WEEDS!!

[Dixana]

Can anyone tell me what this and how to GET RID of it? It's taking over!! The lawn, the garden it's spreading like wildfire.

[img]https://i42.tinypic.com/fd61qp.jpg[/img]

[Toil]

first you need to focus

[Dixana]

I can't take a clearer picture Phone you know...

[Kisal]

Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea)?

[img]https://faculty.etsu.edu/MCDOWELT/Pictures%20Use/Glechoma%20hederacea%201.JPG[/img]

Very hard, perhaps impossible, to control by weeding, because it spreads by stolons. If you leave a tiny piece of stolon in the ground, the plant comes right back. On one site, I read that a solution of borax & water can be sprayed for control, but it's tricky. Get your solution a little too strong, or spray it a little too heavily, and it will kill all the other plants in the area, too.

As much as I dislike herbicides, this may be an instance where you'll need to use a broadleaf weedkilller of some kind. Since I don't use such things, I can't advise you of which would do the least damage to your property. There are other members here who have that knowledge. Maybe one of them will respond soon with some good suggestions for you.

[Dixana]

junk. I was hoping it wasn't something nasty like that.
I guess I better do some research. Will mulch smother it?

[vermontkingdom]

It's absolutely insidious. I've kept it out of my garden but my raspberry patch and lawn is so infested that it's a lost cause. I don't use broad leaf pesticides but I did try the borax treatment. Useless!

[slormand]

I have the same thing--it's called Creeping Charlie, among other things.

And it is certainly a creep! We had a small patch when you moved here about 4 years ago and now my backyard is completely infested. I've hoed (gotta take the anger out), pulled.

I'm currently running two experiments:

1)cutting off all of the growth and then liberally covering the area with flattened cardboard, leaf mulch and sterile topsoil.
2) soil solarization [url]https://ceamador.ucdavis.edu/files/942.pdf[/url]

The cardboard method helped me get rid of a super-thick patch of English Ivy, so I know it CAN work. Just not sure how the neighbors would feel about my having a cardboard yard, KWIM?

Otherwise I just try and stay positive and remind myself that grass is, in fact, just a socially acceptable weed.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Garden rake, This is a shallow rooter and comes out pretty easy...

Then cardboard, Then mulch. If the spot is sunny enough, solarizing with clear plastic can work too...

I have a spot I am battling in my yard, right around my compost tumbler. I just beat it back every year and fight it again the next...

Some places still sell this stuff; I have seen the variagated form in nurseries...

HG

[applestar]

I know, my backyard is being taken over too. But I still say I like it. So what if it's replacing the grass? I like it better than grass. It's better behaved than grass for one thing. It smells good when I mow it. It stays short where you walk on it often. Plus the bees absolutely love the flowers.

Early in spring when not much else is in flower on the ground, the bees are all over them -- or were... this year, I'm not seeing many bees. Still it makes me happy to see that the bumble bees and honeybees have safe flowers to drink from in my yard.

When you need to weed them out, they pull out easily from moist soil. Pile them up to wilt/dry up and then use as mulch or compost. If any take root, pull them out.

In parts of my yard, these are everywhere INSTEAD OF GRASS -- ground ivy in the cooler moister seasons (spring and fall) and then clover take over in the hotter drier seasons. (Tee, hee. You probably don't want to hear that HG. ) I just wish they were native, then I could REALLY feel good about it.

[Dixana]

I must confess : I did like the purple flowers and think they were pretty......until they REFUSE to leave my garden.
I dig and weed and the next day more are sprouting!! Evil weed

[Toil]

I know, my backyard is being taken over too. But I still say I like it. So what if it's replacing the grass? I like it better than grass. It's better behaved than grass for one thing. It smells good when I mow it. It stays short where you walk on it often. Plus the bees absolutely love the flowers.

Early in spring when not much else is in flower on the ground, the bees are all over them -- or were... this year, I'm not seeing many bees. Still it makes me happy to see that the bumble bees and honeybees have safe flowers to drink from in my yard.

When you need to weed them out, they pull out easily from moist soil. Pile them up to wilt/dry up and then use as mulch or compost. If any take root, pull them out.

