A friend recently asked me what to do about his Creeping Charlie: A vagrant weed which had invaded his front yard lawn. The grass disappeared and it was plotting to attack and snake around to the back yard as well. He knew it'd just be a matter of time. He asked me my advice because he thinks I am a gardening whiz. Just because one has a blog about anything, doesn't make one an expert in anything, but I do know a little about weed killers.
The bad news is regular consumer weed killers and organic alternatives, those on the market and endorsed by pro-environmentalists, have made it impossible to kill very few living green things today. This is because the formula to kill weeds that the giant pesticide industries produce and market for us home-grown gardeners are watered down and sanitized to pass EPA regulations. They save the die hard stuff to sell to the corn growers where we proles ultimately consume it in our food. Over-the-counter products, like Round Up, can't inflict the same damage to plants as the prescription or license to apply killer recipe can. I've had so so luck with Round Up type products. Sometimes it works on the first attempt. Other times it takes many more applications. It never worked on my Creeping Charlie however, nor my voracious bindweed--another post on that frustration later.
After talking with a few gardeners, I found a serious one who isn't hiding behind the organic groups. She has made it her lifetime vocation to kill every single weed that dare poke its little green head in forbidden territory. She told me the only way to eradicate Creeping Charlie is to hire a human weed killer who has received governmental permission to apply the pesticide. In Illinois the process of obtaining the go ahead to annihilate an undesirable plant in a garden or farm field is fraught with bureaucracy. The weed killer applicant must be certified and licensed to apply pesticides. He/she has to complete a competency examination, register for the license and pay $50.00 to the Illinois Department of agriculture. It might be easier to get a gun in Illinois than permission to kill felonious weeds in a garden. The friend had no qualms about hiring a weed killer contractor. She was, however, horrified to discover that along with the death of the Creeping Charlie, two feet of her flower borders adjacent to the weed infestation were also wiped out.
I don't know if I have any advice. You are either a proponent of weed killing activities or not. One person will claim she likes the way it looks. She'd rather have that instead of grass. You don't have to cut it, etc. I found a place where gardeners say it's okay to cook with. Use it like mint; but I am a little dubious in that I can't find the same advice in my hard-covered herb encyclopedias. In addition, Wiki doesn't seem to agree. See below under Safety.
Safety
Although it has been used as a salad green and in herbal medicines for thousands of years, the safety of Glechoma hederacea has not been established scientifically, and there is sufficient evidence to warrant caution with its use.[citation needed] Glechoma hederacea is toxic to cattle and horses.[14] Glechoma hederacea is known to contain terpenoids; terpene-rich volatile oils are known to irritate the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys. The volatile oil also contains pulegone, a chemical also occurring in pennyroyal that is a known irritant, toxic to the liver, and also an abortifacient. The total yield of volatile oil in Glechoma is less than 1/30th the concentration that of pennyroyal.[12]
And what did I tell my friend seeking my advice: Is moving an option? Would a gun work? Are you willing to take the chance and eat it away? Keep googling. There's got to be an answer out there somewhere!
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