Why not just dig the weed?

"Why not just dig the weed?"

My question too, Viola Ann.
Herbicides and pesticides (poisons) reach water systems when it rains, however it's spread.All that shtuff , including the pharmaceuticals we flush down the drain, don't just go away. We're poisoning the earth.

I use fine artist's brushes too. Sometimes the invading plant is so intertwined like this annoying white-root lobelia spreading through my sedum that it cannot be dug out without thrashing the sedum.

I think this is a good idea to fight weeds that can't be dug, like ivy, wisteria, and trumpet vine climbing into trees. Cut them off, and use a paint brush to apply appropriate herbicide. In some cases vinegar might work. I have proposed a similar idea but get jumped on by the anti herbicide campaigners. There are ways to supress weeds, like watering then covering with cardboard. But some--like poison ivy climbing up a building are much better controlled by this method, cut and paint, than with a tank of glyphsate sprayed indescriminately all over the place.

Certainly, using glyphosate is a last resort, but using appropriate herbicides in this manner instead of dousing the country side with it, would solve 90% of the problem of contaminated groundwater.

I understand that sometimes the weeds are intertwined and hard to get at. But I have to admit, once or twice a year I "thrash" the sedum and in a week you'd never know I'd been messing with it. It's pretty forgiving, but not all plants are. But I think painting the pesticide on should be a last resort.

It is a last resort when the weed roots are up, and intertwined with the good plants roots.
I have bindweed roots which I am sure start under the garage, but I can not dig them out.
And there is a nice stand of delphiniums there also.

The other place this happens is where roots of the weed go under the sidewalk.