How to Get Rid of Wild Violets and Ground Ivy in Your Commercial Property's Lawn

Every year, it can feel like we are fighting the same battle when keeping a commercial property’s lawn manicured. So, what’s the big fight? Wild violets and ground ivy. These two weeds are some of the toughest to kill and can make for a tiresome process of keeping them at bay year after year.

If you’re looking to get rid of wild violets and work on the process of removing ground ivy, our team at Earth Development is here to help you banish these pesky weeds once and for all with help of our weed control services. It may not be a quick process, but knowing the ins and outs of controlling ground ivy can help better manage these recurrent weeds.

What Do Wild Violets Look Like?

Although wild violets can be a nuisance, they are at least a pretty one! So, what do wild violets look like? This weed is low-growing and features broad leaves that can grow in both sunny and shady areas - making it a very invasive weed in your lawn.

Featuring flowers that can bloom in violet shades, as well as white, blue, purple, or yellow, these weeds often look quite delicate, but don’t let them fool you. Wild violets can create thick mats of leaves that grow rapidly and aggressively. Okay, but why is this so bad? These mats of leaves can actually block the rest of your lawn from getting the nutrients it needs, meaning the weeds will thrive while grass and other flowers struggle.

With a waxy leaf covering, extensive root systems, and their ability to grow and spread rapidly, finding what kills wild violets successfully can be a hard-earned battle.

How to Kill Wild Violets

Finding yourself plucking at wild violets for hours? With a commercial lawn, it can feel like an impossible task to kill wild violets growing in the yard, but with the right methods, you can make some headway.

Neither hand-pulling violets, nor granular products, will work well to remove violets. Getting a violet fully out is tough due to its strong roots, and many solutions won’t coat the leaves with enough product. So, what’s the answer?

When it comes to killing wild violets, we recommend:

• A professional-grade herbicide;
• A long-term strategy, spraying multiple times a year;
• A focused lawn care program for a thick, healthy lawn.

Wondering what herbicide kills wild violet weeds? For this, we recommend a professional-grade broadleaf liquid herbicide. This will be able to stick to leaves and kill the wild violets. Keep in mind, wild violets have a strong herbicide resistance. This means non-selective herbicides aren’t super effective in ridding your lawn of this pesky weed.

However, herbicide alone won’t work. You not only need to spray multiple times a year (particularly in the fall!) to ensure you keep wild violets at bay but maintain the health of your grass as wild violets typically pop up in the more sparse areas of your lawn. To keep your lawn healthy, incorporate a solid routine of fertilization, aeration, and overseeding in the fall season.

With this method, you’ll help keep wild violets from overtaking your property, alleviating the headache of fast-growing weeds.

What is Ground Ivy?

So, what is ground ivy? Great question! Ground ivy, also known as “creeping charlie,” is a very aggressive weed that grows in thick mats across your lawn. It gets its name, “creeping charlie,” as it can creep across your lawn, harming your grass as it goes.

Not sure if you’re dealing with ground ivy? Here’s what to look for in your invasive weeds:

• Ground ivy features rounded leaves with scalloped edges
• Will often sprout a small purple flower
• Essentially acting as a vine, ground ivy will grow low to the ground
• Features nodes that form roots if they reach the soil, making them deeply-rooted and hard to hand pull

This weed prefers shady and damp areas and is often resistant to herbicides, making removing ivy from ground landscapes a real hassle. And if you’re wondering - “does tenacity kill creeping charlie?” The simple answer is - no. Pulling at this often deeply rooted weed will prove unsuccessful. As it spreads and takes root, this weed flowers in the spring - a great time to start the process of killing ivy on ground surfaces.

How Do You Get Rid of Ground Ivy?

As pervasive as wild violets, finding the best weed killer for ground ivy can be a tricky task. While you can pull and pull at these weeds, this is not how to get rid of ivy on the ground, as this persistent growth will just come right on back.

So, how do you get rid of ground ivy effectively? Similar to wild violets, we recommend:

• A liquid broadleaf herbicide
• A long-term treatment plan
• Effective lawn care throughout the year

Like with wild violets, what kills ground ivy is an effective, professional application of broadleaf liquid herbicide. This will require more than one treatment a year, from the spring and into the fall. We also recommend waiting to mow your lawns for three days after treatment to best keep creeping charlie at bay.

Additionally, in order to find what kills creeping charlie but not grass, you’ll need to boost your lawn care to strengthen and thicken your lawn. With this process, you’ll limit the spread of ground ivy while ensuring you still have grass on your commercial property.

When it comes to the question of how do you kill creeping charlie, the more the better. With this in mind, a technician can spray your lawn with treatments whenever they are there to treat the lawn, creating a better potential for controlling this invasive weed.

Conclusion

If you’ve been struggling with how to remove ground ivy or wild violets, it all comes down to a dedicated, knowledgeable plan to beat out these persistent weeds. You can pull and pull at them for days, but when treating a vast commercial property, you’ll need a powerful herbicide treatment to finally knock these weeds out.

For the expert maintenance of your lawn and a plan to keep your invasive weeds away for years to come, our experts at Earth Development are here to help. With more than 35 years of experience, our team knows just how to treat your lawn for a pristine, clean finish.

To get started with treating your ground ivy or wild violets, call us at 920-406-7501 today.