Wild violet removal

Okay, I need your help. My back yard has been taken over by wild violets, and when I say taken over, I mean 80% of the back yard is wild violet. I need an organic way to treat this. I have a 1 year old that is going to be in that yard so chemicals are out. I know I can hand dig them but they roots are horribly difficult to get completely. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Vinegar can be used as an organic weed killer. It won't be selective for the violets though, so if you have other plants in the area you'll have to be careful not to spray it on them. Vinegar works best when applied on a warm sunny day, and sometimes you may have to repeat the treatment.

Why do you want to remove them? They take a lot of walking on, are easy to raise,lol, and require no mowing.

ROFL! They may not require mowing but the other weeds still need it and I can not dodge them. My back yard is basically violets and clover. You would think since I live in KY that it would be all KY Bluegrass, but I dare to be different!! ;-)

I will give the vinegar a try. Hopefully I will be able to give it a try this week but we are in some strange monsoon season right now. I hate to complain because come June - August I will be begging for rain!

Violets like acid soil. If you want to encourage grass and discourage
the violets, put down lime (or some other amendment to raise the pH.)
I put lime on my front yard but left the rest alone. I enjoy the all the color
the violets provide each spring.

Violets in our yard are considered a gift from Mother nature. Even in our beds they are treated as royal vistors, but then again we are wierd like that.

Violets themselves are nontoxic and provide nectar for the earliest butterflies. I would leave them They seem to be of easy care and require less water than conventional lawn.

Well, finally, someone besides me loves wild violets!! I just love them and encourage them as much as possible. I dug some of my first ones out of the horse pasture and brought them into the yarden when I first started getting interested in flowers.

Seriously, Vinager is a good herbicde, however you have to remember it only kills the tops.. so it will take several weeks of sparying to make a difference.

OK. but more seriously - use lime and the grass will be happy.
And the violets will fade away

The violets are great for butterflies. Since you have so many, you shouldn't worry about mowing them, they'll survive. Also, the clover is good for bees and other beneficial insects.

And the lawn will require greater amount of water to survive and look good.

Kerrick, I don't think you are getting much simpathy or help here. LOL

Leaflady:

I think you are right.

As for the butterfies, I never see them on the violets.;-( I put some lime in a small patch to test the water, per se. We will see how it works. I promise, I am not one of the fanatics who wants perfect grass, I would just like to have an even balance of grass and weeds. I think the violets are pretty in bloom but the rest of the time, not so much!

We will see how the lime works in the grass and I am planning on testing the vinegar in one of my beds since I can block the plants I prefer more easily from the spray.

I haven't seen any butterflies on mine either. But then all I seem to have right now is night moths..

I had a similar problem moving into a new house (and yard). I made it the first summer's 'project' to pull all violets. If you pull for 1 hour (use a digger) you'd be amazed how many you can get rid of. It did take alot of hours, though, and all summer!

Send them all down here. Some of us would be thrilled to have a carpet of violets. I have the tiny wild white violets in my field and I treasure them.

LOL I just planted two I grew from seed.

I too treasure the native violets . I even transplanted them to our difficult front yard lawn last summer . They seem to thrive on shade even in dry shade. This is one way that I can cut down on water usage and yield a more natural looking lawn.

My wife's best Jewish Wine appears each year about this time when I mow them off even after skipping few days of mowing to please her. As far as know the only way to get rid of Johny Jump ups are to sell out and move to a property where they do not exist. I counted thirty some bulbs on one large clump I dug out. The other ten were still in the ground. :) Same goes for ground ivy. Ground Ivy is a pull one start ten deal. However it can be controlled somewhat by a broad leaf herbicide. These are two reasons why I cut my grass at four inches. A four inch grass crop will hide all. The third reason is three or four inches of grass is a healthier lawn anyway one looks at it.

One way to defeat all weeds, violets and ground ivys is to plant Zoyia. I just do not like this grass. My neighbor has it. I have a few spots of bird planted Zoyia where the control is quite evident. Here in the Northeast it is the first grass to brown out in the fall and the last to green up come spring. I like my green grass what little I have to take care of. When those violets jump up in my flower and foundation planting beds I let them grow as they will where they will. I yank a few out now and then when they get thick enough to look unballanced.