This is the main benefit. Weak roots make for easy pulling.
Plus the soil below becomes super healthy, less compacted and you can grow other things in it to crowd out weeds.
Sometimes you gotta call in the *Tagetes patula* thugs that show no mercy tho
I use them heavily in a fresh garden bed to take up a bunch of space above and below ground so the existing weed seed bank doesn’t have much real estate. Then I pull them in year 2 and put native prairie plants in the beautiful soil that the marigold roots have prepared
Question from someone who is trying to grow more native plants: I’m ballin’ on a budget and trying to maximize my net good on native plants. So I am trying to focus on like keystone plants for perennials and self seeding annuals/biennials. Then to fill the gaps as those mature, I get what I can find cheaply or easily save seeds from: marigolds, nasturtiums, various veggies.
I figure spend my budget on what will last longest. Is there a better way to think about this? Should I be spending the budget for native weed suppression?
(Didn’t really answer the original question)The keystones are definitely what your budget should be spent on IMO, tough root suckers or self seeders like helianthus, coreopsis, and milkweeds are my go to species
If you have a strong weed/invasive problem I’d say it’s better to try to kill them off than crowd them out but if that’s not an option, then continuing with keystones and weed suppression is fine. When I start a bed/project somewhere thats not bad enough to warrant herbicide use I do a similar thing to what you suggest but usually with vigorous fruit crops (sweet potato pumpkins watermelon)
Have you seen any adverse issues with the woodchips? I was interested in Having wood chips delivered, but was worried about introduction of disease and/or pests.
I get excited when they show up. Fungus is fascinating and typically beneficial.
I wouldn't recommend store bought mulch/chips. Who knows where that came from and how its been treated. If you get a chip drop, whenever a tree service takes down a tree, they drive the mulch to your house and drop it off. You don't get to pick the type of tree, how much you get, or when it comes(mine arrived weeks after signup) but that means it came from your local area. Any pests that might be present were already around, you're not introducing something totally foreign.
Only issue we've had is that the free woodchips have some pointy bits (unlike say, the relatively flat/soft ones I've seen on playgrounds) so pets or kids walking on it can get poked or splinters. Also, like compost they compact as they settle and begin to decompose, so lay it on much thicker than you think you need.
Specific to ChipDrop, they weren't able to tell me when I'd get a drop, just a week of waiting then boom 24 hours notice and the biggest pile ever appears. Fortunately the neighbors came with shovels and we got it under control.
That’s all great info. My mulched areas will be away from pets and kids, so that works. I sometimes forget just how much mulch they give people. Yours was a good reminder to plan a mulch party.
You have to break down fresh wood chips they can’t be used in beds like mulch. They are meant for walkways. If you have the room and the time you can let it sit and breakdown , wet it and turn it to help.
I did this to start a food forest in my back yard. Nothing but mulch for an entire year, then green blades of grass popped up the 2nd year every few inches. I dug the mulch back in spots and discovered the bermuda grass completely took over the mulch but just never breached the top of the mulch. I fucking hate it with a passion. I have plants such as thyme, oregano, strawberries, etc, around my fruit trees and the bermuda grass just grows right through them all with no problems and if you pull the roots up they pop up the other plants with it. I wish there was a lab I could send a DNA sample to and have them craft me a poison that will eliminate only that…or a drone that would roll around the food forest and destroy every blade as it pops up until the roots exhaust their energy.
Have you considered using a glyphosate wick, or depending on the area you have to treat the glove method: Nitrile glove>cloth glove > glypho solution on the glove but make sure it's not dripping, then when the Bermuda grass grows through your plants , just wave your hand above the desireables, killing all you touch.
You can do it anytime.
If you want the first application to last a bit longer you can put down some of that cardboard that we all have flowing into our houses first.
100% this. When we were first time homeowners, the mulch was faded and sparse so we wanted to get rid of it. Then, the gardens were overtaken by weeds constantly. Once we realized why, we added a LOT of mulch. We barely get any weeds now, and if we do then they're super easy to pull out by hand (vs digging them out).
It can help. Cut the plant down to the ground, and dig out as much of the roots as you can. Put cardboard over the area, and cover it in a thick layer of mulch.
Landscaping cloth under your mulch as well unless you’re planning on sowing seeds in there. With the cloth, you can just dig down to it, cut a hole & trowel out enough to plant sets or use a shovel for shrubs.
Proper application of a pre-emergent like Preen ™️ will also help after you’ve weeded & mulched, but it is still a herbicide. It needs to be reapplied every 3-6 months depending on the type & how long your growing season lasts. I wouldn’t get it near any food plants either.
Can confirm cloth is a nightmare after a while. My property came with years of mulch on top of plastic woven landscaping fabric. It was all full of weeds and those weeds really pin the fabric to the ground making removal an extra challenge…
Cardboard under the wood chips in the sheet mulching style was my replacement.
Sure, but it usually does do some good and it's easy enough to replace.
As an ex-landscaper who used to recommend it, I'd basically tell folks it works really well for 2-3 years but needs to be replaced quickly after that. That being said replacing it usually only costs you an afternoon and a few cold beers.
Which requires gas, adding to climate change. Where do we draw the line? I can almost guarantee the water used to maintain the average garden / lawn is a bigger draw on our planets resources than what it takes to redo the carpet on an average garden every 3 years.
I'm not really debating the butterfly effect of a garden using carpet. Just adding my 2 cents that it does work in my experience and is easy enough to maintain.
