Thank you for contacting the UVM Master Gardner Helpline with your question about creeping buttercups. It sounds like you are having quite a battle. A clear photograph of the plant and flowers would help us positively confirm your plants identify.  Based on your identification, we have the following recommendations:

Creeping buttercup favors poor drainage, soil compaction, low fertility, and acidic soils -- so improving drainage, aeration, soil ph, and fertility should help other plants out-compete the buttercup.

Therefore, you might consider doing a soil test to confirm your soil is ideal for the plants you are growing and, ideally, less attractive for the buttercups. You can submit a sample to the UVM soil lab by following the instructions on this site: https://www.uvm.edu/extension/agricultural-and-environmental-testing-lab. Based on the results you can fertilize and/or add lime as appropriate.

One thing you can do to control the weed is to create an environment that is less welcoming to the plant. Pennsylvania State Extension offers some suggestions in their article entitled “Lawn and Turfgrass Weeds: Creeping Buttercup: Lawn and Turfgrass Weeds: Creeping Buttercup (psu.edu). That article specifically recommends “Creeping buttercup infestations can be reduced by improving turf density through fertilization, regular mowing, improved drainage, reducing irrigation, and use of turfgrasses well-adapted to site conditions. This weed can be suppressed or controlled with various postemergence herbicides.”.

If you want to maintain an organic environment, you will need to be very careful about any herbicides you apply, especially for plants that will be eaten.

If possible, extend your garden by a foot or two and put down black plastic to suppress the plant growth.  As you know, cardboard decomposes over the season allowing the plants to grow through.

Finally, when you are removing the plants you will need to remove the entire root system including any stolons that may be extending.

I hope this information is helpful. If you need more information, please feel free to reach out. Good luck with controlling your buttercups and I hope you have a successful garden season this summer.

Thank you very much for adding the pictures to your question. I’m sorry to see that you have such a significant problem on your hands. I can see why you want to get on top of it as early as possible.

I have been consulting with the experts in the Extension office and they gave us another suggestion you can try.

First, it is recommended that you pull out as many plants (and every bit of the roots that you can get) starting as early as possible and stay on top of it.  

The other suggestion they made was to try tarping which is utilized on larger farms, but may be a good tool for you to use. Here's a nice publication that reviews the options: https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/1075e/types-of-tarps-and-how-they-work/

It says, "The underground storage organs of perennial weeds store enough energy reserves to survive winters and other difficult conditions. This translates to resilience in the face of tarping. Perennial weeds tend to be most vulnerable to weed management tactics like tarping when they are just emerging in the spring, with only a few leaves sprouted, as they have already drawn on stored sugar reserves to survive the winter and must further exhaust these reserves to form spring shoots. However, once shoots emerge and start photosynthesizing at full capacity, perennials can quickly replenish reserves."

We hope this additional information is useful. Best of luck in bringing your creeping buttercup invasion under control.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions.

Laura

One more follow-up.  

Ann, who is the Director of the Plant Diagnostic Clinic, showed your picture to Dr. Michael Sundue, Pringle Herbarium, and he thought that was a good guess-creeping buttercup, but impossible to tell without a pic of the flower.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.