What's this please and how do I get rid of it?

[stem]

View media item 48517
Our garden is being taken over by whatever is shown in the photograph. It appeared from nowhere about 5 years ago and is taking over. We call it "pond weed" as it seems to flourish in the damper, shadier parts of the garden, which is most of it is, as we have a heavy clay soil and it's frequently waterlogged, despite several applications of soil improver.

Fortunately, it has no roots, and is fairly easy to remove in small quantities, but there is so much of it and it's popping up everywhere! It's a continual battle, remove it, and it starts to come back within a few days. The plants in the rockery are covered in it. It has even spread from the back garden to the front, which is separated by about 20 feet of paving. (does it walk?) and it's even in the pots on the deck that are filled with a well known potting compost. (ie not soil from the garden)

This weekend I have had to lay four rolls of turf to replace the section of lawn that has been taken over by the 'stuff'. This is where the small piece in the photograph is taken from. As you can see, the grass has been completely killed off by it. We have the lawn professionally treated four times a year and apart from this there isn't another weed in sight.

So if you could identify it for me please and tell me how best to get rid of it, that would be much appreciated.

 

[dogfonos]

Sorry, no answers from me but I've had this stuff growing on a few patches of lawn. I'm not sure if it killed off the grass or just replaced weak/dead grass. Because I only had a few patches (maybe four, one sq metre patches) on the back lawn, I scrapped it off, watered the entire lawn with ferrous (iron) sulphate solution, raked out dead moss etc after three weeks then reseeded. Did it this spring and all looks OK - so far.

I too have heavy clay soil and this is not a good soil for grass. I suspect that's you main issue here. Some will recommend improving the soil, aerating the lawn etc (try doing that on compacted clay!) and I've tried several methods over the years but none has been particularly effective long term. Probably need to dig up lawn, lay drainage then replace topsoil.

 

[r896neo]

Liverwort, Its very similar to mosses and algae.

Its a common sight on paths lawns and borders which are totally over compacted and have poor drainage.

Aerating your lawn will help there and borders should be turned over and loosened up, adding grit or sharp sand will help too.

When its on paths it should be treated like moss and scraped off and sprayed

 

[dogfonos]

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2131512#2131512

 

[stem]

Thanks for the link dogfonos.

We had hollow tine aeration professionally done earlier this year, so hopefully that will help. The company that did it for us thought that the 'weed' was "Mind Your Own Business" we weren't so sure but I've looked on the internet and it looks just like the photographs of Liverwort as 7896neo suggests.

 

[dogfonos]

We had hollow tine aeration professionally done earlier this year, so hopefully that will help.

I hope so.

Did you get to see the lawn 'plugs' removed by the aerator? I don't know how others view this but unless the plugs were at least 3 inches long (deep), I'm not convinced it's worth doing. It would be interesting to know if the aerator managed to reach that depth on your heavy, and possibly compacted, clay soil.

 

[stem]

I wasn't there when it was done, but the holes were about the same diameter as my finger and I would estimate at least 2-3" deep.

They were visible for about 2 weeks then disappeared.