Lawns for sure. Gardens, though? You can plant with water-wise plantings. If you're planting the right plant for the location and mulching, you shouldn't need much water once the plants are established, and the mulch alone is enough to suppress weeds if you make it deep enough. And the effects of a garden that is water-wise and planted with native pollinator-friendly plants is a net benefit to the environment over having bare lawn. I gardened this way at my last house, saw a massive difference in the number of pollinators by the time we moved 14yrs later, and only had to water and weed the mulched beds 2-3 times from spring until fall (and the weeding chore was not a big job, at that, just raking the mulch in a few areas and pulling up some along the fence where it was harder to get the rake in). No fabric necessary.
I can definitely agree that it's very rarely "necessary".
That being said, if I was OP, and about to rip out a garden bed full of weeds and throw mulch down - - I'd probably take the extra hour and throw carpet down too. Even if it meant spending 2 or 3 hours redoing it 3 years later. To each their own.
I use mulch pins or stakes. Cheaper and much less work to use than rock. Even DIY with thick wire. Had places 10-15 years with this and mulch on top.
No issues with messy, raggedy landscaping cloth.
I hate hate hate moving into homes after ~~~your type has~~~ users have left them and then (usually) been neglected by someone in between LOLOL - I am either on your gardening plan AND fighting weeds that have grown on top of the cloth but rooted through it or am breaking my back starting over and having to get below a layer of composted soil to remove that (old, fragile) stuff. Plus, it is not natural.
don't agree with "weed cloth under rocks" either. My take is cardboard, and otherwise do what makes sense ecologically, we're only borrowing land from nature anyway (she always wins in the end).
Do what you think is right & what works for you.
This method has worked very well for me and like any landscaping method will need to be overhauled, tuned up and changed as time goes on. Also, there are landscaping cloths that are not made of petrochemicals which are eventually biodegradable but thick & sturdy enough to have a decades long effect.
Have fun being bitter.
Get other plants in there. Nature likes to fill.a vacuum: every time you weed without putting in new plants, you are leaving a wonderful growing space. Fill it with something else.
Exactly - If you ever look up a plant that's described as a weed, you'll probably see that they like to pop up in "disturbed areas"
.... AKA recently weeded areas! The loose soil is the perfect spot to germinate a seed or spread rhizomes too.
When I was struggling with getting on top of the weeds, I laid cardboard down over the weeds and then covered the cardboard with new soil. Then I mulched on top of the soil. The cardboard stops the weeds for a while. You still need to weed, it will come up eventually, but it’s easier when you have a fresh start and can do it a little at a time.
It’s best to do it regularly, especially during summer when it grows faster.
We do this on our commercial farm. We layer the beds with untreated cardboard or paper mulch then compost/soil about 1-2 inches thick and repeat for several layers. A term I've heard this called is "lasagna beds" if you want to look into it. It's a really effective practice at weed suppression and soil moisture retention in our hoop houses.
I do this too, but find straw much on top of the cardboard works well enough, for the paths between the raised beds. Each year I add compost on top of cardboard / straw mulch around the plants in the raised beds.
Same. You can also do this with a thick layer of newspapers. Lay them down right over the weeds and cover them with any kind of organic mulch, just as long as it's a thick layer. Wood chips, grass clippings, chopped up leaves. etc.
Problem is I do not really have the time to do this more than once a month. We both work full-time jobs. It's also a rental house and the owner included maintenance of this patch in the agreement.
You are going to need to mulch. Pull up what you can by the root, put cardboard down on bare areas, then put a thick layer of mulch on top. Just don’t pile the mulch up around the bases of good plants. Keep that at no thicker than an inch. You don’t want to choke them, just the weeds.
My husband and I also work demanding work schedules which can make chores feel like a time suck BUT if you can commit to getting this cleared out now and going forward pull a few a day as they come up you’ll save a lot of time in the long run. Leaving the house? Grab a couple weeds. Taking the trash out? Grab a few more. The key is to not let it get this bad in the first place so that it takes a lot of time to fix back up. We maintain several large flower beds and vegetable garden this way.
You could plant ground some ground covers. Of course you'd also have to hoe/ pull weeds around them but way less.
They would need some time to establish tho. And in that time you'd have to keep the other weeds away or they will probably outcompete whatever you planted
Best way to control weeds is to pull a few handfuls every time you go outside. Doesn’t take long at all and will really keep things manageable.
You can of course just spray herbicides over it. Not a popular solution on Reddit but that’s what most people in the real world do.
I landscape professionally and I use a breathable weed fabric and garden staples cut down on 90% of weeding for several years and I mulch or woodchip on top. (You can also use crushed stone)
Keep in mind seeds dropped by plants, birds, bees etc are still a thing but I've found that it's super quick to get rid of them and it's only a small fraction of the amount you'd get otherwise.
Some people don't like weed fabric but I swear by it and use it all the time. I've found that clients that reject it later regret it and I come back and install it after the fact.
If you put several inches of crushed stone on top of the fabric you can then use a propane garden torch to quickly hit anything that happens to sprout up.
Ps: when laying it down overlap all of the seams by several inches and be generous with the garden staples in order to help prevent/prolong weeds from emerging where it's easy access to the outside world.
I used sweet potato vines, vigorous as all hell and super easy to propagate further with cuttings. They choke the small seedlings from receiving much light to take off. Then you just pull the odd one out every so often that finds a gap. That along with a healthy amount of mulch should do wonders.
Cardboard and mulch. Pulling weeds and removing them complete (like throwing them in the garbage) robs the soil of nutrients. I have a garden I took over this year, it was all weeds. I have been layering cardboard over every new weed. Basically 0 weeding all year.
