therefore no real way to know if the scalding water did its job or not. It has been almost a week since I Chinese water tortured that plant (yes, I am misappropriating that term because frankly, my definition is better). Only time will tell if I need something more potent. I certainly hope not, but I'm prepared to go into chemical warfare territory if need be. This is war. There must not be any survivors!