Neighbor planted "flower" now it's taking over grass

Prior to moving into my house 5 years ago, my neighbor planted something in their flower beds that has gone off and spread across an entire portion of my lawn. She apologized but couldn't tell me what it was.

I've had a lawn service fertilizing the lawn since I moved in but this year I'm tackling it by myself. The 2 prior services I've hired have been unsuccessful at eliminating this plant, but then again I don't know how hard they tried.

Can someone please try to identify this plant and possible shoot me a product that can kill it, but not destroy my lawn (if that is possible). I've tried the Weed B Gone route and all that happens is the edges of the leaves turn brown temporarily. I want to get a hold on this before it crosses under the sidewalk and gets to the good areas of my lawn.

Thanks!

 

Violets. When you have flowering plants or moss in lawns it means site conditions are allowing these other plants to compete successfully with the grass, producing a meadow effect (which I much prefer, myself). If you are bent - get it - on pure grass then take steps to make the site more suitable for the grass (notice how thin the grass is in the middle picture).

The area of violets in the picture on the right looks small enough that you could probably spot treat them without killing yourself with the effort. Weed and feed blanket treatments where the entire lawn is treated with herbicides are more of a health hazard than spot treating with something like glyphosate (RoundUp etc.). The latter product will affect any grass among the violets that is sprayed but especially with encouragement any resulting bare spot should soon be covered by grass coming in from the sides later.

 

Thanks Ron.

Part of the problem is exactly what you mentioned. My lawn in this specific area is fairly thin right now. It's hard to tell, but there are two different varieties of grass in this specific patch of lawn. If you look at the 3rd pic, you can see the "nice" grass to the left of my spruce and as you come towards where I took the pic, the grass changes. and thins out.

I'll probably wait until the fall and spot treat the areas then overseed the lawn to hopefully introduce a healthier species of grass in this area.

 

they're violets. very pretty this time of year when they're in bloom and peeking up through the grass blades.

as much as i like the way it looks, i really didn't want them in the lawn...so, i moved them into my flowerbeds - they make an excellent ground cover and keep out other things that are more 'weedy' looking.

digging them up is really your best bet. they have fairly shallow root systems, so they're not difficult to get up (unlike dandylions which have tap roots). they do send out suckers, so you will see new plants pop up...the really tiny ones are super easy to yank out - and they'll probably respond to the chem treatment better.

 

Violets are tough to kill. What will work is a stiff mixture of your basic lawn weed spray containing (2,4-D, Mecoprop, Dicamba). A second treatment about 4 weeks later will aid in the control. This will not hurt any of your turf grasses.

Round Up is not really the best product to be spraying on your lawn as it will kill grass and make for a lot of work repairing your lawn. And likely will not damage the Violets at all. It is the Dicamba that will sicken the Violets.

Best of luck,,Jim.

 

Are you still able to get 24-D? It is banned here or at the very least very restricted. I have found just digging them up if they get out of hand works well. The geese also seem to like them :) as do the goats. But then mine are the purple ones. I have one small patch of white. Joclyn is right they make lovely ground cover and just need a bit of pulling up when they get carried away.

Liz

 

You would treat only the spots where the violets are, the grass killed would just be that where the violets were already dominating anyway. Supposedly you can just shoot into the center of plants and glyphosate will work. Most of my experience with it is with the usual spraying of the whole top. The common weedy violet here is Viola riviniana, I guess it does tend to require repeat applications.

 

Thanks all.

I've been searching Google for things that would tackle the violets and there has been quite a few people who've recommended Ortho Weed-B-Gon Chickweed, Clover & Oxalix Killer. I guess the Triclopyr in the product is good at getting rid of, or assisting in controlling the violet.

Between this and the wild morning glory that takes over my landscaping in the summer, I spend a good amount of time trying to control these wild plants.

 

No one's mentioned seeding over bare patches, which is important to prevent more weed seeds from sprouting if possible, which they do as soon as they get light and air. It's a good idea whether you induce those bare patches with digging or chemicals.