I appear to have gotten the yard work memo this past weekend too, much like many of my #engagetheweekend friends I’ve noted on Hive. My project, this past weekend, was to go after this area of our backyard that carries my perennial backyard nemesis:

My wife and I were fortunate to be able to purchase our home some 7 years ago.. The backyard was a disaster; here is what it looked like a few years ago:

We finally ripped everything up, put grass down, put a fence up, and then cleared out the garden with a raised bed. Yet despite all of that work, one thing still plagues me…it haunts me every time I walk around in our backyard. That nightmare’s name? Creeping Charlie… And it loves to grow in that area behind the garden bed.

Creeping Charlie, or ground ivory, is a weed that snuffs out grass. It takes root and grows like a vine across the ground. Once you get it, it sticks and spreads like wildfire. If you cut it with a lawnmower, the cuttings will then can take root and form even more weed spread. It’s like a weed plague.

From some home brewing books I’ve read, it appears my ancestors brought this weed over from Europe aeons ago. The weed was used to preserve beer before the discovery of hops. So yeah, if you too deal with weed on a daily basis, thank those damn Northern Europeans and their love for brewing beer. I know I do.

It’s extremely difficult to get rid of; you can use toxic chemicals to kill it, but with Hattie and Ms. Mabel running around the backyard, I didn’t want to go the route of Roundup. So I chose to go a different route. Here was my game plan that I put together at 3 am in the morning while I laid awake thinking about that damn Creeping Charlie in the backyard this past week.

• Clear out the area and disturb the earth with a hoe and rake
• Spread newspaper out over the earth
• Place topsoil on top of the newspaper
• Spread grass seed on the topsoil
• Cover the seed and topsoil with straw

My thinking is that if I use a layered newspaper, earth, straw combination, I can a) snuff out the life of Creeping Charlie by cutting it off from the sun and b) grow grass seed simultaneously. This isn’t as exciting as following in the footsteps of the Jesse James gang, so be warned, but here we go!

Action Plan in Action

First up, the area:

Then Hattie helped me put newspaper down and spray it with water so that it would not blow away:

I then put the topsoil down on top of the newspaper:

I then covered it with good old Kentucky bluegrass seeds…it’s a favorite in these parts with this climate (I forgot to take a photo of that part)

Next up, covered the area with straw, turned on the sprinkler, and away we went!

Believe it or not, that was a solid 2-hour project. I finished just in time to get the grill going and slam a beer. The beer was cold and exceptional.

The family went inside as temps neared 75F midafternoon (I mean, we were just in the teens last week), but my partner in crime kept me company for the duration of the grill out.

What did we manage to grill? Good question…you’re in luck because I have even more photos! The meal included some veggie kabobs and Texas farm shrimp. A very good afternoon, I must say, and the food turned out perfect.

So there it is; not much history to share with everyone this time through, but hey, Creeping Charlie is just as bad as those drunken riverboat folks from years ago. If not worse. With some luck, this project will turn out ok as rain is expected to be in the forecast for the next few days. Looks like my new binoculars will have to sit idle yet again.

Thanks for reading, as always! Please feel free to share any epic weed battles too you may have experienced, Creeping Charlie or otherwise. Plus, if you have any other advice on how to curtail this menace, please let me know. I’m open to any suggestions.

Hoping everyone had a great and safe weekend too! Hoping to return to a historical adventure next weekend should the rain go away.