weed invasion in yard - organic weed remover?

Hi All,

We finally moved into our new apartment and the beautiful grass that we were looking forward to in December 2019 is now a weed jungle.

Is there a way to get rid of the weeds organically, with seeds or a spray or something? We don't want to dig up all the grass and re-plant because that would take forever. please let me know if there are any easy alternatives, especially if there is something topical we can do.

Have a nice day!

in the photo with the dirt patch - the previous tenants dug out some of the weeds and replanted grass in an effort to do us a favour. it isn't working out so well.

I suggest studying the individual weeds and identifying as many as you can before doing any spraying. I am betting that many of them are beneficial or even medicinal. Years ago I felt offended by the diversity of weeds that supplanted the grass in the spring but over the years we have come to enjoy and even embrace that diversity. One thing that pushed me over was while preparing to spray one year some decades ago I noticed the thousands of bugs flying around feeding on the weeds. Never sprayed after that (except for very targeted spot applications to poison sumac or poison ivy). We even hold off on the first mowing because early in the season the bounty of nectar for the bugs is less. If something really looks bad or is too invasive we will dig it up or whack it down with the electric trimmer.

James Whitelaw wrote:I suggest studying the individual weeds and identifying as many as you can before doing any spraying. I am betting that many of them are beneficial or even medicinal. Years ago I felt offended by the diversity of weeds that supplanted the grass in the spring but over the years we have come to enjoy and even embrace that diversity. One thing that pushed me over was while preparing to spray one year some decades ago I noticed the thousands of bugs flying around feeding on the weeds. Never sprayed after that (except for very targeted spot applications to poison sumac or poison ivy). We even hold off on the first mowing because early in the season the bounty of nectar for the bugs is less. If something really looks bad or is too invasive we will dig it up or whack it down with the electric trimmer.

ok. cool. Thanks!

Where are you located (country)?

The "weed" in bloom is indeed a medicinal herb, Glechoma hederacea. You can eat the young leaves in salad or dip them in chocolate. I looked up the English name, it is ground ivy.
It is very valuable for pollinators, wild as well as honey bees and bee flies (here in Central Europe).

Second question: Why do you want to remove those plants? If you want to make a garden bed, you can easily suppress them with heavy mulching. Or are there any regulations that tell you how a lawn should look like?
Here the private home-owners are not allowed to spray the lawn or yard, and many people enjoy a lawn dotted in white (daisies), yellow (dandelion) and blue (ground ivy) - it's the season now in April.

Anita Martin wrote:Where are you located (country)?

The "weed" in bloom is indeed a medicinal herb, Glechoma hederacea. You can eat the young leaves in salad or dip them in chocolate. I looked up the English name, it is ground ivy.
It is very valuable for pollinators, wild as well as honey bees and bee flies (here in Central Europe).

Second question: Why do you want to remove those plants? If you want to make a garden bed, you can easily suppress them with heavy mulching. Or are there any regulations that tell you how a lawn should look like?
Here the private home-owners are not allowed to spray the lawn or yard, and many people enjoy a lawn dotted in white (daisies), yellow (dandelion) and blue (ground ivy) - it's the season now in April.

oh wow. ok, cool thanks. I will do my research. We live in Switzerland. In the event that we do some sort of spraying, it will only be organic. We have no interest in using pesticides or anything like that.

Thanks

Before you mow or use something organic, try to watch out for this charming little creature, the bee fly (Wollschweber in German).
Not my picture, but you can see this fuzzy little insect hovering like a humming bird in front of the flowers. It parasites on native wild bees, so if you see those you can assume that there is a sound wild bee population nearby.

Anita Martin wrote:Before you mow or use something organic, try to watch out for this charming little creature, the bee fly (Wollschweber in German).
Not my picture, but you can see this fuzzy little insect hovering like a humming bird in front of the flowers. It parasites on native wild bees, so if you see those you can assume that there is a sound wild bee population nearby.

ah yes. we have a lot of those, i wondered what they were. so they are bad?

Will Ven wrote:
ah yes. we have a lot of those, i wondered what they were. so they are bad?

Oh no, there are no goodies and baddies in a balanced garden. If there are enough wild bees, they can easily sustain some of these fuzzy cuties. You eat and you get eaten, that's life!

