What type of weed is this?

Looks like ground ivy:

Thanks for your reply. Looking at the pictures of ground ivy, I'm not sure it might be that. The weed I have is very much flat stuff. The ground ivy looks a bit mor 3D?

I could be wrong

Thanks again

I'm no where near a a gardening expert but think if leaves are connected by a vine then it is a ground ivy. A broad-leaf spray should work to control it.

I pull it and spray it but have boundaries where I can't control it and it keeps coming back.

Frank wrote: ...

put a trench in and bury a few layers of thick black plastic (make sure seams are overlapped and folded/pinned in place before refilling trench). most weed roots will not go down more than a foot or two. the creeping ground covers may go even less (a foot or so is probably plenty). that ways they can't reinvade...

i need to do this along one of our drainage ditches as the grass that grows along there is very invasive and very tough to get out of the clay once it gets established...

i don't use weed sprays if i can help it so any barriers and mulches i can use to smother and keep things from spreading the better it is. a few layers of cardboard (overlapped again) and then topped by wood chips (deep enough to cover and keep light out) will smother almost anything. by the time the cardboard breaks down (one or more years depending upon how wet your location is) the plant roots underneath have given up. from then on as long as you don't disturb the soil and just top it off with fresh wood chips once in a while the area will be easier to take care of. weeds are also much easier to remove from mulch if you get them early enough.

p.s. strawberries like such mulched areas too if they get enough light and moisture...

songbird

I've got neighbors on three sides that let their land in these areas grow wild. Land is very hilly and essentially non-development. Also there are banks that I can't control so I cannot cut it off. Think you helped me identify the invasive Japanese stilt grass which neighbors just cut but do not eradicate and only constant application of pre-emergent can do.

Some one in another garden group was concerned about English ivy spreading out of hand and I cannot even grow it on my lower banks because the deer love it in the winter.

I keep the grass in front and near back of the house orderly and weed free but not the far back. I can keep ground ivy down but it has permanent residence in my neighborhood.

It's a liverwort - Pellia epiphylla.

It likes the damp. As long as that area stays damp, it'll keep coming back. If you can improve the drainage, that will help.

Great. Thanks for that. Trouble is, it's in a shaded corner, so it gets little wind and/or sun. Other than the obvious (spiking, forking, etc...), what other methods can be used to improve the drainage?

Cheers

Have you tried using a weed control product, like Weed B Gone? If that doesn't work, there are other products that work on some of the tougher to control lawn weeds. Try what's easy first.

In order of amount of effort involved:

1. Use a core aerator to remove plugs of soil from the area; perform this in the spring and the fall. Spiking/forking doesn't loosen soil and thus doesn't improve drainage.
2. Reduce the shade and increase the air movement by pruning the vegetation in the area.
3. Raise the grade by adding more soil (preferably a sharper-draining soil mixture) on top of the existing soil; reseed or sod.
4. Cut a small channel or swale leading to a lower-lying part of the lawn to improve drainage.
5. Amend the soil in the area with sand/some pea gravel to improve the drainage.

...

1. leave it alone, it doesn't hurt a thing.

songbird