Borax contains boron, which is necessary in very small amounts for plant growth but is toxic in larger doses. Creeping Charlie happens to be extremely sensitive to boron, so supplying more boron should be detrimental to it more than other plants, such as grass, that aren't as sensitive.
The most effective method of removing ground ivy without killing or harming other plants and grass is mechanical removal by hand. We advise homeowners to cut back creeping Charlie to the roots frequently or dig up the entire plant.
Triclopyr is absolutely the correct weed killer for eliminating creeping charlie. You have to be persistent with multiple treatments spaced 2 weeks apart, and absolutely use a surfactant.
Beyond that most home remedies do not work as well as claimed. The Dawn dish soap - epsom salts - vinegar is one of them. It will work as a contact poison but it will not kill the roots of the creeping Charlie. Continued use of it will degrade your soil and make it difficult for your bee lawn to grow.
Vinegar helps to get rid of creeping Charlie by causing foliage dieback. However, creeping Charlie is a notoriously tricky plant and will likely regrow from its roots. So, to get rid of creeping Charlie permanently, you'll likely need multiple vinegar applications in conjunction with some hand-pulling.
Politics and everything else aside, Roundup works better than vinegar. If you're opposed to the use of Roundup or you want to use vinegar for other reasons, you can certainly do it, but just be aware that you're going to have to keep using it and keep using it and keep using it.
A bottle of household vinegar is about a 5-percent concentration. Canada thistle, one of the most tenacious weeds in the world, proved the most susceptible; the 5-percent concentration had a 100-percent kill rate of the perennial's top growth. The 20-percent concentration can do this in about 2 hours.
How to Control Creeping Charlie. Repeated hand-weeding is an option if you've spotted creeping Charlie early, but you must remove and destroy every bit of the roots. Don't add this plant to the compost bin because it could take root there. It's better to bag it for yard waste pickup.
This popular three-ingredient DIY weed killer—of vinegar, Epsom salts, and Dawn dish soap—doesn't work, and it's not safe for your garden. (via Southern Living) I use this for the weeds that come up between brick pathways and it works beautifully.
Creeping Charlie has every trait you wish a weed didn't have. It's a perennial plant. You can pull it, but any little bit left behind will just grow into a new plant. Various weed killers may or may not be effective; different sources have recorded creeping Charlie's susceptibility and resistance to the same chemicals.
Alec McClennan, Good Nature Organic Lawn Care
If you don't like creeping charlie (ground ivy), you can control it by applying nutrients that it does not like such as the micronutrient Boron. You can find Boron in the common laundry detergent 20 Mule Team Borax.
Mix 1/2 cup hot water and 1-1/4 cup borax in a small container and shake it until it is dissolved completely. Fill 2-1/2 gallons of water in a bucket, pour the borax solution and mix until the borax is completely dissolved. Fill your hose-end sprayer with the dissolved borax solution.
Introduce dense, shade-tolerant ground covers to outcompete Creeping Charlie. Plants like Pachysandra and Myrtle can help fill in spaces, leaving less room for the invasive weed to establish itself.
When used as directed, it kills broadleaf weeds without damaging your lawn. To control a large creeping Charlie problem in your lawn, use Ortho® WeedClear™ Lawn Weed Killer Concentrate. It can be used with a tank sprayer or connect it to your hose with the Ortho® Dial N Spray® Hose End Sprayer.
With that in mind, mowing an area of creeping charlie can cause it to spread if the plant is mowed and the clippings are left behind. Remember to bag clippings when mowing an area that is infested with the plant.
Creeping Charlie Weed Killer with Borax
As a low-growing perennial with very aggressive growth, it can quickly choke out desirable grass species in your lawn. Using Borax in this weed killer formula works well to kill the Creeping Charlie and not kill your grass.
Generally, vinegar is categorized as a natural or organic weed killer. So, it lures many people to believe its use is safe. However, the opposite is true as it is a corrosive substance. It is acetic acid (the chemical that kills weeds).
Permanently kills only broadleaf weeds; grasses and perennials grow back. Only kills above-ground growth, root systems are unaffected.
In short, salt is an effective non-toxic herbicide. However, not all salt is created equal when it comes to weed control. Regular iodized or non-iodized table salt must be used. Check the package to ensure you are using sodium chloride, not magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts), rock salt, or sea salt.
Smother creeping Charlie
Anchor it by burying the edges of the sheet into the ground. Leave the sheeting in place for several weeks. The heat trapped underneath will kill the creeping Charlie and other weeds by raising soil temperatures to lethal levels.
High in Vitamin C, it was often made into a tea to prevent scurvy. All parts of the plant can be used; it was often made into a tea, tincture and poultice. Because this mint plant runs so rampant, one way to embrace and use Creeping Charlie is to make it into a tea. It has a pleasantly subtle mint-like flavor.
Final Verdict. If you want a highly effective yet organic weed killer, then our top recommendation is Green Gobbler 20-Percent Vinegar Weed & Grass Killer. In our tests, it quickly withered and killed sprayed weeds, and it can be used in many different areas around the garden.
Before you apply this weed killer in your garden, here are some guidelines: Vinegar/soap weed killer is non-selective, which means that it will also damage/kill your desirable plants.
While vinegar is generally safe around dogs, you don't want them ingesting too much. Vinegar is highly acidic, so dogs with sensitive stomachs or other conditions might experience gastrointestinal upset.