The weed in the first picture is mainly creeping buttercup I can see a couple of daisys and one clover plant in the picture to, creeping buttercup is a real pain there's no way to kill it without killing everything else. You will have to either dig that lot out and get all the roots, and then keep on top of new seedlings or cover it with something to exclude light for a minimum of 6 months to remove it.  it spreads by seed and by runners (like a strawberry) so it will invade neighbouring areas. it's not too hard to dig out, the roots are thick and strong but not very deep.

Buttercup is meant to like acid soil so adding lime is often advised, but I have soil with a pH of 8.5 and creeping buttercup is one of my major weeds, so I would take liming advice with a pinch of salt.

Skandi Rogers wrote:The weed in the first picture is mainly creeping buttercup I can see a couple of daisys and one clover plant in the picture to, creeping buttercup is a real pain there's no way to kill it without killing everything else. You will have to either dig that lot out and get all the roots, and then keep on top of new seedlings or cover it with something to exclude light for a minimum of 6 months to remove it.  it spreads by seed and by runners (like a strawberry) so it will invade neighbouring areas. it's not too hard to dig out, the roots are thick and strong but not very deep.

Buttercup is meant to like acid soil so adding lime is often advised, but I have soil with a pH of 8.5 and creeping buttercup is one of my major weeds, so I would take liming advice with a pinch of salt.

ok. so would i need to dig up (or cover) my entire yard to get rid of it? it has probably spread to half the yard.

To me, it looks like the easiest way to deal with that lawn is to change your meme...

Rather than thinking of the existing lawn plants as some kind of evil that needs to be eradicated, why not embrace them as legitimate occupants of the lawn. Mow them just like you would mow any other species of lawn. The spring ephemerals will be dying off in a month or so anyway, to be replaced by summer plants. And the summer plants will be replaced by fall plants. And all the while, the perennial grasses will be reproducing, and gaining ground.

That bare patch of ground? No problem, if it's not got enough grass on it already, throw more seed out during rainy weather. Raking it in if you want. No need to kill the existing species. The grass will eventually out-compete the annuals, if grass is something that grows well there.

And when speaking to your neighbors, it helps to call it a wildflower meadow.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
To me, it looks like the easiest way to deal with that lawn is to change your meme...

Rather than thinking of the existing lawn plants as some kind of evil that needs to be eradicated, why not embrace them as legitimate occupants of the lawn. Mow them just like you would mow any other species of lawn. The spring ephemerals will be dying off in a month or so anyway, to be replaced by summer plants. And the summer plants will be replaced by fall plants. And all the while, the perennial grasses will be reproducing, and gaining ground.

That bare patch of ground? No problem, if it's not got enough grass on it already, throw more seed out during rainy weather. Raking it in if you want. No need to kill the existing species. The grass will eventually out-compete the annuals, if grass is something that grows well there.

And when speaking to your neighbors, it helps to call it a wildflower meadow.

thanks. I will work on my meme. and my brain. and my wine intake.

Will Ven wrote:

Skandi Rogers wrote:The weed in the first picture is mainly creeping buttercup I can see a couple of daisys and one clover plant in the picture to, creeping buttercup is a real pain there's no way to kill it without killing everything else. You will have to either dig that lot out and get all the roots, and then keep on top of new seedlings or cover it with something to exclude light for a minimum of 6 months to remove it.  it spreads by seed and by runners (like a strawberry) so it will invade neighbouring areas. it's not too hard to dig out, the roots are thick and strong but not very deep.

Buttercup is meant to like acid soil so adding lime is often advised, but I have soil with a pH of 8.5 and creeping buttercup is one of my major weeds, so I would take liming advice with a pinch of salt.

ok. so would i need to dig up (or cover) my entire yard to get rid of it? it has probably spread to half the yard.

If you want grass yes, if you can live with any green cover do as Joseph suggests, you can still walk on it, play on it and sit on it.

Skandi Rogers wrote:The weed in the first picture is mainly creeping buttercup I can see a couple of daisys and one clover plant in the picture to, creeping buttercup is a real pain there's no way to kill it without killing everything else. You will have to either dig that lot out and get all the roots, and then keep on top of new seedlings or cover it with something to exclude light for a minimum of 6 months to remove it.  it spreads by seed and by runners (like a strawberry) so it will invade neighbouring areas. it's not too hard to dig out, the roots are thick and strong but not very deep.

Buttercup is meant to like acid soil so adding lime is often advised, but I have soil with a pH of 8.5 and creeping buttercup is one of my major weeds, so I would take liming advice with a pinch of salt.

In the first picture, I believe there may mugwort mixed in.  Pull, pull, pull.