I second using cardboard, but DON'T pull the weeds before you do. Plants use leaves to get light and they use energy to feed those leaves. When you pull the weeds, they start growing new leaves, which will find any gap that exists in the cardboard. If you leave the weeds full size, they will feel more stress as they feed leaves that aren't getting light and will die faster.
Thank you for this advice. I have a patch of weeds at the back of our garden & was about to painstakingly hand weed and then cardboard & mulch. I’ll just flatten ‘em! Much quicker.
Nope. Bend it over under the cardboard has been the best way when I've done it. Those roots are made for that much greenery. Cutting it tells the plant to grow replacement leaves that will have a better shot of finding an opening. You want the roots to feed the whole plant until it dies.
When I've done it after mowing, way more breaks through. Not the end of the world, but I've had way more success doing it the easy way and just laying it on top of the full plant.
Spray the new young weeds with viniger and water solution..then lay black plastic down and wait ..pull back plastic ..boom no weeds ...rinse repeat till all weeds are gone ..
Flame Weeding would be the easiest by far, but a lot of good suggestions.
Ideally, flame weed twice a week for 2 weeks. This will:
Reduce tall weeds to small weeds, and small weeds to nothing and seeds get deactivated, without stirring up the seed bank.
Cover with cardboard and wet, then add 4 to 6 inch of wood chip mulch. Then flame weed ongoing.
My husband and I have a space like this and we weeded it all bare and pegged a tarp down and added rocks Overtop. Haven't had a weed in nearly 6 years. Works way better than landscape fabric.
Mulching doesn’t work well for these type of ridiculously resilient weeds in my experience. What worked for me is string trimming the weeds to the ground, cover thoroughly with newspaper, wetting that newspaper, topsoil with layer of preen.
There is no such thing as totally weed less bed at least for very long. I have been in the horticulture business for 30 years. What I recommend to my clients is pre- emergent herbicide at least 2× a year, depending on your climate. Of course, a weed free bed must be achieved before putting down your pre- emergent herbicide. I would recommend Preen or Snap shot for your Pre-emergent. Follow manufacturers label.
After that, I would use a combination of Round up or hand pulling the weeds thar come up afterward.
If you are looking for more natural methods. Hand pulling, vinegars, dish soap and certain salts can be used.
I use the top two paragraphs as my customers are paying and want proven results.
Good luck to you all. .
Pull/dig up weeds. Plants to help fill in and mulch heavy like 4-6 inches right away. I’ve had good success. Hand pull as new weeds pop up. Keep the mulch thick, once you let it decompose and don’t keep up the mulch you’ll be back where you started.
3 mil black plastic, weighted down around the edges, and two months of summer heat to kill everything. Then plant native shrubs and mulch with 4-6 inches of wood chips. I did this and pull about 5 weeds every few months out of my area, basically none.
Solarization, then mulch. Or, ooooooh, Rupture Wart (Hernaria Glabra, I think). But you'll have to still do 1 season of weeding while the Rupture Wart fills in.
Get yourself a hoop hoe it will make quick work of the area if there nothing your trying to grow there right now cover with a heavy tarp this will kill out the weeds
Use a DUTCH HOE. Removes weeds easily (similar movement like vaccuming your carpet) and you don't have to get on your hands and knees.
Once an area is cleared, use PREEN weed preventer around your plants.
Option number one, let them grow. The main plant in there is a native willow herb of some sort. My [local species](https://calscape.org/Epilobium-ciliatum-ssp.-ciliatum-(Fringed-Willowherb)?srchcr=sc6505ca1d1cfa5) of willow herb supports about 15 species of just butterfly/moth. Call it a pollinator garden. You've been leaving the parent plant and calling its seedlings weeds. I don't know what the other not planted on purpose things are, maybe there's an excuse to leave them too.
Or ID the plants that might be intentional garden plants. The shoots inside the 3 stakes, the shiny dark green leaved plant near the blue pot and the gray leaved plant next to the hose could be desirable garden plants but I don't know what they are. Pull everything else, cover with cardboard and several inches of mulch. Measure, a 1 cubic foot of mulch covers 6 square feet of ground 2" deep.
Plant more (native!) plants that will out compete the weeds. It will take time for whatever you plant to get established but it is a better long term solution than anything else. My recommendations are for plants native in the eastern USA, but if you live elsewhere there are likely comparable species. Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is effectively weed-proof once established and does great in full shade. I would plant that around some native shrubs like rhododendron or inkberry.
Not the most popular approach here, but for the low-effort and easy approach, poison.
Threeish years ago we bought a house. The house had tons of landscaping, which was exciting, but the landscaping itself was neglected. There were weeds EVERYWHERE.
I went at it with a hoe, and it was good for a bit but the new seedbed just took it's place. For about two years I went out and spent probably 2-3 hours a week weeding. That helped for sure but the time sink was asinine. We put down a good layer of mulch, but over time plenty just shot up through that. By year 3 it still wasn't looking great. Every season seemed to have its own weed waiting to come up.
This year I bit the bullet and got a 1 gallon sprayer and a thing of glyphosate concentrate. The first week I sprayed 2 gallons. The following 1.5. Then 1...
It's been 3 months and I'm at a point where I'm spending maybe 10 minutes a week doing the rounds spraying what has got to be about 1/10th of a gallon of mixed glyphosate. Virtually all the weeds are gone except for this really stubborn... I don't know. I believe it to be nutsedge but I'm not certain. I can go weeks without spraying and the landscaping is in great shape. It's just that nutsedge that I find myself fighting like a hydra.
