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Clover and Creeping Charlie

A springtime tip for any homeowners fighting clover and creeping charlie in their lawns.

We sold our house in late 2020 and "downsized" to an apartment. Wife's happy, me not so much. I miss the challenge of maintaining a house & lawn. While I had a lawn service for several years, they still couldn't eliminate creeping charlie coming in from our neighbors property. A year or two before we moved, I found the solution and wanted to pass it along. It's Ferti-Lome Weed Free Zone. It works, so isn't sold in NJ. I ordered it online. Put the recommended dosage in a pump sprayer, don't exceed, and lightly spray the weed. 10-14 days later spray again. Problem solved. While our neighbors were loaded with creeping charlie, my yard had none when we showed it.

Another lesson learned the hard way, For carpenter ants/pests inside or outside, don't hire an exterminator for $500. They only reduce the numbers to get you to keep paying. This is the pest site you need to check out. Visit or call. They are very helpful and much cheaper. I learned the hard way.
 
A quick trip to Big R or Farm & Fleet will cure both these issues for less than $30. The agricultural pest controls and weed killer work every time on the cheap. Just remember to watch the wind and don’t track the weed killer around on the grass 🙈
 
I use Landmaster BW. Once applied it kills everything for up to 6 months. You can walk on the applied area after it dries. Great for stone areas and sidewalk weed control and keeping creeping field grass out of my bluegrass yard.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Brian, thx.... I ordered some.. paid a bit more online, I think... Amazon said it couldn't be shipped to this address, but i didn't have any problem with another website.
 
A safe effective cure for ground ivey is a little boraxo in water sprayed. Check the web for the recipe. Excess boron can be applied if used too often. The recipe page will have the limits stated. Thinking it is twice a year, or for two years, then a rest.

It’ll wilt, brown and stiffen the ivy, then you can rake it all up very easily, plants and runners.
 
A springtime tip for any homeowners fighting clover and creeping charlie in their lawns.

We sold our house in late 2020 and "downsized" to an apartment. Wife's happy, me not so much. I miss the challenge of maintaining a house & lawn. While I had a lawn service for several years, they still couldn't eliminate creeping charlie coming in from our neighbors property. A year or two before we moved, I found the solution and wanted to pass it along. It's Ferti-Lome Weed Free Zone. It works, so isn't sold in NJ. I ordered it online. Put the recommended dosage in a pump sprayer, don't exceed, and lightly spray the weed. 10-14 days later spray again. Problem solved. While our neighbors were loaded with creeping charlie, my yard had none when we showed it.

Another lesson learned the hard way, For carpenter ants/pests inside or outside, don't hire an exterminator for $500. They only reduce the numbers to get you to keep paying. This is the pest site you need to check out. Visit or call. They are very helpful and much cheaper. I learned the hard way.
I will definitely have to give this a try. We have some clover that has been tough to get rid of. Maybe this will do the trick.
 
I will definitely have to give this a try. We have some clover that has been tough to get rid of. Maybe this will do the trick.

There should be some youtube videos on the product. It's the only thing I found that worked on clover and creeping charlie. If you don't use too much or overspray, it shouldn't hurt the grass. It's not recommended for use around fancy landscaping plants, but I would wait for a day with no wind and narrow the sprayer stream to hit just the clover around our landscaped plants.
 
There should be some youtube videos on the product. It's the only thing I found that worked on clover and creeping charlie. If you don't use too much or overspray, it shouldn't hurt the grass. It's not recommended for use around fancy landscaping plants, but I would wait for a day with no wind and narrow the sprayer stream to hit just the clover around our landscaped plants.
I don't have much fancy anything in the yard, so I should be good there. Grin.
 
Brian, thx.... I ordered some.. paid a bit more online, I think... Amazon said it couldn't be shipped to this address, but i didn't have any problem with another website.

