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.

As to creeping buttercup, it is a great pain for these reasons:  in my garden in southern state of Victoria, Australia it kills or suppresses all other plants very quickly and spreads by both seed and runners above and below ground.  I have had a long running battle with it and I would not suggest trying to live with it unless you don't don't want any other plants to grow.

My best efforts are:  digging it out by the roots especially in spring when the mild frost we get here has beaten it back and it is just putting out relatively short plants.  This is absolutely necessary if it has made itself comfortable in the midst of other plants i.e. grown into and among the roots of roses, etc.  Also in the cracks of paving stones and bricks.  No other way except spray for these guys.

If it has situated itself on flat patches of land you can cover it with lots of cardboard with no cracks for it to find light and then a heavy layer of mulch to keep the cardboard in place - I use sugar cane mulch but probably an Australian thing - it does not move with the wind or degrade very quickly.  Organic is best, when you can get it.
Or you can use black plastic held in place with bricks, not my favourite choice but when I have some lying around I will do this.

THEN - leave it in the hot sun of a whole summer and when you uncover it,  it should be dead and gone. But do not become complacent, it will come back and it is important to keep digging it out as it reasserts itself.

Interesting to note, the one plant I have found that really suppresses it where you have initially removed it as best you can by digging out as much of the roots as you can or baked it as described above is symphytum officinale - true comfrey. It really suppresses it in a quite extraordinary way but I know it can be somewhat invasive as well.  I have also experimented with a few other types of daintier comfrey plants but they are no match for this invasive buttercup.

It definitely thrives in our quite acid soil and I intend  to experiment with broadcasting lime where it is really thick.

On a visit to the Zurich area of Switzerland, all the hydrangeas I saw were a luscious shade of deep rose.   In my valley I have never seen flowers like that as all the hydrangeas in my garden and valley which are not white are a gorgeous deep shade of blue, with no effort on my part. The colour of hydrangeas are a reflection of the PH of the soil. I noticed the dreaded buttercup living happily and modestly among other plants in the meadows near Zurich. Just a little yellow buttercup nodding in the breeze, not a whole field entirely overtaken by them as you find around here.

Hope this helps and I urge you not to take any advice to live with it.  I see Skandi Rogers has come to exactly the same  conclusions as I have.  You don't have to attack all areas at once, if you have a lot - just do what you can and you will eventually get on top of it.  In the meanwhile, keep the untreated areas mowed very short.  I would advise taking action on it immediately before you worry about grass.  This is a long term project but worth stopping it before it takes over your entire large yard as it did in mine.  Not a weed to try to live with.