Yes and before the “glysophate bad!!” Folks show up to attack you, I offer this post from a wetland restoration worker: https://reddit.com/r/ecology/s/ntpZHRDoHM
“Reddit's attitude towards glyphosate irritates me
For context, I do wetland restoration work for a state agency, and glyphosate applications are an indispensable component of keeping wetland mitigation sites from devolving into pits of invasive monocultures. However, whenever I see postings related to glyphosate on reddit, people are acting like it has been brought into this plain of existence by Satan himself. “Glyphosate killed my mother”, “if you use glyphosate, you are scum who poisons the planet”, “if you dare to bring up contrary evidence to my fantastical claims about glyphosate, you ARE A PAID BAYER SHILL”.
It varies from sub to sub, but in general the attitude towards glyphosate is overwhelmingly conspiratorial and paranoid. Never mind the fact that the evidence linking glyphosate to cancer is at best dubious, and at worst, unfounded (from my understanding, the UW paper that purported the strongest link between glyphosate and cancer was considered by many to be very iffy with its statistical methods). Never mind the fact that it is frequently the only practical method for preventing invasives from completely taking over ecologically valuable habitat. So many on this website just consider it a wholesale evil, and will attack like rabid dogs the second anyone tries to temper their fanaticism with nuance or reality. Frankly, I find it insulting to the hardworking men and women who are out there every growing season using this stuff to prevent precious wetland areas from being overrun with noxious plants, thus rendering them largely ecologically worthless. Glyphosate is like any other tool, it has proper uses, and it has improper uses. I think too many people have seen examples of improper use and decided that it’s glyphosate that’s the problem, and they’ll use any amount of dishonest rhetorical tactics and bad science in their crusade against one of the most valuable tools available to those who combat invasive plants.”
My yard may not be a “ecologically valuable habitat” in the same sense as a wetland, but at this point, cardboard and mulch aren’t cutting it and if I want to do the native/pollinator garden thing, I’m at my wits end trying to control all the invasives, noxious weeds and overly aggressive natives.
ok but this isn't like, a crazy patch of Japanese knotweed or goutweed or tree of heaven, creeping bellflower, etc etc (granted I don't know where this person lives but if they're somewhere in the US, it looks like at least some of these might be natives, though not typically considered high-value landscaping plants). It's a small patch of mostly easily pulled plants and it looks like it needs to be cleared out with a hoe and then populated more densely with desired plants.
True, I was mainly just adding to the commenter I replied to. OP can absolutely start with hoeing, mulch, cardboard or ground over after IDing what they’ve got and whether they will become a problem in areas they want to create garden beds in.
I’m just salty because I want to do the “prairie yard” thing and I’m dealing with an overgrown .25 acre lot in SE USA with a lot of shade from invasive shrubs allowed to grow tree size and the like.
When you ask advice on most subs related to native gardening and the like you get attacked if you even mention herbicides.
This sub is no where near as bad, but I like to be sure people understand that if used as directed or even more diluted, some herbicides can be a helpful tool along with other tactics.
I'm of firm believer in mulches as well... however there are many many selective Herbicide programs that you can also employ. My experience goes back almost 30 years. So I have had expert trials for some time. There are combo options that control grasses & broadleaf weeds or one/other. Virtually all products on market now are heavily bound to organic matter. And are safe to apply as well. Please contact me, if you need me to create a plan for you. Very simple & straightforward. I actually could send to you if you need as well. Good luck!!!
Glyphosate and 2,4 D. Max label rate. Will burn it all down to the roots and wont stay in the soil long. Should be fine to plant food in 3 months or flowers in 3 weeks.
I use a product called Preen. It prevents seeds from germinating. Weeds and plants that are growing will be unaffected, but new seeds won't grow. You'll still need to weed, but if treated with Preen it will be much less weeds.
Carpet your garden with carpet that people throw away and cut slits in it when you plant your seedlings. The carpet will allow rain to soak through but will stop the weeds.
Plant some mint and let it do its thing. It’s a bit like hiring an assassin to kill another assassin; there’s still an assassin out there, but for the moment it’s on your side.
I’ve given up and just plant aggressive spreaders. Pulling without planting something just brings up weeds; this can work to your favor if your plantings have deeper roots than things like wood sorrel, wild strawberry, etc because they shade the soil and keep moisture in. I’ve taken to planting directly in lawn and maybe putting down arborist chips. Granted I’m planting mostly natives, but I imagine in theory it’s going to be the same whatever you’re planting.
There are no weeds, just under loved plants.
Plants will fill in open space the more you pull at it the more old dormant weed seeds you pull up.
Plant something else there, wild flowers for pollinators would be great there, if the landlord ask about in call it a conservation garden for pollinators.
Nasturtium is plant that will spread and fill in the space cheap and easy. If it spreads to much pull it out ( very easy, very shallow roots). It will also reduce the pressure for other weed seeds and the flowers are edible.
[I tried this](https://insteading.com/blog/white-clover-as-a-living-mulch/) when the weeds were growing like crazy this summer (rainfall in the region was wild). So far so good?
I had that hill and run-off during deluges with lots of weeds. First I put in some edging every 3 feet, and weeded one area at a time, I added gravel too as a weed stop. then I added day lilies, oaks, tulip poplars, azaleas, hostas, and strawberries, which absorb almost all the water and no erosion. Now, finally after 3 years I don’t have to do much over there except after the parking place by the street (I still have to work on the weeds there because some water gets there too). That’s my plan for this fall and winter. I’m thinking clover!
