Creeping blooming buttercup - everywhere!

[MeYeahMe]

It's destroying our lawn and rockery :(

We must have dug up 50+ of the buggers today from the rockery, and the lawn...well, I think it's going to have to be dug up and re-turfed.

We've put down Evergreen Complete today and I'm hoping it might work, but I'm not holding out much hope really. It's everywhere; the grass between each weed has been starved of light and the whole lawn (approx 50sqm) is lumpy and looks awful.

We've been here five years and they've appeared out of nowhere.

Any advice please?

I've fought and won the battle against ground elder (which was no mean feat - especially as it was around two ponds) but I fear this will defeat me!

And we can't really re-turf as we'd have to move all of the grass/soil through the house as there is no side access to the garden [cries].

Buttercup thrives in damp heavy soil and "runs" if you dont get every last bit of the root out. I havr dug it out of my border and sprayed the hole with strong week killer to be sure yo kill off every last bit of the flippin' thing.

I'm really not too sure what to do about it being in the lawn. I was advised to use the week killer but that will kill the surrounding lawn too.

Two options I think;

Remove and relay lawn

or

Dig the buggers out :(

Typos...sorry
in bed on phone

A good 'water-on' lawn feed-weed should have some effect. Seems surprising there was no earlier signs of it though.

Not TOO difficult to dig our, maybe with old dinner knife, or broad screwdriver. Or there are tools you 'screw' into lawns for getting out weeds (we have a Wolf one, with a T-handle to turn.

Do you mean lesser celandine? It popped up in our garden too this year! No sign of it since we moved in 3 years ago. We had some work done on the garden last year and wondered if they'd been churned up because of that - one of the natural remedies for dealing with it is to cover it up with a lot of soil. Another option is to leave it because apparently it has a short life and provides colour when things are generally dormant. Trouble is it stopped all of our spring bulbs from flowering so I spent a day digging most of it out. You need to watch the tiny tubers because they're easily missed.

ooh interesting. we have got a load of what looks like lesser celandine appeared this year and I was wondering if it was something I had planted at some point (I am a bit random with plants and rarely remember what they are) but I don't remember it from last year. wonder if there is something particular about the weather conditions this year that has made it a superhappy plant?

Not lesser celandine - in fact I have a very small patch of that that I absolutely love, it's so pretty, with its heart shaped leaves right by the pond. In fact I moved it last year, and it died - so I was surprised to see it back this weekend

Now that could spread all over my rockery and I'd be thrilled! Okay, maybe not all over.

This is creeping buttercup no flowers yet on the rockery, so it has not a single redeeming feature! Horrible weed, deep roots and very thick on the lawn.

Oh, and the Evergreen Complete has had no effect on the lawn whatsoever so far. I'm hoping to wake up to see it all blackened and dying, but the buttercups have now started to flower along with lots of dandelions

Glyphosate....just apply to the leaves, it is systemic so e
Should kill whole plant.

I have some glyph - but it's going to take out half my lawn if I do that. The stuff is everywhere

We have the same problem.
We can't use weed killer because of the dog.
I have pulled out/dug out more buttercups and ground elder than I care to think about.
I swear I turn my back and they are back!

Hi ihatecold

We have a dog but she's with my ex at the moment (shared custody!) so we've put the Evergreen down while she's away.

But my friend has two dogs and he says he uses every year it with no problems, he told me if watered into the lawn it's no longer dangerous to animals but please do check that if you want to go down that route. I've struggled to find a definitive answer online, but maybe you could call them and check?

I'll let you know how ours goes - but like I say, no sign of any change (other than blasted flowers and dandelions!) since we put it down on Monday. We've got enough for at least two more full treatments. It'll be getting it again this weekend if there is no sign of any change as I don't think DP put enough down.

I used glyphosate carefully on the ground elder (around two ponds) and also put down weed matting on some flat areas. I won!

We've had a very small patch come back around some ferns that I'd rather not kill, so I'll continue pulling it up, I can deal with this small area as and when. Before I killed it off, it was a huge expanse so this is nothing really

If you carefully spray the weed killer just onto the buttercup leaves it shouldn't affect the surrounding grass. I think you can buy a gel formulation that might be easier to use this way?

As soon as it is dry it is safe for pets, glyphosate is fairly non toxic as these things go.

I saw a new gadget in Homebase yesterday, a sort of cup on a stick, you fill it with weedkiller, hold the little cup over the weed and squirt, the cup protects the surrounding area, might be worth a look.

My borders are always overrun with this, but if I dig it all out once a year it keeps on top of it, dandelions are the main problem in our lawn, I use Verdone on it once every few years and deadhead religiously in between, keeps on top if them but we've got cats now so need to look into the safety of weedkillers.

I read a tip some where ( possibly MN ) where you wear rubber gloves then a cotton pair over the top. Then dip two fingers into the glyphosphate and touch the leaves of the weed. It's supposed to be quick and very selective!

Paint-on glyphosate in a little pot with a brush is effective too, if you don't mind getting down on hands and knees.

I got rid of creeping buttercup by ruthless digging-out but I was luckier than you in that I had a smaller area to contend with.

Oh I'm definitely going to go with the gloves and glyph solution! Thanks Squeaky!

Excuse my French but the effing Evergreen has not killed the bloody dandelions in the lawn which I'm really surprised about - surely they are the most common lawn weed?

Buttercups are looking a bit sorry for themselves (but still a bit of new growth, which I'm not happy about) but the dandelions are as strong as ever. We put it down as instructed and gave it a second treatment on Thursday for good measure (as quite frankly the next solution is digging up the lawn).

Has anyone else used Evergreen Complete on their lawn and did it work? I'm thinking about contacting the manufacturer. Nothing's even gone black, which we were hoping would at least show us that it was working.

BTW, thought DP hadn't put enough down but I checked what was left in the spreader and measured the lawn again and he used more than enough the first time. I whacked a load more down on Thursday

I like the gloves idea too,I have heard of mixing wallpaper paste into your weed killer mix & painting that on,would be cheaper than the little pots of gel.