Creeping Charlie, also known as Glechoma hederacea, is an evergreen creeping weed that is very adaptable and can grow everywhere. It can become really stubborn over time and you will have a hard time getting rid of it once you decide to remove it from your lawn.
What’s most interesting about this weed is that it looks beautiful with its blue blossoms, but it has become undesirable due to its aggressiveness. It transfers from one lawn to another with ease, it spreads very rapidly and it’s hard to remove completely. Have you noticed it in your lawn recently and now you are wondering how to get rid of Creeping Charlie? Read down and see which way will work the best for you and your lawn.
Remove it manually
You should definitely consider this method if creeping Charlie has spread over a small area of your lawn, it’s nearby edible plants, fruits and vegetables or children and pets play around. If herbicides don’t sound good to you then roll up your sleeves and hand-pull the weed.
To make things easier for you I advise you to water the soil and wait an hour until it’s fully soaked. In this way you will be able to remove any roots easily without them breaking in the ground. Another thing that you should do is to trim any leaves and stems in order to see every spot where Creeping Charlie emerges. Make sure to throw the cuttings in the bin because I bet that you wouldn’t like to grow new roots of it from the stems.
When you are done use a trowel to find any roots or pieces of the weed that you have missed. If you leave some in the ground, it’s going to grow again really soon. It’s very probable that you will miss some, so repeat the procedure after a week or so.
Use herbicides
If you aren’t in the mood for a slow and manual removal of Creeping Charlie or if it has taken up a really large area of your lawn, you should definitely consider using herbicides.
There are herbicides that will kill Creeping Charlie and all of the rest of the plants around it which means that you will have to start planting all over again or find a herbicide that it’s lawn-friendly that will just get rid of the weed.
Fall is the ideal season to use chemicals that will kill Creeping Charlie. Make sure that there isn’t any wind that will transfer the spray over other plants and that it isn’t going to rain for the next day. You won’t have to do anything else in the winter. The weed will dye and compost in the ground, so you will just have to rake up any debris in the spring and plant anything you like.
Deprive it of sunlight
Every plant needs a certain amount of sunlight in order to grow and Creeping Charlie is not an exception too. If you decide to kill it by depriving it of sunlight, you should make sure that you block even the tiniest ray of sunshine because it can survive even in the shadiest areas.
Think about using cardboard, cloth or a tarp. Make certain that you cut holes over the plants that you would like to survive. Place something heavy on the things that you use for coverage, so they won’t get removed by the wind or some animals. You will need a week for the weed to die in the best scenario. Get rid of its remains including roots once you notice that it’s dead.
Closure
It doesn’t matter which method you are going to use to get rid of Creeping Charlie, you have to remember to be persistent when dealing with this annoying weed in your lawn.