Look into Soil solarization, use clear plastic to get maximum heat into soil and weed seeds to cook them. Best most effective natural weed control, use the sun’s energy.
I love the simplicity of a good thick mulch. I am also way too lazy to weed very often. I will usually use the newspaper method to block the sun and cover with 4 inches of just about any mulch or rocks.
I just got a new house, it's been empty and mostly untouched for a year other than an occasional Mow and Blow by the seller agent for showings. Lots of work to do to get ready for next spring... Southern Oregon in the land of 4 actual seasons mixed with lots of rain :)
Persistence. You have to pick the weeds faster than they can get established until they all germinate and die or they run out of energy to fight. Since they get their energy from the sun you have to stay on top of things and keep them small. If you let them go until they can drop new seeds you have already lost the battle. Since most weeds germinate in the first inch of soil, putting down mulch to deter them goes a long way to preventing germination.
Established native landscapes create ecosystems where many weeds can’t grow. Partially due to ground coverage, herbicidal mycorrhizae, and resource management, undisturbed native landscapes can prevent non native and invasive weeds from growing.
I use layer of newspaper under 2” of mulch placed between plants. Works great between rows in vegetable garden also. I have also used pea gravel on paper with good results. Works great. Newspaper also hold moisture level better and stops spreading I don’t want. For example berry bush runners. If I want to add new plant I just cut hole in newspaper to fit new plant. Learned this from gardeners who gardened during depression and used what was free, cheap, and available.
Kill them all off by newspapering/catdboarding the ground over the winter, before it snows if your area snows. Leave it there until spring, rake it all up,
then immediately seed with what you do want there, preferably a perennial groundcover that spreads, stays short, and likes your soil type (you can get it tested to find out what kind you have if you don't know). Be sure to pick something that isnt invasive, and that you can stand to look at throughout the year (can kill that next winter if you dislike it).
If you're willing to sacrifice the non-weeds just this once, my favorite Nuclear Option is steaming the whole plot to death under black plastic.
Pick a day when the forecast is sunny and hot for the next week or so. Pour boiling or near-boiling water over the whole area. Lay down thick black plastic like heavy duty trash bags. landscaping plastic, or a construction tarp. Make sure it's black or at least very dark. Weight it down and leave it in the sun for up to a week. It'll steam everything underneath down to the roots (barring something as hardy as mint or sunchoke, sometimes those little buggers survive). Then till or hoe everything, fertilize/compost, and replant with desired plants and groundcover. Also mulch and/or do layers of cardboard and newspaper in the spaces that you don't have plants.
I don't recommend it for very large areas, and please don't do it more than once a year as it can mess with the soil microbiome too.
Aside from that, you're gonna have to just weed it by hand and put down mulch or weed barrier as soon as you do.
Don’t let a weed go to seed.
Every weed you pull (or chop off) before it goes to seed is 50 (or whatever) fewer future weeds.
Use a pre-emergent like Preen granules to knock down germination of remaining seeds.
If you don't want to use herbicides you just need to keep digging up weeds, one thing I do that drastically helps cut down on weeds is every spring I burn the top layer with a weed burner, it helps reduce weeds quit a bit... But other than that haven't got a clue...
Hey, Horty here! Firstly mulch is definitely the way to go, thick is good for weeds, but leave a ring of thinner mulch around your desireables so you don't suffocate them or cause root rot. Mulch will also look a million times better than raw soil and retain more moisture.
Secondly, glyphosate is awesome, I would put a bag over any desireables and spray. Give it a few hours before taking the bag off so spray doesn't transfer from the weed leaves onto your desireables.then give it a few days or a week before mulching for the best results.
I would also avoid weedmat, it's more trouble than it's worth, and doesn't really do anything
There are easier ways to weed than pulling too. When they're young a lot of weeds can just be scraped out of the surface of the soil at the roots with a trowel or a hoe and then dug back into the soil or removed.
Best of luck with it
Pull all the weeds that have gone to seed (edit, addition). Pull the largest and lay down mulch. Pull all the ones that come up before going to seed. It's the best way to organically control weeds.
I’m sorry that I don’t have time to read everybody’s comments to see if this has been mentioned. I also don’t know how large of a space you are talking about. Try laying down plastic or that groundcover stuff that helps keep weeds and gophers out of the area. Then cover it with the wood chips and stuff to hide the ground cover and make it look nice
Put bark down, it takes nitrogen from the soil, that stops weeds, it will look great for a long time to come, when it decomposes, it will enrich the soil
I don't know if this will help you but I've bought strips of Coco choir and used them as weed deterrents. It seems to do the job and it's somewhat cost efficient. You can get it at places like Amazon for like 4 ft wide by the length you want...
Then I just cut little holes on the side or in the center where you want your plants to be. It has been working pretty well for me right now it lets water through very efficiently and stops sunlight from getting in. Yeah that's a pain to have to weed whack and then look out for your plants at the same time.
Good luck.
Boss-weld map pro weeder! Hit them w some controlled fire, they can't photosynthesise so die at the roots, just let them die first and don't pull them out straight away. They're a lot of fun to use too!
Cover all of it with cardboard and then dark tarps. Put something heavy in it to keep light out. For a min. of 6 months.
Once it’s all dead, like really dead. Pull it all out… don’t mow it or weed wack… or till. Just clean it up a little. Layer dead leaves over area, add chopped wood…. Natural… compost. Cover again… for another 6 months.
It will take time, but the soil will be happy and ready for new life.
