LAWN been overtaken

Hmm_Messiah

my mum's small lawn is been overtaken with this (see pics)

any idea what it is, and how to get rid of?


cheers

Sonnenblumen

Very difficult to eradicate. Originally introduced as a rockery plant but has become widespread around South Dublin. Common name Baby Tears/Mind Your Own Business. Xlinix or something similar.

Best solution is to treat whole area ie kill or spray lawn/infected area and re-start with seed/new turf.

Hmm_Messiah

thanks for that

crosstownk

I'd treat it with Verdone and see what happens. I'd all sorts of weeds in my garden this year and Verdone got rid of all them. I don't know if it's now too late in the year to put down Verdone but check the bottle. You can get Verdone in Woodies, B&Q, hardware, etc.

Irish Gardener

Hello Hmm_Messiah.

Sonnenblumen wrote:

Originally introduced as a rockery plant but has become widespread around South Dublin. Common name Baby Tears/Mind Your Own Business. Xlinix or something similar.

Its a plant form much older than "Baby Tears/Mind Your Own Business" put together. I don't know what Xlinix is.

The problem plant (weed) is liverwort, which is closely related to ferns.
Here is a link to a piece in wikipedia that shows the liverwort http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-vascular_plant

Regular lawn weed killers will be ineffective against this primitive form of plant life.
The last time I had to treat liverworts in a lawn, I watered on a product called “Armillatox”.
It is very effective as a liverwort, moss and algae killer, although this product may be off the market now due to changes in pesticide and herbicide regulations.
If you can’t source “Armillatox”, you should apply sulphate of iron instead. Try your garden centre for both of these products.
Within a week or two after the products application, the liverwort will be blackened, rake it out and reseed the bare lawn areas.

These products will knock the liverwort on the head for a while, however, to prevent the return of the problem you should really sort out the underlying causes of it.
It thrives in the following conditions…

1. Poorly drained and compacted soils.

2. Low fertility.

3. Shaded areas

4. Soils with an excessively acid PH

Do any of these sound familiar, Hmm_Messiah
Sort these out and your liverwort will be gone for good.

Hmm_Messiah

its definitely the plant on wikipedia thanks !!!

shade, poor fertility, very old lawn

mum is not up to maintenance much, or us doing it (she freaks when any one trys to fix anything!!

we were thinkig get rid of grass, small front and side lawn, replace with much and let her have any plants she wats in pots

thanks for the help.

GreeBo

Overseed the lawn with shady lawn seed
Also rake in some sharp sand & compost (not peat) and topsoil

Mix it all up and rake it over your current lawn.
Dont totally cover the current grass but you want at least a covering of this new mixture.
The existing grass will poke through after a week or so

Before this, as has been said, kill off the problem plant/weed
Leave for 2-3 weeks and then aerate the crap out of the garden with a fork
Then seed and cover with the above mixture.

Note that by the time you are ready to seed it will probably be too late in the year (unless we have a mild september)
so you will probably have a patch lawn, but at least it will be grass and in better condition.