lawn with violets

[Larry]

I have violets taking over my lawn. Any thought on how to stop this would be appreciated.

[Dave Fouchey]

Gloria you actually have some native violets that will naturalize in your lawn there. They are white for the most part with pretty heart shaped leaves. Just have to keep your eyes open when out and about, particularly around old home sites. Check out around those with lots of live oaks in particular.

Dave

Dave Fouchey, WA4EMR

Lower Michigan

42° 35' 20'' N, 82° 58' 37'' W GMT Offset: -5 Time Zone: Eastern

[David J Bockman]

If I'm not mistaken violets thrive in compacted, poorly draining soil. You should consider core aerating and amending yearly.

Dave

[Joe Morris]

Larry,

I research this question a while back for my father-in-law. He had a big violet problem in this lawn. He claims that the approach outlined below worked for him. Joe Morris

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There is only one herbicide that works on violets. It is called tryclopyr. You can find it most commonly in ortho brush-b-gone, which is sold in most hardware stores. Other products contain tryclopyr, but brush-b-gone is the easiest to find.

Even using tryclopyr, violets are extremely difficult to control. In order to do so, you need to do the following:

1. Violets can only be killed in the spring when they are growing actively. In the summer they are harder to kill and in the fall they are impossible to kill.

1. You need to use a combination of brush-b-gone and any other standard weed killer such as ortho weed b gone or equivalent.

In a gallon of water, add the proper amount of weed b gone, and 8 ounces of brush-b gone.

1. Apply the solution when no rain will follow for at least 24 hours and preferably 48 hours. Apply it in the early evening after the sun has set to maximize the time that the foliage will stay wet. The chemical is absorbed by the violets when the foliage is wet.

1. Apply the chemical, and then reapply it to the same area 7 days later. You will see some dieback towards the end of the 7 days, but the violets will not be dead. It takes a second application to finish them off.

If you don't follow ALL of these instructions, you will not succeed in killing the violets. As previous writers have said, they are extremely difficult to get rid of.

[paghat]

I have just fallen in love with this vine that we put in a semi-shady area of the garden earlier this year. It climbs around on a wooden fence & into a kerria rose, with self-clinging tendrils. It has SO many heart-shaped lemon-yellow blooms, it sometimes looks like a teency bunches of bananas all over the vines.

I'm warned it's a tender perennial & may not return next year. I wonder if anyone has experience with it & if I dare presume it is going to be a successful perennial on Puget Sound maritime weather zone 8 pretty mild most of the time. I don't want it to ever be dead.

-paghat the ratgirl

[rosie readandpost]

i'll take your violets, if you'll take my CREEPING CHARLIE!

-- read and post daily, it works! rosie

never let yesterday use up too much of today. ..........................anonymous

[rosie readandpost]

i must have missed the blooms!

-- read and post daily, it works! rosie

never let yesterday use up too much of today. ..........................anonymous

be complaining!

[GrampysGurl]

I hand pull every day, I don't have a weed free garden by far but I pull a little every day if it isn't raining hard. My other pain is creeping Charlie, which comes under the fence from my neighbor... They also have a violet problem.... I don't mind the violets in the spring when they bloom, I start pulling once they are spent. Colleen zone 5 Connecticut

[GrampysGurl]

You are my long lost sister lol. We had a new sewer pip put in, and DH has me out there watering the "evil grass seed" a couple times a day. I tried the.... "You know I am going to take over the front yard with a garden eventually why don't you just let me have it now when it is grass free." line and that didn't work lol Colleen zone 5 Connectifut

[Peggy Elliott]

Or you can dig them up and sell them on eBay. ;^)

-Peg

Joe Morris wrote: