HELP!! thistles thistles everywhere (and ant too)

help our yard is overrun with thistles. this is our first spring here and we are just trying to see what the previous ppl had for flowers, plants etc. looks like they didnt really care or have anything.
but there are so many thistles i my kids can barely play outside. i tried digging them up but they are so deep, i actually broke my trowel . what can i do to get rid of them?

we also have an ant infestation, everywhere you look are little ant mounds. i have been reading the suggestions for ant and will try some of them, but its really bad, i may have to resort to chemicals, which bothers me since we get out water from a well. maybe if i can get time i will take some pics to show how bad they are.

any and all suggestions appreciated. , Crystal

First of all, and you obviously learned this yourself, don't use a trowel, use a shovel. And save the thistles. I remember reading about a thistle tea to repel garden pests - I am sure a google search will find that for you.

Removing ants without chemicals is something I am less sure of. I have heard of pouring boiling water into their mounds and I have read on this board that cinnamon is something they do not like, but that is as far as I know about ants.

I found this site a few weeks ago and I found it helpful. I also visited his forum.


http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

Thanks for sharing that site Dietrying!

Good luck with the thistle. Sounds like you've quite a battle on your hands. I halve also heard of hydrogen peroxide killing weeds in a strong concentration.
http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/peroxide-garden.html

I don't know what type of ants you've got, but I've lived in the deep South for 30 years and have battled fire ants in lawn and garden the entire time. We're strictly organic so we don't use chemicals (well, at least I am -- DH would like to nuke the vicious little critters, but I won't let him). One thing I learned just a few years ago is that fire ants like their environment on the dry side. So whenever my garden, containers, or worm beds are infested with fire ants, a good repeated soaking with just plain water will usually send them scurrying for greener, dryer pastures. The objective here is not to eradicate because that's not gonna happen, but to harass until they give up and move elsewhere. I don't know if this will help in your case because your ants may have different environmental preferences.

My mother used to use the boiling water technique to get rid of ant nests that came a little too close for comfort to the house, and it was quite effective. Most that she doused just disappeared thereafter. I still use boiling water to break up fire ant nests in areas where there are no important plant roots that would be injured by hot water.

When we have thistles in our yard, we dig them out with a drain/track spade.

Thistle and control according to this fact sheet it seems eradication must be approached in a systematic and somewhat long term way. Above all prevent it from seeding this year. Best of luck with this project! :!: I did not do a search for organic remediation of thistle.