Fall Lawn Spraying - Creeping Charlie - 2019

This is the first season that I've really paid a lot of attention to the lawn in any sort of meaningful way.  I've posted about it all year, but normally, I just dealt with the length of the grass and that's about it.  Weeds?  Sure.  Fertilizer?  If I remembered.  But, this year, I've upped my cutting and feeding game.  And also, for the first time used some herbicides to tackle the weeds.

In the far back of the yards, I had a pretty serious Creeping Charlie issue that is a result of the lawn being untouched since before we moved in our house.  I posted in late May about how I started to use a Blue Spray Pattern Indicator in the sprayer to know where I was putting down the treatment.  I had both Wild Violet and Creeping Charlie running through the yard and the herbicide worked well.  In my mind, the blue pattern indicator additive was part of the reason for the efficacy because I was able to tell both how much and where I was putting it down.

This Fall (the past few weeks), I've seen a resurgence of Creeping Charlie in the yard.  I'm not sure if this is an annual occurrence (Fall weeds?) or if we're experiencing something unique with the weather that is encouraging weed growth this late in the year?  What I seem to be sure about is that Fall weed control is the right time for going after them.

From the University of Minnesota Extension Office:

Autumn is the best time of year for systemic herbicide applications when creeping charlie is actively taking up nutrients from the soil to sustain the plant through the winter. Spring is a second option when the plant is actively growing.

You can see a little patch of Creeping Charlie (ground ivy) in the photo at the top.  I put down a treatment a few days ago and will monitor it for curling up and signs of dying.  In the Spring, I had success with two treatments - about a week apart - in killing much of the Creeping Charlie.  My plan is to do the same (2 successive treatments about a week apart) this Fall - which should close out my herbicide treatments for the year.  What is...basically...year 1 for lawn care for me.  Then, once the leaves are cleaned up, I'm going to put down another Lime treatment and a final spoon-feeding of Milorganite right before the ground freezes and my feeding schedule will close out for the year, too.