Vetch in lawn. Kill? Control? It's green with pretty flowers, leave it?

My lawn in new house has got a few large patches of vetch growing in it. I've googled and done search here and see that vetch is very invasive. I don't want to use chemicals in my garden though I did give a clump of vetch beside my driveway a blast of ordinary 5% vinegar and it killed it. However, if I want to get rid of the clumps in my lawn, I don't also want to kill grass. As far as I can see, it's one of those plants like dandelions that are hard to eradicate as long as a bit of root or rhizome is left in the ground, so pulling it up seems a futile method. What is the best thing to do with this invasive plant? Any suggestions?

 

Forget vinegar esp with all this rain. When the sun comes out, run out with a shovel and dig out the vetch then put down some grass seed. You have about 15 minutes until the next downpour!

 

Alternately, if you like it, just don't allow it to set seed in the lawn and let it quietly take over from the grass. It's less maintenance-intensive than grass lawn (can be rolled instead of mown) and is also more drought-tolerant, not that that looks like it's going to be a problem in your area this year....

 

Heh, yes, we're not lacking for moisture, that's for sure. Have you ever seen a lawn entirely of vetch (and I think if I just wait a season, I'll find out). It's a bit stringy and the flowers are bound to turn to seed as it just squooshes under the mower. Just took a pause to google again about vetch and warnings are pretty dire for it taking over entire gardens.

 

Try this product. It is an iron solution that has been approved since May 2010...
'EcoSense' is the spray you can get at your big box store or garden store. 'Fiesta' is the industrial stuff.
I had success with it on annuals in the lawns last year. Perennials take more work or removal. It needed at least two applications during a warm dry period.

I don't know if this will work for you, but I don't have any clients with that problem currently so I can't experiment myself. I did have a residential client about twelve years ago that had it throughout her back yard in Coquitlam.

The only other thing that really worked without damaging the lawn was Killex as a spot spray
( 2, 4-D, mecoprop and dicamba.)

So far this year, it has been too wet and it has been difficult to avoid showers. My control with EcoSense has been poor.

I have a landscaping business around Port Coquitlam