[Malrex]

The situation:

A client just moved into a house, the previous owners had a rock garden with the plant Ajuga (ground cover)...I guess they switched it back to a lawn before they sold it to my current client. She has Ajuga all over her front lawn, and spots of it in the backyard and its starting to creep into the neighbor's lawn on her side yards. She wants her grass back!

She refuses to have me use any type of herbicide as she has pets and she absolutely hates the stuff. I'm the poor guy trying to give her an estimate on this. Her lawn is about 6k sq. feet and the Ajuga problems cover about 1k sq. feet of her lawn. She wants an estimate for just taking out the Ajuga areas and an estimate for redoing her total lawn. I have experience with redoing lawns but not enough experience at estimating them. Is there a calculation hint for sq. footage for installing a new lawn with seed or do I just have to go through the steps of what I need to do and try to come up with a price like I do with everything else.

Depending on which direction she wants to go, my plan was to rip out both the lawn and ajuga with either a sod cutter or skid loader. Then I was going to add cardboard to block out any sunlight on any Ajuga that I missed. I would then install new topsoil/compost on top of the cardboard, seed, and straw. I figured the cardboard would block the sunlight and retain moisture for the new grass seed for a bit before it decomposed. Has anyone else had experience going headon with an invasive plant? Does my plan seem sane? My only worry is that there may be more Ajuga lurking in her planting beds underneath all this other groundcover--Pachysandra, and may try to creep out again into the new lawn. I didn't see any but the randomness of where this stuff has popped up makes me worried. It even jumped a sidewalk somehow. This Ajuga may very well take over the world! Any tips or advice would be very much appreciated.

[Stonehenge]

As my people know, I’m an Ajuga fan. Love the stuff. Bronze Beauty, Chocolate Chip, you name it. I think it’s even cooler when it’s spread into the yard and growing right alongside the turf. Makes the yard look old and venerable.

Having planted a ton of it, I’m not sure the cardboard trick is going to work – any stolons left in the ground will bide their time until they can push to the surface and grow. Lack of sunlight is not that big a deal to Ajuga – it grows naturally on the forest floor in Wisconsin, where there is very little light to be had.

I think you have 2 basic options – remove the first 8”-10” of soil in her yard and replace it (which is ridiculous, IMHO), or apply a non-selective herbicide to kill it, then rototill and reseed. Tell your client that if she wants Ajuga out of her yard she will have to compromise on her stance on pesticides.

[trees]

Ditto the stance on herbicide...

Organics are great but sometimes there is a purpose for chemicals. This is one of those times.

I tell people all the time that organic gardening is very much like homeopathic medicine. It's great for general wellness and minor problems, but sometimes you have to go to the doctor & fill a prescription. Nonselective herbicides used only in times of need aren't going to be a problem and once dry are pretty doggone pet friendly. That's the basis of Integrated Pest Management -- chemicals only when necessary.

BTW... what's she going to do with the pets while the new lawn is establishing? Seems to me if she's willing to keep them in the house / off the lawn during that relatively long period, another few days for an herbicide to do its work shouldn't be too big a hassle.

One other option... the organic crowd uses "horticultural vinegar" as a nonselective herbicide. You may look into that, but it will probably take multiple applications and prolong the process.

My best advice... give her a price to do it with traditional herbicides, then price it the organic way. Ensure that the pricing will make her rethink her opposition to traditional herbicides

[stoneridge]

Have you seen this, http://www.planetnatural.com/site/bu...ed-killer.html

I've never used it, but something you could consider.

[jwholden]

I'm liking the sod cutter route. Ajuga is very shallow rooted. Sod cutter it out, bring in new soil, till or soil cultivator area, plant new seed.

[dan deutekom]

Burnout is just vinegar and clove oil.====Horticultural vinegar