Burdock

Now that I've let some acreage of my yard go natural, plants are filling in.  Some plants I am happy to see filling in. Sumac is an example of a plant that is spreading across the yard and I'm happy to see it.  Sumac brings me back to my childhood when I used to pretend the area under the sumac bushes was my castle.  I like the big bluestem grass.  I like the goldenrod and dandelion.  I like the asters, the wild violets, milkweed plants and mullen.  I don't like the poison ivy and the buckthorn.  Last year I had a nice plant of burdock.  I used to call burdock wild rhubarb because the first year it grows, it does look like rhubarb.  I even used some of the extra large leaves in a craft project.  I used a cement mix to cast the leaves and form bird baths.  This year, however, I am not so happy with the burdock.  Look at it!  It's a huge plant plumb full of those velcro like sticky, hitch-hiking seeds.  I have spent hours over the years pulling these seeds out of knit fabric.  You walk through the woods only to find your socks or your pants or even your jacket is covered with these velcro seeds.  And if you've got children with you, they are shorter so more of their clothes carry the seeds.  And you have to pull them out one by freaking one.  They won't come out two at a time, oh, no, not these seeds.  More than once I have contemplated the time it would take me to remove all these seeds versus throwing the piece of clothing in the trash and buying a new one.  And now I have a five foot tall, five foot diameter specimen growing in my yard trying to propagate itself.  I want to cut it down and haul it away but how do I even get near this thing without getting covered with hitch-hikers?  I can't go out there naked.  The plant is in the front yard.  Maybe I'll wear my plastic rain coat and plastic pants and crocs.  I don't want to put it in the compost or leave it lay in the yard.  I might throw it on the burn pile.  I can't get over how much this plant can change in appearance from one year to the next.