Thistles are noxious weeds. If you let them go to seed, you'll have lots more thistles next year.

Yes. It's terrible. Hummingbirds, butterflies, and dragonflies everywhere. It's like the whole garden is full of life. Need to kill everything with a lawn. And spray chemicals everywhere. Damned pollinators are taking over!

@Whuffo I have also some thistles in my garden. Rather harmless compared to dandelion or soapwort.

@Whuffo The goldfinches eat a lot of the seeds, and whatever leftovers sprout up is easy-peasy to pull (good exercise). But there are so many different kinds of bugs visiting the flowers (which are very pretty), sometimes I just stand there and observe in wonder the diversity of my ecosystem. Last week I was watching two assassin bugs team up to catch and eat a fly.