Creeping Lawn Weeds

Creeping lawn weeds are insidious, and before you know it, they’ve taken up valuable real estate on your whole lawn.

Other plants can’t even grow beside them because they don’t have the bandwidth or the resources. 

Here at SunCo, the preferred choice for lawn care in the Midwest, we handle creeping weeds on residential and commercial properties all the time. 

If you’re dealing with these weeds and feel like you have nowhere to turn, don’t miss our advice on eradicating them.

We’ll help you get your lawn healthy in no time. 

What Are Creeping Lawn Weeds?

First, let’s start with a little lesson on creeping lawn weeds.

As the name implies, this weed stretches across your lawn, creeping low and sometimes unnoticed. They spread quickly, and before you know it, your entire lawn is covered. 

Like many types of weeds, Creeping Charlie and its friends rely on weed seeds and rhizomes to spread the weed from one part of your lawn to another. 

The various types of creeping lawn weeds you may encounter along the way are:

• Creeping Charlie 
• Ragweed
• Creeping Jenny
• Knotweed
• Quackgrass
• Creeping oxalis
• Creeping spurge
• Purslane
• Creeping indigo
• White clover
• Creeping bentgrass
• Capeweed
• Henbit
• Black medic
• Dollarweed 

The problem with many of these weeds is that they look perfectly lovely. You might see some of them sprout bright yellow flowers or even what looks like healthy grass.

However, you probably don’t want them anywhere near your property. 

These garden weeds, besides preventing healthy plants from having the room to grow, will also detract from the appearance of your lawn and landscaping if they spread around.

You can’t have a healthy lawn until you find and remove any creeping weed on your residential or commercial property.  

Identifying Creeping Lawn Weeds

So, on that note, how do you know which among the many weeds that have taken over your property which are creeping?

It’s not necessarily easy given the variety of tough creeping lawn weeds. You have to know what to look for. 

Some, like oxalis (aka wood sorrel), grow small white flowers. Its leaves look like little clovers, and they’re even heart-shaped.

It sounds sweet on the surface, but you surely don’t want your yard covered in creeping oxalis.

As for Creeping Charlie, also called ground ivy, it too grows flowers. You’ll see telltale purple flowers in early spring as well as dark green leaves.

The leaves will look scalloped along the edges. Creeping Charlie prefers areas with poor soil quality that are also nice and moist, so where it appears can be an indicator of what it is. 

Dollarweed, sometimes referred to as pennywort, will produce white flowers. It grows large leaves that also have scalloped, almost wavy borders. 

If you’re in doubt about whether you’re dealing with a common lawn weed or a healthy plant, consider also when it appears.

Perennial weeds are regularly recurring seasonally every year unless you treat them at the source, while annuals always pop up at about the same time and die off on their own. 

Creeping Lawn Weed Removal Options

Remember, while purple flowers are nice and all, ground ivy and other creeping lawn weeds ultimately are not there for decoration. They will destroy the quality of your garden, leaving healthy plants with nowhere to go. 

That means it’s time to get proactive about removal. 

Fortunately, no matter what your budget or time constraints look like, you have plenty of ways to get rid of Creeping Charlie and other weeds that are ruining your property. Let’s explore.

Pull Weeds

First, you might consider manually pulling the weeds.

However, you have to be thorough if you do this. Like broadleaf weeds, if you leave anything behind, your creeping weed problem will return, leaving you right back at square one.

Don’t only work with your hands for this job. You should also rely on a rooting tool or pitchfork, which you can use to dislodge the soil.

After all, the key to successfully removing any weeds is to get all the way to the root. Pulling the weeds out from above the soil’s surface will not kill the plant. You need to remove the entire root system. 

Once you’ve loosened up the soil sufficiently, switch to your favorite weed puller. You should see roots as you remove the plant. If you don’t, then keep going until you do. 

Mulch

Another chemical-free solution that stops Creeping Charlie and other creeping weeds in their tracks is mulching.

You might think, what could this possibly do for a creeping grassy weed? The answer is a lot.

Mulching prevents weeds from spreading, as they simply don’t have the room. Moreso, by inhibiting sunlight that reaches the weeds, they can’t grow as much or at least as fast as they usually do. 

Here’s a caveat. Mulching only works if you’ve removed weeds from the property first.

Perhaps you use hand pulling for that or you bust out a pre-emergent herbicide. Either way, mulching won’t stop actively growing ground ivy. 

Apply Herbicide 

Your third option is the most effective, so you might start with this right off the bat. You can kill common lawn weeds that creep and the yellow flowers that come with them by using herbicide. 

Herbicide is available in two types: pre- and post-emergent.

You should use pre-emergent herbicide on ground ivy before it sprouts. You’ll have to learn the weed’s growth habits to effectively apply this treatment.

Otherwise, you can always fall back on post-emergent herbicide, which is designed to kill ground ivy and other creeping weeds after they’ve already begun growing. 

The key to successfully using this grassy weed preventer is to read the product instructions and apply carefully.

You can accidentally hurt your green grass and surrounding plants if you use herbicide with wild abandon.

Here’s another tip: watch the weather. If it’s going to rain, hold off on applying herbicide until after the precipitation passes. Otherwise, the rain will wash away all your hard work (and money). 

Another type of weather to be wary of is wind. Applying herbicide on a windy day can cause it to spread to other parts of your lawn, damaging or even killing it. 

Keeping Creeping Lawn Weeds Off Your Property 

Remember, creeping lawn weeds can make a recurrence unless you’re diligent about keeping your lawn grass in the best possible condition. Here are our top tips for doing so. 

Plant Grass Seed

First, it’s time to populate a new, healthy lawn, and the best way to do that is with overseeding.

Rather than weeds with light purple flowers, you can ensure your lawn is full of beautiful, green, healthy, native plants. 

Research when the best time is to plant the species you’re interested in adding to your landscaping, whether a perennial plant or an annual.

Leave little room for weeds and keep caring for your lawn in the meantime. 

Mow Your Lawn…But Not Too Much 

Do you always keep your lawn closely trimmed? There might be advantages to skipping a week or two if you’re looking for natural weed control.

Allowing tall plants and grasses promotes better growth, meaning the grasses will take up more room. In other words, weeds can’t sprout up.

Further, the grasses are healthier since they’re making more seeds. Thin lawns are the most susceptible to creeping weeds, but your healthier lawn will resist better. 

Allow a grass height of three inches or greater as the summer begins. 

Aerate the Soil 

Here’s another viable solution for keeping perennial weed species away from your property; aeration!

Aerating the soil, a top service offered by SunCo, produces deep punctures in the soil with a specialized tool.

The benefits are multiple, including less compacted soil and moving decomposing matter so it doesn’t suck up too much water and other resources.

With plant roots unobstructed, the grasses and plants in your yard can receive more water and nutrients. The stronger plants make it harder for creeping lawn weeds to gain a chokehold. 

Apply Pre-Emergent Herbicide 

Get to know what’s going on in your own backyard, whether on a commercial or residential property.

Separate the weeds from existing grass, learning to identify yellow sweet clover, Canada thistle, turf grass, and other invasive weed species. 

Then, you don’t have to wait to use weed killers. You can apply a pre-emergent filter on creeping stems, keeping the weed blooms off your property. 

Get the Best Lawn Care Service with SunCo 

Taking care of your lawn regularly is key to keeping out creeping lawn weeds, especially Creeping Charlie, aka ground ivy.

Identify the types of weeds invading your landscaping, then resolve to manually remove them or use herbicide. 

Being steadfast against weeds is your best defense. Our team at SunCo is more than happy to assist, so contact us now.