So I’ve been battleing a nasty creeping charlie infestaion for the past few years. Try as a I might I can’t beat it, in fact if get’s worse every year so I finally gave in and called in the big guns (naturescape) to help me deal with it. At the moment, my back yard is probably about 5% creeping charlie, but my front yard is probably closer to 80%. The problem is, and I’m well aware of it, that the creeping charlie has choked out alot of my grass. I know full well that if I could magically eradicate it all right now, I would have a really ugly, bare lawn. But I also know it will likely take two or three summers to get rid of all together. Anyways, I just received a flyer from naturescape offering to aerate and overseed the lawn. Should I do it? Or would it be a waste of time at this point. The aerateing I’m not concerned about since it won’t hurt anything, if face it would probably be good for the lawn, but I’m worried that since the creeping charlie is so thick, that any new grass is just going to die off instead of choking out the CC. So is it worth it to do it now, or should I wait until the CC is thined out a bit?
I’m taking my one bump.
I hate hate using pesticides but I love a green lawn. The hardest thing to get rid of is creeping charlie and its the one thing I spray to get rid of.
The only natural way that I’ve heard to get rid of this is the rototill the creeping charlie, wait for it to resurface then rototill again. Repeat over the course of a few months to weaken the plant. Then you will have success reseeding.
The root nodes of creeping charlie will all grow a new plant, and I’d say at least every two inches is a separate node. Diligent weeding and tilling may get rid of it. A yard scape fabric over it all year will kill it. It needs light as much as the other plants do. You can also kill it by flooding the area for until it dies. Muck farmers sometimes do this.
I would suggest you spray the herbicide to kill it, and worry about seeding after that.
I think it’s too late in the year to kill it now.
When I called naturescape I got in just in time. They have two treatments left for the year and one of them is a weed killer. So luckily I got one weed killer treatment. I was surprised, all my CC has brown edges. Not enough to kill it I’m sure (it tends to be rather hardy donchaknow), but it ought to slow it down.
So am I right in assuming that with how think the coverage is, there’s not much point in overseeding?
As for use measures as drastic as rototilling or fabricing my entire front and back lawn. I’m not ready for that just yet. In fact, as long as your more then 15 feet away, it appears as though I have the nicest lawn on the block. In fact I get complements on it from time to time. I guess I’m luckly that I got invaded by a plat that’s the same color as grass. OTOH if I had dandelions as thick as the CC, I would consider ripping it all out and starting over.
Weeding wouldn’t get rid of it in my case. In fact I think it’s funny when people tell me to do that, it means they haven’t seen my yard. Trying to get rid of it by pulling it would be like trying to picking up the leaves from a REALLY large tree one by one instead of using a rake. It would be a never ending project.
If the herbicide is successful and eliminates the creeping charlie, you will need the reseeding to keep the lawn from being bare dirt.
Don’t be discouraged . Some herbicides take weeks to finish their work. If the leaf edges are getting yellow or brown, chances are the weed is dying a slow but sure death.
I used diligent for a reason. I wouldn’t try the effort needed to do that, because you’d have to get every plant the moment it came up. Weeding is for a small infestation you notice after somebody gives you a plant and Creeping Charlie tagged along. The back yard is full of it because the neighbor didn’t control their infestation, and that pisses me off.
I plan on using the herbicide on the lawn next spring.
It will be to late to seed grass in Milwaukee, once the weed is dead. It’s something for next year, unless you want to risk the cost in the hopes we will stay warm longer than usual.
Fall is the best time for chemical attacks on many varieties of weeds. The weeds are trying to store energy for Winter, and weed killer/herbicide interferes with that. A chemically treated weed is less likely to survive the Winter.
Wait 15-30 days before aerating and seeding. Have tall grass going into Nov/Dec, and with cool weather you have your best chance at choking out the vile weed. Your new grass will take root.
Fertilize through the late fall…early winter…winter…late winter…early spring…etc. Your grass will benefit, but the weed won’t.
You should not touch the soil in the spring. Cultivating the soil in spring is asking to be over run. Go to town on the soil now. Make this the big push to kill weeds.
Something that is 80% creeping charlie be killing it is going to fill in with weeds in the spring, if he doesn’t plant grass then.
I don’t think you can fertalize in winter here. It would just sit on top of the 14 inches of snow.
Err, could you rephrase that, I’m having trouble parsing it? I should overseed or I shouldn’t?
The way I see it, between CC and grass, CC wins. So I should probably wait until naturescape has a handle on the CC before overseeding, right?
A lawn that is 80% creeping charlie which you are killing off, will be full of other weeds after spring, if you don’t plant grass seed in the spring.
My brain is kind of messed up today, so you’ll find more posts by me that make little sense. I read something different than what is printed, and my speech comes out archaic. I don’t catch that the sentence is unreadable. People should let me know when it happens, I just don’t want to listen to whining that I spelled something wrong.
Check with naturescape because the weed killer could adversely affect the new seed/seedlings.
And if there is snow present, skip the fertilizer, but have it ready to go at first signs of a thaw.
Point is, extend the feeding time for the grass beyond your normal end point.
To plant grass in spring is to invite weeds. You want to do a second weed smack-down in the spring, not practice cultivation processes that encourage weeds (such as planting seed…unless you just throw the seed, but then it’ll go to waste because the weed killer you should be using again is gonna harm the seed, and you don’t want to avoid the weed killer because of the seed next spring).
Kill as much now. Allow proper time to make soil safe (check with ntrscp), plant new seed, get it to be dominant. In spring, weed and feed. Kill the weeds…kill the weeds and don’t cultivate the soil to plant anything, 'cause that pretty much works against the ‘kill the weeds’ concept.
So I should aerate/overseed now. BTW it’s naturescape that’s going to do the aerating and overseeding, so I’m sure they have the timing worked out. It is in their best interest to make my lawn look great.
Yes – but I’d expect some delay between the weed killer application and the aeration/seeding. Ask them.
Absolutely, 100% no doubt about this: Fall is the time to seed new grass and disrupt the soil. Weeds are at a disadvantage. You never want to disrupt the soil (a condition necessary for seeding) in the Spring. Weeds own the spring. It’s their season. Weeds will over run you should you try to disrupt the soil in the spring. This snippet is Overseeding 101.
Allrightythen, I’m sending in my money.
Danka