What is this, and get rid of it

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Hi,
My lawn is now filled with this. I live in NY.
What is it? How do I stop this from growing?
 

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JBtheExplorer

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It's Creeping Charlie, and you're basically doomed.

Technically there are ways to fight against it, but it involves the use of dangerous chemicals. For me personally, I'd rather have a flowering weed than dangerous chemicals in my yard. If you're willing to take the risk, you'll want an herbicide that kills broad leaf plants, and the best time I've heard to kill it is in spring while it's flowering or in fall after the first frost. The only other way to remove it is by pulling it by hand, which is not an option if it's taken over your yard the way it's taken over mine.

For me personally, Charlie has taken over my entire neighborhood, so even if I took on the impossible challenge of getting rid of it, it'd just creep right back in from all angles.
 
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Yes, I concur. Ground-Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) in the Mint Family (Lamiaceae). Also known as Creeping Charlie or Gill-Over-the-Ground. It is native throughout Eurasia and grows commonly worldwide, either purposefully as a groundcover or otherwise as a weed.
 
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Plants of that type keep their best defenses underground. Usually that means spraying in the fall as they prepare for dormancy. The downward nutrient flow carrying longer lasting chemistry is usually the best combo. Problems with tree and ornamental roots are gonna result in digging but thats at least a smaller area. Triclopyr is often used and is a serious tree and brush killer.
 
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Enjoy your diverse. multi-species lawn. The flowers and foliage of Hedeoma are quite attractive in their own right. Trying to maintain a monoculture of a single species of grass is a laborious and resource-intensive uphill battle. Do yourself and the environment a favour and seriously don't worry about it. Lawn perfection nueroses are unnecessary societal constructs.
 
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Enjoy your diverse. multi-species lawn. The flowers and foliage of Hedeoma are quite attractive in their own right. Trying to maintain a monoculture of a single species of grass is a laborious and resource-intensive uphill battle. Do yourself and the environment a favour and seriously don't worry about it. Lawn perfection nueroses are unnecessary societal constructs.

And most importantly, whatever you kill leaves an empty living space for whatever was left growing in that ground. That is really a thing 3 years later when that slow growing, heavily armored plant takes over for the creeping charlie. This leads to trying to find more chemicals that work on the plants that survived the attack on the creeping charlie. All this happens in the context of grass seed companies selling low growing ground covers that look like creeping charlie and usually involves areas where grasses cannot grow robustly and are weak or thinned to the point that other ground covers can grow.
 

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