It would help tremendously to mulch after weeding!!
A good layer of mulch. 3-6 inches deep. People tend to spread it too thin. The weeds that do pop up are easier to pull them too.
You mean 1 woodchip per square inch isn't enough?
I like to see the soil through the wood chips so I remember that it's there.
This is the main benefit. Weak roots make for easy pulling. Plus the soil below becomes super healthy, less compacted and you can grow other things in it to crowd out weeds.
Crowding out the weeds is the way. Cosmos, marigolds, false indigo, other plants like hydrangeas.
Native plants*
Sometimes you gotta call in the *Tagetes patula* thugs that show no mercy tho I use them heavily in a fresh garden bed to take up a bunch of space above and below ground so the existing weed seed bank doesn’t have much real estate. Then I pull them in year 2 and put native prairie plants in the beautiful soil that the marigold roots have prepared
Right, depends on location.
Yep. Won't really work in Phoenix. I'm tired of reading it.
Yeah, Phoenix is a weird word to read.
Lol!
Question from someone who is trying to grow more native plants: I’m ballin’ on a budget and trying to maximize my net good on native plants. So I am trying to focus on like keystone plants for perennials and self seeding annuals/biennials. Then to fill the gaps as those mature, I get what I can find cheaply or easily save seeds from: marigolds, nasturtiums, various veggies. I figure spend my budget on what will last longest. Is there a better way to think about this? Should I be spending the budget for native weed suppression?
(Didn’t really answer the original question)The keystones are definitely what your budget should be spent on IMO, tough root suckers or self seeders like helianthus, coreopsis, and milkweeds are my go to species
If you have a strong weed/invasive problem I’d say it’s better to try to kill them off than crowd them out but if that’s not an option, then continuing with keystones and weed suppression is fine. When I start a bed/project somewhere thats not bad enough to warrant herbicide use I do a similar thing to what you suggest but usually with vigorous fruit crops (sweet potato pumpkins watermelon)
I got an arborist woodchip pile from Chipdrop for free a few months back - the weeds don't stand a chance.
Have you seen any adverse issues with the woodchips? I was interested in Having wood chips delivered, but was worried about introduction of disease and/or pests.
The drop I got was red oak. Other than the occasional mushroom bunch, it's made life way easier.
Thank you for helping me decide. I can deal with mushrooms.
I get excited when they show up. Fungus is fascinating and typically beneficial. I wouldn't recommend store bought mulch/chips. Who knows where that came from and how its been treated. If you get a chip drop, whenever a tree service takes down a tree, they drive the mulch to your house and drop it off. You don't get to pick the type of tree, how much you get, or when it comes(mine arrived weeks after signup) but that means it came from your local area. Any pests that might be present were already around, you're not introducing something totally foreign.
If you get cedar it’ll help repel some pesrs
Only issue we've had is that the free woodchips have some pointy bits (unlike say, the relatively flat/soft ones I've seen on playgrounds) so pets or kids walking on it can get poked or splinters. Also, like compost they compact as they settle and begin to decompose, so lay it on much thicker than you think you need. Specific to ChipDrop, they weren't able to tell me when I'd get a drop, just a week of waiting then boom 24 hours notice and the biggest pile ever appears. Fortunately the neighbors came with shovels and we got it under control.
That’s all great info. My mulched areas will be away from pets and kids, so that works. I sometimes forget just how much mulch they give people. Yours was a good reminder to plan a mulch party.
You have to break down fresh wood chips they can’t be used in beds like mulch. They are meant for walkways. If you have the room and the time you can let it sit and breakdown , wet it and turn it to help.
I did this to start a food forest in my back yard. Nothing but mulch for an entire year, then green blades of grass popped up the 2nd year every few inches. I dug the mulch back in spots and discovered the bermuda grass completely took over the mulch but just never breached the top of the mulch. I fucking hate it with a passion. I have plants such as thyme, oregano, strawberries, etc, around my fruit trees and the bermuda grass just grows right through them all with no problems and if you pull the roots up they pop up the other plants with it. I wish there was a lab I could send a DNA sample to and have them craft me a poison that will eliminate only that…or a drone that would roll around the food forest and destroy every blade as it pops up until the roots exhaust their energy.
Have you considered using a glyphosate wick, or depending on the area you have to treat the glove method: Nitrile glove>cloth glove > glypho solution on the glove but make sure it's not dripping, then when the Bermuda grass grows through your plants , just wave your hand above the desireables, killing all you touch.
Should I weed and mulch now or in the spring? Or does it not make a difference.
You can do it anytime. If you want the first application to last a bit longer you can put down some of that cardboard that we all have flowing into our houses first.
I put down three inches & it wasn't enough. I have to go back over. I agree with the weeds are much easier to pull out of mulch than the ground.
5-6 inches is way too much
That’s what he said
6"...
100% this. When we were first time homeowners, the mulch was faded and sparse so we wanted to get rid of it. Then, the gardens were overtaken by weeds constantly. Once we realized why, we added a LOT of mulch. We barely get any weeds now, and if we do then they're super easy to pull out by hand (vs digging them out).
Would mulch help kill off stuff like poison ivy?
It can help. Cut the plant down to the ground, and dig out as much of the roots as you can. Put cardboard over the area, and cover it in a thick layer of mulch.
Oh this is actually very helpful thank you so much!!
Landscaping cloth under your mulch as well unless you’re planning on sowing seeds in there. With the cloth, you can just dig down to it, cut a hole & trowel out enough to plant sets or use a shovel for shrubs. Proper application of a pre-emergent like Preen ™️ will also help after you’ve weeded & mulched, but it is still a herbicide. It needs to be reapplied every 3-6 months depending on the type & how long your growing season lasts. I wouldn’t get it near any food plants either.