In parts of my yard, these are everywhere INSTEAD OF GRASS -- ground ivy in the cooler moister seasons (spring and fall) and then clover take over in the hotter drier seasons. (Tee, hee. You probably don't want to hear that HG. ) I just wish they were native, then I could REALLY feel good about it.

this is my favorite kind of post.

EDITED - PLEASE REPORT THIS POST, I got lemons!

no, you have pre-lemonade!

[BackerBunch]

In parts of my yard, these are everywhere INSTEAD OF GRASS -- ground ivy in the cooler moister seasons (spring and fall) and then clover take over in the hotter drier seasons. (Tee, hee. You probably don't want to hear that HG. ) I just wish they were native, then I could REALLY feel good about it.

We encourage the clover to grow in our yard too. We even transplant it to other parts of the yard if/when we dig any up for some reason.

[img]https://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa97/OurBoys2007/Yardwork-Improvements/DSC_0383.jpg[/img]

The clover stands up to foot traffic a lot better than grass plus it's easier to grow than grass. Living on a side of a hill, most of our grass seed always gets washed away. Besides, how can you not love clover when you have so many of these???

[img]https://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa97/OurBoys2007/Yardwork-Improvements/DSC_0392.jpg[/img]

My apologizes for going OT.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Brenda, I don't think showing folks the positive side of weeds is OT. MAny weeds can be very beneficial and even desirable. Let me tell you my big funny in the garden this year...

Wife has tidied the special Chenopodium seeds I ordered; tucked them soomewhere out of sight (I am an inveterate clutterbug and leave things about; she hides them on me to unclutter. We fill each others needs... ) So finally we locate the drawer she has squirreled them away and I set out to scatter them in the garden bed I have envisioned them in since fall...

I get out there and the area is completely sprouted with weeds. With lambs quarters. Otherwise known as Chenopodium alba, the exact seeds I held in my hand!

Gotta love when Mother Nature sez "That's a great idea! I'll do it!" Just let's me know I'm getting something right.

This plant was the mast food source for the natives of this area until corn showed up (only about 600-800 years back); the greens are yummy and you can make a flour from the seed. Tastes a bit like kale...

So is it a weed if I can eat it? If I want it? What is a crop, what is a weed?



HG

[BackerBunch]

LOL! Never underestimate Mother Nature!

I heard one time the definition of weed was anything you don't want. I think I'll add "or you can't work with".

We've got some crabgrass in our pumpkin patch. I think I'll try the sheet of clear plastic method on it.

[garden5]

Weeds can also have utilitarian purposes as well. There are some that are grown on embankments which help to prevent soil erosion.

[Dixana]

I've taken to just pulling up the ground ivy/creeping charlie out by hand. Trying to kill it completely won't do me any good as the people who's backyard is adjacent to mine is nothing BUT ground ivy. I guess the previous owners of that house used to have a huge garden and the new people never seeded it or anything so the weeds took over.
I guess it's ok in the yard, but no one ever did tell me if mulch will smother it out of the garden....
On another note: I spoke too soon about not having dandelions.....they're everywhere now that spring has "sprung"

[BackerBunch]

I don't know how you would feel about this but if it were me, I would start by cutting it off at the source. You could take the weedeater and start 'trimming' down your property line. We have some ground ivy in some of our woods and this is how I keep in contained.

[img]https://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa97/OurBoys2007/Yardwork-Improvements/DSC_0485.jpg[/img]

(DH wants to put some red blocks there but personally I feel it would be harder to maintain.)

Then you could place a layer of newspaper along the newly trimmed area and cover with mulch. Depending on how fast it grows, you could go out there every few days with a rake and do a combover in the hopes of training it to stay in it's own yard. I don't know if that will work but it might be worth a try.

I would try using the newspaper and mulch method in the other part of your yard too. Do you know someone in the tree trimming business or has a wood chipper? Fresh chipped wood might warm up better than mulch that's been around awhile.

[Gary350]

They call that stuff Chick Weed in Tennessee. I have a lot of that in my yard it makes a lot of very nice blue flowers in the spring. It must also make billions of seeds because I have given up trying to pull it up because it just keeps on growing new plants.