The last few years I have been having more and more tree seedlings sprouting in my garden there are a lot of mature trees in our yard and in the neighborhood. I pulled or dug them out this spring as I do every spring sometimes I use a larger pliers with a rubber handle to get a good grip on them to get all the root pulled. I recentlly pulled a bunch more this fall really getting tired of them.

Does anyone else have this problem and if so what do you do to keep so many from sprouting.

Forgot to add that I mulch with lots of leaves in the fall.

i use pre emergent, but still have hundreds of tree seedlings that I pull up by hand.

A problem for me too. I have oak and Maple seedlings to deal with. Wish I had a better solution to pulling sprouts, but I do not. Best to do after a good drenching (rain or sprinkler) when the soil is soft. Much easier that way.

Sounds like some of us are in the same boat with tree seedlings. I do try to pull them after a rain problem this fall is we had no rain for so long that the soil was harder to pull from. Plus I have a large garden so it takes me almost a week to get it done. I wonder if I would pur Preen down in fall before I mulch with leaves if that would help the tree seeds from sprouting in spring. We have squirrels that bury butternuts in my garden those quickley get long roots that you have to dig out.

Is it possible that there are some tree seeds in the leaves you are using to mulch?

I have large beds and a lot of them and sometimes a tree seedling will get hidden around other tall plants and I won't see it until it is too big to pull. If I try to dig it out I disturb roots of nearby plants. I have started cutting the seedling off at ground level and immediately spraying the cut end with poison ivy/brush killer. I can usually make the spray a narrow stream and spray just the cut end of the seedling. This seems to work for me. It kills the seedling and doesn't harm the plants around it.

Ann there could be some seeds in the leaves it is hard to tell, I am thinking that they blow in the garden when they fall from the trees. I am considering maybe taking a tall plastic pail and cutting the bottom off so I can put it around the seedlings and spray them so the spray doesn't get on anything else. The trouble is there are hundreds of seedlings when they sprout aven though I keep digging and pulling them there is always more.

Ann, have to try that. I have some total vegetation killer, but am reluctant to use that in an area with plants and things I WANT to be there.

We have had this problem for years and years. It would be too expensive to put preemergent all over the yard. I only use roundup on the real stubborn ones, like the ones growing in between the cracks in sidewalk, I cannot dig them up.
Everytime I walk around yard I pull up at least ten saplings. That is the only way to keep up with it. The only ones I am concerned about are those in the flower beds. The ones in the yard get mowed.