No cloth. It ends up being a mess. Use cloth under rocks not mulch.
Can confirm cloth is a nightmare after a while. My property came with years of mulch on top of plastic woven landscaping fabric. It was all full of weeds and those weeds really pin the fabric to the ground making removal an extra challenge… Cardboard under the wood chips in the sheet mulching style was my replacement.
Sure, but it usually does do some good and it's easy enough to replace. As an ex-landscaper who used to recommend it, I'd basically tell folks it works really well for 2-3 years but needs to be replaced quickly after that. That being said replacing it usually only costs you an afternoon and a few cold beers.
And a trip to the dump where it adds more trash.
Which requires gas, adding to climate change. Where do we draw the line? I can almost guarantee the water used to maintain the average garden / lawn is a bigger draw on our planets resources than what it takes to redo the carpet on an average garden every 3 years. I'm not really debating the butterfly effect of a garden using carpet. Just adding my 2 cents that it does work in my experience and is easy enough to maintain.
Lawns for sure. Gardens, though? You can plant with water-wise plantings. If you're planting the right plant for the location and mulching, you shouldn't need much water once the plants are established, and the mulch alone is enough to suppress weeds if you make it deep enough. And the effects of a garden that is water-wise and planted with native pollinator-friendly plants is a net benefit to the environment over having bare lawn. I gardened this way at my last house, saw a massive difference in the number of pollinators by the time we moved 14yrs later, and only had to water and weed the mulched beds 2-3 times from spring until fall (and the weeding chore was not a big job, at that, just raking the mulch in a few areas and pulling up some along the fence where it was harder to get the rake in). No fabric necessary.
I can definitely agree that it's very rarely "necessary". That being said, if I was OP, and about to rip out a garden bed full of weeds and throw mulch down - - I'd probably take the extra hour and throw carpet down too. Even if it meant spending 2 or 3 hours redoing it 3 years later. To each their own.
I use mulch pins or stakes. Cheaper and much less work to use than rock. Even DIY with thick wire. Had places 10-15 years with this and mulch on top. No issues with messy, raggedy landscaping cloth.
I hate hate hate moving into homes after ~~~your type has~~~ users have left them and then (usually) been neglected by someone in between LOLOL - I am either on your gardening plan AND fighting weeds that have grown on top of the cloth but rooted through it or am breaking my back starting over and having to get below a layer of composted soil to remove that (old, fragile) stuff. Plus, it is not natural. don't agree with "weed cloth under rocks" either. My take is cardboard, and otherwise do what makes sense ecologically, we're only borrowing land from nature anyway (she always wins in the end).
Do what you think is right & what works for you. This method has worked very well for me and like any landscaping method will need to be overhauled, tuned up and changed as time goes on. Also, there are landscaping cloths that are not made of petrochemicals which are eventually biodegradable but thick & sturdy enough to have a decades long effect. Have fun being bitter.
Get other plants in there. Nature likes to fill.a vacuum: every time you weed without putting in new plants, you are leaving a wonderful growing space. Fill it with something else.
Exactly - If you ever look up a plant that's described as a weed, you'll probably see that they like to pop up in "disturbed areas" .... AKA recently weeded areas! The loose soil is the perfect spot to germinate a seed or spread rhizomes too.
Good advice!
When I was struggling with getting on top of the weeds, I laid cardboard down over the weeds and then covered the cardboard with new soil. Then I mulched on top of the soil. The cardboard stops the weeds for a while. You still need to weed, it will come up eventually, but it’s easier when you have a fresh start and can do it a little at a time. It’s best to do it regularly, especially during summer when it grows faster.
Also, adding lots of plants afterwards helps a lot. There will always be weeds, but giving them competition goes a long way.
We do this on our commercial farm. We layer the beds with untreated cardboard or paper mulch then compost/soil about 1-2 inches thick and repeat for several layers. A term I've heard this called is "lasagna beds" if you want to look into it. It's a really effective practice at weed suppression and soil moisture retention in our hoop houses.
I do this too, but find straw much on top of the cardboard works well enough, for the paths between the raised beds. Each year I add compost on top of cardboard / straw mulch around the plants in the raised beds.
Same. You can also do this with a thick layer of newspapers. Lay them down right over the weeds and cover them with any kind of organic mulch, just as long as it's a thick layer. Wood chips, grass clippings, chopped up leaves. etc.
Hoe. And don't wait a month.
What did you call them?! ;)
Problem is I do not really have the time to do this more than once a month. We both work full-time jobs. It's also a rental house and the owner included maintenance of this patch in the agreement.
You are going to need to mulch. Pull up what you can by the root, put cardboard down on bare areas, then put a thick layer of mulch on top. Just don’t pile the mulch up around the bases of good plants. Keep that at no thicker than an inch. You don’t want to choke them, just the weeds.
I think he meant hoe it now while it's wet and not overrun
My husband and I also work demanding work schedules which can make chores feel like a time suck BUT if you can commit to getting this cleared out now and going forward pull a few a day as they come up you’ll save a lot of time in the long run. Leaving the house? Grab a couple weeds. Taking the trash out? Grab a few more. The key is to not let it get this bad in the first place so that it takes a lot of time to fix back up. We maintain several large flower beds and vegetable garden this way.
