"What is that viney-looking weed growing along my driveway and sidewalk edges and creeping into my landscape beds?" you may be asking.  It is the troublesome summer, broadleaf weed called Spotted Spurge.  Spotted spurge grows outwards from a thick root, staying close to the ground, forming a dense mat.  The leaves have an oval shape with a red spot in the center, thus giving this particular spurge its name.  The entire plant can have a hairy appearance. If the stems break apart, they can ooze a milky white sap which can be irritating to the skin.

Spurge loves the summer-time heat and can still thrive even in drought-like conditions - so be sure you are on Lawn Cure's summer service schedule to treat this and all the other summer broadleaf weeds.  Both the summer lawn applications and the weed suppression in the shrub bed services will do much to keep the spurge at bay.  If spurge pops up close to or within your flower beds ,making it inadvisable to spray for fear of damaging desirable plantings, it may become necessary to pull this weed out by hand, pulling at the stem, taking care to remove the entire root.  As a reminder, when pulling spurge by hand, wear gloves as a precaution from getting the milky sap onto your hands.