Like the pesticide site I mentioned, some places won't ship certain products to certain States. I can't remember where I ordered my Weed-free Zone from. It is somewhat expensive, but you don't use much, so it lasts for a few seasons. I paid a landscaping company far more to apply fertilizer and weed control to my lawn every year, and even they couldn't kill my creeping charlie.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Like the pesticide site I mentioned, some places won't ship certain products to certain States. I can't remember where I ordered my Weed-free Zone from. It is somewhat expensive, but you don't use much, so it lasts for a few seasons. I paid a landscaping company far more to apply fertilizer and weed control to my lawn every year, and even they couldn't kill my creeping charlie.
I bought the 32 oz. size... I'll probably get 3 or 4 seasons out of it, so not the expensive per use. I do use lawn fertilizer with weed killer in it... but it never keeps all the weeds down. So I'll let you know in a few weeks how it does. I expect it to be excellent. I don't know you well, since I'm new here, but I already value your advice.
 
In my north neck of the woods lawn care falls right between going to the dentist and a colonoscopy. No one stripes their lawn, fertilizer is unheard of, pesticides are never used and watering is for the garden only. This year I am determined to at least slow the spread of Charlie at least in the front yard, and get some stripes. Be thatched last Sunday. Big snow storm on Tuesday, raked half of the front yard. but my kid likes playing in dead grass as much as Dead leaves. I will try the borax as mentioned above this year. My wife is very anti-pesticide. I enjoy watching Ryan knorr lawn Care on youtube.
 

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
I've lived mostly around the lower Lakes, never heard of Creeping Charlie .. but thanks for the source for control products I've likely missed
 
In my north neck of the woods lawn care falls right between going to the dentist and a colonoscopy. No one stripes their lawn, fertilizer is unheard of, pesticides are never used and watering is for the garden only. This year I am determined to at least slow the spread of Charlie at least in the front yard, and get some stripes. Be thatched last Sunday. Big snow storm on Tuesday, raked half of the front yard. but my kid likes playing in dead grass as much as Dead leaves. I will try the borax as mentioned above this year. My wife is very anti-pesticide. I enjoy watching Ryan knorr lawn Care on youtube.

I liked, and still miss, mowing a lawn. I didn't stripe, but I did bag my grass and toss it in the trash. Spare me the weeping and gnashing of teeth. I worked in environmental enforcement for over 30 years and grass clippings are the least of our environmental problems. While mowing, I'd plug ear buds into my Ipod, and cover them with shooter muffs to block out any outside noise. I would listen to Glenn Miller, Brubeck or 50s & 60s R&R. I got some exercise, and peace and quiet for an hour or two. I only watered when my wife complained, which was still too often for me. I tried to tell her "it grows back", to no avail. We were on well water, so at least I wasn't paying for it, except for maybe shortening the life of the well pump. Until clover and creeping charlie got out of control, I had a company do fertilizer and weed killer.

As for pesticides, I tried to avoid them until carpenter ants from my neighbor's tree found their way into our main bathroom. Who wants to walk into a bathroom with big black ants on the walls? My big mistake was calling a company that "specialized" in carpenter ants. They came in, sprayed around the foundation, sprayed the basement, put bait and powder around the trim in some rooms, and charged us $500. We did not have small children, but did not like the inside spray, bait and powder they insisted on using. While the numbers got reduced, we still had them a year later, and they wanted more money to renew the contract. I said forget it, and found domyown.com. I called them and told them what the exterminator used and she told me it was reducing the numbers, but not killing the nest. She recommended a product called Thermidor, a termiticide. (they now offer a cheaper generic). It's an outside only treatment. I sprayed my foundation 1-2' up and out, and after 10 days, never saw another carpenter ant inside. Around the same time, my daughter, with 3 kids, was renting a house next to a golf course. She kept complaining about all the spiders getting into the house despite spraying with canned pesticide. We went up one night, and while my wife took our daughter and grandkids out to eat, I sprayed her foundation. It's supposed to be safe for animals once dry. She had 3 dogs and was feeding wild cats. Her dogs, and as far as I know the cats, weren't harmed. And no more spider complaints.

On the other hand, our other daughter and her husband, have a cricket problem. Their 2 cats like to chase and eat the crickets that get into the basement, so they chose not to use my "solution". I have no problem with that. If you have pets or kids, you have to weigh the odds.
 
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