Does anyone have suggestions for an organic (or as organic as possible) weed killer for our lawn? It's being taken over by weeds.

Corn gluten meal is an organic weed control for lawns that is very effective. It works by suppressing germination of weed seeds. It also contains nitrogen, which nourishes the grass - that makes it kind of like the chemical weed and feed products.

You can buy corn gluten meal from Gardens Alive! at:

http://www.gardensalive.com/item_display.asp?ProductNumber=8873&sid=13418

To be totally up front with you, I need to tell you that OrganicGardening.com earns a commission when you order through this link.

You can also find corn gluten meal in feed stores, as it is used to feed livestock.

Hope that helps. Come back and let us know how it works for you.

While corn gluten is a preventative product, it wont help when weeds are established. The top methods used by my Organic service company are: Infra red burners (you can use a regular propane torch), I also have a high temperature water spray system ; both methods actually destroy the cellular structure of within the leaves which is comparable to bursting a water balloon. There are other methods but they are also non-selective, which means that they will destroy whatever plants you apply them to, including grass, product examples would be vinegar or fatty acids.

I need to find a way to get rid of entrenched ground ivy. It spreads by surface runners and is getting into everything. The garden shops tell me to use Roundup, but I don't want to use anything that toxic where I will have children playing. Short of digging up my entire backyard and reseeding it, I'm open for suggestions.
Thanks (Read desperation in that thanks, it also gets in the veggie patch!)

Cutting the surface runners - and staying on top of them once a week - is about the only way. Much as I loathe glyphosate, established ivy is a very difficult plant to get rid of and as a "last resort", use of this chemical is the option just above paving over the stuff.

If applied carefully with a Q tip, there will be enough damage done to stop any spread. The key word is "carefully" meaning direct plant contact only, no soil contact.

Not the best choice by a long shot but ground ivy will, if left alone, cover the world where climate conditions allow it.

Seen it done, takes a bit of time but that stuff does work. Unfortunately...

The herd of deer that tromped through my yard daily used to keep the ivy controlled nicely, they love it! I recently got another dog after I lost my old, old doggie and she does a good job of barking at the deer, so now I'm looking for ivy control methods, too. Of course, once the deer figure out my dog is all bark I'm sure they'll be back.

Has anybody else used 20 mule team borax ? I have used it on creeping charlie with great results. The first year I used it very agressively. The last couple of years just as a maintance program. It works on lawn violets also. Does anybody on here know if the boron breaks down in the soil or builds up ? I have seen no ill effects on my lawn. Thanks in advance

boron is an element, so i don't think it can break down. it might wash away tho. we can't use it in the west because our soil is too alkali already. it's a commie plot, it's so cheap here, being that it's mined here.
i'm going to try teh corn gluten, when i can find it. i've called a few feed stores, they don't carry it.

Yes boron does accumulate. Be careful as the toxic effect can sneak up suddenly.

Back in my "not entirely organic" past, I tried using (gasp!) Roundup on my ivy and it [u]didn't even make it wilt![/u] I even tried using brushkiller with no effect (although it did kill some of my feral blackberries). I've found that the only method that really works is pulling it, pulling it, pulling it, digging it up, cursing mightily, pulling it, digging it up, etc., etc. Good Luck, it is a multi year project, and make sure not one piece gets into the compost pile!!

You can make your own natural weedkiller by mixing: 1 gal. white vinegar/ 1 cup lemmon Juice/ 1 teaspoon mild soap. This is a nonselective and will also kill grass so be careful with overspray. On broadleaf weeds you will see wilt in about three hours and total knockdown the next day. Mature weeds may need a second whack. You can re-seed in a couple days.

Instead of spraying this mixture, get a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" PVC pipe, cap off one end and drill some small holes (1/16" or 1/8")in the side just above the cap and fashion a swab over the holes with a spounge or some cloth, fill the pipe with your liquid and just start dabbing. You might want to carry a small cotainer filled with your mixture just in case you need a refill and maybe a one pound coffee can to set the pipe in,

I am using 20% vinegar (from a feed store) successfully on broadleaved weeds in St Augustine. Unfortunately, it has not touched the ivy. I sprayed two days in a row and nothing. The rest of the broadleaves are dead looking within 2 hours. So far the grass has not been significantly affected by overspray - interesting.

So it definitely works on somethings but not others. I am having excellent results against oxalis - it's about time something worked!!

Plus, the yard smells like salad dressing after I spray!

This looks like an interesting thread that I'd like to resurrect. I'm planning to use corn gluten next spring to control the annual weeds that have become so prolific in my lawn, but I have a concern. In the last two years, a huge amount of weed seed seems to have made its way into my lawn. If I use the corn gluten to suppress germination, do I then have a big latent weed population waiting to spring up in the yard. In time, as the weed seed drift into my yard an accumulate because I don't kill them with poison, is the yard going to go to pot if I ever miss an application of corn gluten?
I'm hoping that suppressing the weeds for one season will give the grass (tall fescue) and clover a chance to establish themselves enough to crowd out whatever other annuals decide to drift in. Does anyone have experience to either back up or challenge this idea?
Thanks for helping out a relative newbie :-)

Don't worry daddy, you won't have any latent seeds to torture you down the road. Corn gluten does not suppress germination. It allows the seed to germinate but doesn't allow it's secondary root system to develop, therefore causing the seedling to die. There is a product called Preen that supresses seed germination, but I don't know if it is organic or not. If anyone knows about this let me know, because I have started using it in conjuction with the corn gluten in my mixed border paths and I'm having good results. Whatever gets by the Preen is killed by the corn gluten.