Meg's Guides: How to Get Rid of Dollar Weeds Organically

Dollar weed is a warm season perennial plant with silver-dollar shaped leaves. These small, numerous plants can be a pesky problem. Once established, they root stubbornly and come back after pulling and breed prolifically. The thick mats grow around flower beds, grass patches and other desirable plants, exacerbating the problem. You can't spray the dollar weeds with herbicide without poisoning the desirable plants and the yard in general. For a safer option that will save your plants, use sugar to kill dollar weeds instead of herbicide.

Pull up the Existing Weeds
It's easiest to get rid of emerging weeds. Adult plants have strong roots that help them resist chemical removal methods. They have a hard time surviving a good yanking. Pull up each plant at its base. Try to pull the roots up with you but don't waste too much time rooting around.

Hit the Dollar Weeds with Sugar

Sprinkle the affected bed with table sugar at a rate of three-quarters of a cup per hundred square feet. Sprinkle near the soil and avoid getting the grains on the leaves of your desirable plants.

Water the soil when you're done with a nice, fine mist. Water just enough to dissolve the sugar. Then, just wait. Most of the dollar weed roots will be killed on contact. A few may re-sprout. But you'll find that those persistent little buggers will die back within a manner of days. And with the dollar weed gone the rest of your garden plants will have room to spread and grow.

Take Care of the Soil

An infestation of dollar weeds is a sign that your soil isn't as healthy as it could be. Next spring, before you plant, mix in a 1-inch layer of organic compost. Your garden plants will soak up the nutrients and the dollar weed will find the soil to rich. If the dollar weed comes back, invest in a soil test from you're local county extension office. They'll tell you the exact nutrients you need to fight off weeds for good.