You planted it on purpose? Oh, Jessaka, say it isn't so! : )

This stuff appeared in our yard, on the edge of our pond, four or five years ago. Since then, I have mostly been able to dig it out (not easy in clay soil and bermuda grass) but it keeps popping up here and there over and over again and I keep digging it out over and over again. I probably just should have hit it with Round-Up the first time I saw it, but I hate using chemicals, so I didn't. Luckily, we don't have a lot of wet areas in our yard most years, so it has remained contained in a very small area, but I've never been able to completely get rid of it even though there have been times I thought it was finally gone.

Creeping Charlie spreads by roots, seeds and rhizomes so it can be very persistent. The one thing you have to decide is whether you want to have all of it or none of it. Understand this--if you keep any of it at all on purpose, you will be fighting it for the rest of your life. It is relentless and grows and spreads. I don't think it could ever crowd out Bermuda grass completely--and even if it could, would you really want to unleash something on your landscape that is more aggressive than Bermuda Grass?

So, your choice is to remove it or live with it. You cannot keep it and contain it, especially in your perpetually wet soil. Even if you could put down some sort of barrier--like metal landscape edging in an effort to contain it, it still would creep over it or under it, or seeds would blow around and sprout elsewhere.

If you want to remove it, you can use a herbicide on it, you can use a pe-emergent to try to keep the seeds from sprouting, you can dig it out....you can try all the above, and be prepared to have to work for several years to get rid of it because it will keep coming back. The only way I know of to really, really get rid of it is to sell your house, pack up and move someplace else where there is no Creeping Charlie.

I've linked some more detailed info on how to try to get rid of it. If you don't choose to get rid of it, it will take over every plant bed you have and much of your lawn too. This is not a plant that can "peacefully co-exist" with anything else.

Good luck with this monster,

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Controlling Creeping Charlie

Gosh, and here I thought I'd left creeping charlie behind when I moved out of Minnesota. I didn't know it could survive down here. I figured the heat would kill it. Good thing I don't have any around here. Nasty, persistent stuff. I'd resigned myself to having tons of it anywhere it was shady and moist, like under my hydrangeas.

Gamebird,

So it grows in a really cold climate too? Horrors!

I thought it was a wet soil/shade or part-shade type of plant, but at our house it keeps popping up in bermuda grass in full sun and even the July/August heat doesn't kill it. I doubt it is as agressive in my normally dry clay soil as it is at Jessaka's because her soil seems to hold water really, really well (almost too well).

I hate this stuff. It ranks up there on my "most despised" list along with bermuda grass, greenbrier, ragweed, Johnson Grass and poison ivy.

Dawn

Yes, I planted it. I got some last year at the park, and it only grew a little then, and this year it was so pretty, and then it began climbing over things. I spent all day digging it out, and I know I will have to keep doing it. The good thing about the back yard, maybe, is that it never bloomed, but it was in flower in the front yard, and so I dug it out and put it in a big black bag. I may have gotten more of the roots but I am worried that seeds could have blown into the lawn. It was so hard to get rid of because it was so beautiful. If I see any in the lawn I will spray the front lawn. If my DH sees any in the back lawn he will probably spray me with herbicide. lol. I threw away a lot of soil with it in the front yard, but by the time I got out back I was too tired, but when it pops up I will take soil out with it. I read that Round-Up won't kill it. That is hard to believe. I have something that even kills Bermuda grass, so it should kill it, but I don't want to have to spray it near flowers. If I have to I will dig up my ferns and hostas and get the plant from around it. I just didn't know that it could reseed itself ro that it grew so fast. At this point, I would rather deal with poison ivy. You know, if I were not trying to protect our new lawn I would have probably left it, but then it was growing up on top of my plants.

I threw white clover seed on my Bermuda grass seeing that it seems to choke it out and that the bees love it. I hope that wasn't a mistake.

As if I didn't have enough weeds.

Thanks for your help. I hope the roots don't grow too deep.

Jessaka,

I agree that it is a pretty plant. That's how it tricks someone into tolerating it for a while.

Tell your hubby that instead of spraying you with herbicide, he could spray the Creeping Charlie with a broadleaf herbicide that contains 2, 4-D as its active ingredients, or an herbicide that contains MCPP (normally used to keep broadleaf weeds out of golf course grasses). LOL

The roots haven't gone too deep in our thick clay....probably because they cannot penetrate that mucky, yucky stuff. You might find it goes deeper in good soil?

I don't think clover is a mistake. I have lots of white-flowered and yellow-flowered clover mixed in with our lawn grass and it is lovely.

I hope you defeat the Creeping Charlie.

Dawn

my thought is to move plants if need be but shake off the dirt in ferns and hostas. not sure about the herbs out front. better to have a dead herb than a live wired plant.

I will tell him about the herbicide. if i can't get it out that is what i will do.

I had resigned myself to letting it exist, but I'd still pull it out whenever it was convenient. I'd yank out great gobs of it from under the hydrangeas two or three times a summer. It made nice compost filler. I didn't have any trouble with it coming up later in my vegetable beds, so apparently being composted killed it. Unlike bermuda.

They sold the stuff in nurseries sometimes in Minnesota too. There ought to be a law, really! The plants should at least come with warnings.

I have a large garbage bag full of it at this moment, not the one with the flowers, which is in a smaller bag. I think i will leave it in the bag and toss it near by compost pile. thanks for your post gamebird. I do miss its beauty. I can't think of any other grown cover that is as beautiful. I am letting my wild strawberries fill in. maybe that is the answer.