There's a lot of goutweed in my mothers garden. It keeps spreading and is now in the places where veggies are to be planted. My mom is in constant battle with the weed, trying to get it out of her perennials.
- the roots are deep and spreading, they are brittle and fragile so they break when you pull them up, and as I understand it, they come back from the smallest piece. They are constantly spreading into new ground and are not kept back by an edge.
- ironically the fragile roots seem to have the ability to pierce right through other plants roots, corms, bulbs etc.

Anyone deal with this weed? I would love to hear your take on how to manage it in a vegetable garden.
We do not have a tiller so it will be dug by pick and fork, but no way I will get every piece of root.
Still I can only assume that like other weeds, it's enough to keep pulling them during the season and keep them at bay.
What do you think?

My only success was with Roundup(tm) and that wasn’t in a food garden. My only thought is to keep pulling and digging and pulling and digging and by no means let that stuff flower and go seed. And that means anyplace within sight of the garden. Good luck!

If you use Roundup in or near a vegetable garden use a brush to paint the leaves instead of spraying.

No chance of any roundup being used. I've never used chemicals and I'm old and stuck in my ways.

My mom has also been trying to get rid of it on their yard for many years, so I do not know any quick way to battle with it. I have heard that young goutweed is edible as salad, so maybe it could be used as edible plant and then it is not such nuisance.

Goutweed is one reason why I rarely trade perennial flowers with people. I did almost get another invasive plant to my flower bed, but luckily noticed the new sprouts of creeping bellflower and started digging and found all roots and tubers, before it had spread.