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PLEASE help me kill creeping charlie

perennialfan273

10 years ago

This thing is in my lawn (which happens to be near my garden beds) and is invading. Unfortunately the beds are already established to round up is not an option. How can I kill this thing in my lawns (and in the beds it is in) without killing my other plants?

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Comments (10)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 years ago
for the lawn.. use 100% round up in the very expensive.. high tech container at the link ...

drip a few drops on each plant and just keep at it for however long it takes ...

what you can do.. is take a handful ... grab it.. pull it up .... use scissors.. and one drip on each cut ...

the other alternative with RU.;. is to get a spray tank.. and practice with water.. until you can make BIG DROPLETS come out of the nozzle end... gravity makes them fall to the earth.. to many peeps think RU is french perfume.. and atomize it under too much pressure.. and go figure.. it floats on the air ...

anyway.. droplets are a function of how many pumps ... pressure.. and the nozzle adjustment from mist to drops... and when you get real good.. you can add trigger pressure ..

just practice with water on the driveway.. until you understand how your tools works... and then properly dilute the RU for the application .... [the full strength stuff can be returned to the properly labeled container for storage ]

and with a training plant like this.. you dont need to saturate the whole.... i bet 60% coverage.. will kill up to 95% of it .... and that is all i try for.. on my first spray ... and then i come back in a week.. and do the rest ...

you will be needing to reseed the lawn in fall ... so even at worse... come late august.. just kill the lawn and all .... and reseed in fall ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link
shadeyplace
10 years ago
Ha ha ha I have never been able to get rid of it entirely. Impossible.
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When it becomes necessary to use chemicals to kill weeds I use roundup-either concentrated, which will kill vigorous vines like Japanese bittersweet or Virginia creeper, or roundup for weeds and/or poison ivy. It's not an easy process, but put a bowl of the concentrated roundup in a small container, then put this container into a bigger tote, bucket or other larger vessel so that if you drip any it goes into the bigger bucket, not on your other plants. Use a small paint or pastry brush to apply the roundup. Wherever you pull the weed out you brush the roundup on the cut/broken end. It kills the plant down to the roots. I learned this in a landscaping class. We worked in teams with one person down low, the other person had the brush taped to a long handle so they did not have to bend over. Person 1 went snip, snip, snip, pull, pull, pull, person 2 did brush, brush, brush, brush, brush,...then on to the next section. By keeping our motions the same and repetitive we were able to work quickly without the up and down, or switching from one tool to the other, and cleared entire beds in short time. Within a week after application the entire beds wee clear of weed. Just b\make sure you only apply the liquid to the cut ends, and no where else. I hope this helps! Good luck.
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18 months after converting my patchwork lawn to just about 100% Tall Fescue (cheap/tough K31 at that). I have so few spots of CC I just hand pull it occasionally while mowing my lawn and at that it just seems like finesse. The seed is inexpensive and has gotten the job done with several overseedings after a scorching cutting. My strategy was to think "below ground." Kentucky Bluegrass, for example, has a shallow weak root system. One selling feature is the vigorous surface roots that enable it to spread in to bare spots. This behavior is essential identical to CC at the macro-level. Cheap K-31 grass operates in a different manner. The roots are very deep and the plant prefers to be a bit tall (usually 4" mowings for me) not creepy. I ammended soil pretty deep in areas of poor topsoil. It germinates quickly and establishs to a "bigger" potential much later. But once established -- it is harder to kill then CC. Thats how I eliminated CC. I let the K31 get strong then beat up my lawn pretty badly but with just a few moments of consideration just prior. Mowing it short in heat, mowing at varying heights that "didn't make sense", letting it get tall for some periods. K-31 if you want cheap, extremely durable, weed-free turf --consensus is just overseed it every other year. KGB if you aim to have a prettier but very high maintance lawn requiring extra water, chemicals/organics, and attention with less need to overseed for thick turf. My only question for some of the posts is what kind of grass and what kind of conditions exist and shooting for. Best of luck with whatever grass species!
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gardenweed_z6a
10 years ago
I gave up trying when it grew up, over and on top of my bark mulch. The only thing I've found that even slows it down is deeply "ditching" the edges of my garden beds.
laceyvail 6A, WV
10 years ago
It's taken over most of my lawn and I've been fighting it for years. You just have to keep pulling it away from your beds.
harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
10 years ago
I have had success with Weed B Gone (Max?). I mix it a bit stronger than recommended and spot spray a few times each season. Charlie doesn't curl up and die like a dandelion. It takes a while. It seems that the winter cold helps finish him off.

There is no easy solution for this weed. The good news is that it does pull out quite easily from a mulched bed. The bad news is that a little can spread a long way in one season.
aachenelf z5 Mpls
10 years ago
Yep, Weed Be Gone works in the lawn. Roundup would also kill any grass you have, so don't use that there. In beds, just keep pulling it out as you see it or use spot treatments of Roundup.

Kevin
mayalena
10 years ago
I am trying to fight back with regular pulling, but Charlie just laughs. It's very frustrating!
Thyme2dig NH Zone 5
10 years ago
I had it in a large area of a garden bed. I was fortunate in that it was a bed with mainly trees and shrubs with a bit of space, so I was able to use a stirrup hoe in the entire area, and by really cutting in deep down with the hoe, I have eradicated it........in that area. It's in other beds of mine where I just pull by hand all season long since there are so many perennials in those beds. At least it's fairly easy to pull. Thanks for the info above about taking care of it in the lawn.
tmajor
9 years ago
I redid my entire front yard (1 acre) a few years back. Since then creeping charlie has taken over about 1/2 of it. I tried the most common weed killers found on the Internet, including Weed Be Gone Max. Nothing seemed to work. It was so bad this year, I felt I only had 2 options .. Round Up or plow it under and start over. I tried R/U on part of the lawn, which after about 1 week, has killed the grass, but only injured the C/C. Then I found another product, recommended for C/C, etc., to be used on turf. I bought a small quantity of this product to try, as it's expensive. The next day after application, the C/C was looking pretty sick. By about day 3, it was dead (or so it has appeared). I ordered a gallon and have sprayed the entire lawn. The remaining C/C and dandelions are once again looking sick, after 24 hours. This is the only product, which has killed the C/C and saved the lawn.The product is PBI Gordon's Speed Zone, bought from Pestrong.Com!

I now, have to till and reseed the areas, where I applied R/U.

This post was edited by tmajor on Sun, May 18, 14 at 16:06
jayco
9 years ago
I have a ton of it too. I comfort myself by watching the bees -- they love it, so it's at least good for something.

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