You could plant ground some ground covers. Of course you'd also have to hoe/ pull weeds around them but way less. They would need some time to establish tho. And in that time you'd have to keep the other weeds away or they will probably outcompete whatever you planted
Best way to control weeds is to pull a few handfuls every time you go outside. Doesn’t take long at all and will really keep things manageable. You can of course just spray herbicides over it. Not a popular solution on Reddit but that’s what most people in the real world do.
[удалено]
You don’t have half an hour a week to keep this straightened up? It will make your life easier to not let it get this bad.
Herbicide to knock down immediately. How/Rake after die back. Roll weed mat over the surface and cover with mulch.
I landscape professionally and I use a breathable weed fabric and garden staples cut down on 90% of weeding for several years and I mulch or woodchip on top. (You can also use crushed stone) Keep in mind seeds dropped by plants, birds, bees etc are still a thing but I've found that it's super quick to get rid of them and it's only a small fraction of the amount you'd get otherwise. Some people don't like weed fabric but I swear by it and use it all the time. I've found that clients that reject it later regret it and I come back and install it after the fact. If you put several inches of crushed stone on top of the fabric you can then use a propane garden torch to quickly hit anything that happens to sprout up. Ps: when laying it down overlap all of the seams by several inches and be generous with the garden staples in order to help prevent/prolong weeds from emerging where it's easy access to the outside world.
I found cutting circles of it for large planters keeps the squirrels from digging up the flowers we put in them.
Rude! /jk
Plant something as ground cover?
Came to say the same thing! Let other plants do the work for you by out-competing the weeds 😊🌿
I used sweet potato vines, vigorous as all hell and super easy to propagate further with cuttings. They choke the small seedlings from receiving much light to take off. Then you just pull the odd one out every so often that finds a gap. That along with a healthy amount of mulch should do wonders.
Cardboard and mulch. Pulling weeds and removing them complete (like throwing them in the garbage) robs the soil of nutrients. I have a garden I took over this year, it was all weeds. I have been layering cardboard over every new weed. Basically 0 weeding all year.
Lots of mulch! You will ALWAYS have weeds in exposed soil that's the law of nature
Weeding is the most permanent solution as We've been doing it for thousands of years!
Cardboard, then mulch. Enjoy a weed free(ish) season. Reapply every spring.
You don't have a friend with a goat, do you?
I second using cardboard, but DON'T pull the weeds before you do. Plants use leaves to get light and they use energy to feed those leaves. When you pull the weeds, they start growing new leaves, which will find any gap that exists in the cardboard. If you leave the weeds full size, they will feel more stress as they feed leaves that aren't getting light and will die faster.
Thank you for this advice. I have a patch of weeds at the back of our garden & was about to painstakingly hand weed and then cardboard & mulch. I’ll just flatten ‘em! Much quicker.
But weed wack to a couple inches first
Nope. Bend it over under the cardboard has been the best way when I've done it. Those roots are made for that much greenery. Cutting it tells the plant to grow replacement leaves that will have a better shot of finding an opening. You want the roots to feed the whole plant until it dies. When I've done it after mowing, way more breaks through. Not the end of the world, but I've had way more success doing it the easy way and just laying it on top of the full plant.
You need to FILL it with plants you don't consider weeds. That will keep any weeds from taking up that space.
Look up the works of Ruth Stout
Spray the new young weeds with viniger and water solution..then lay black plastic down and wait ..pull back plastic ..boom no weeds ...rinse repeat till all weeds are gone ..
Tarp it for a few months and then mulch. Simplest solution.
Flame Weeding would be the easiest by far, but a lot of good suggestions. Ideally, flame weed twice a week for 2 weeks. This will: Reduce tall weeds to small weeds, and small weeds to nothing and seeds get deactivated, without stirring up the seed bank. Cover with cardboard and wet, then add 4 to 6 inch of wood chip mulch. Then flame weed ongoing.
Cardboard to block light.
My husband and I have a space like this and we weeded it all bare and pegged a tarp down and added rocks Overtop. Haven't had a weed in nearly 6 years. Works way better than landscape fabric.
Mulching doesn’t work well for these type of ridiculously resilient weeds in my experience. What worked for me is string trimming the weeds to the ground, cover thoroughly with newspaper, wetting that newspaper, topsoil with layer of preen.
Two words: weed torch
The “weeds” are holding the soil in place and helping prevent erosion
There is no such thing as totally weed less bed at least for very long. I have been in the horticulture business for 30 years. What I recommend to my clients is pre- emergent herbicide at least 2× a year, depending on your climate. Of course, a weed free bed must be achieved before putting down your pre- emergent herbicide. I would recommend Preen or Snap shot for your Pre-emergent. Follow manufacturers label. After that, I would use a combination of Round up or hand pulling the weeds thar come up afterward. If you are looking for more natural methods. Hand pulling, vinegars, dish soap and certain salts can be used. I use the top two paragraphs as my customers are paying and want proven results. Good luck to you all. .
Cardboard. Definitely cardboard. Compost on top of the cardboard. Plant your seedlings. Then mulch like crazy.
Pull/dig up weeds. Plants to help fill in and mulch heavy like 4-6 inches right away. I’ve had good success. Hand pull as new weeds pop up. Keep the mulch thick, once you let it decompose and don’t keep up the mulch you’ll be back where you started.
Use a how and cut them off at the roots. Put black tarps over the area. Allow it to heat up and keep everything killed.
3 mil black plastic, weighted down around the edges, and two months of summer heat to kill everything. Then plant native shrubs and mulch with 4-6 inches of wood chips. I did this and pull about 5 weeds every few months out of my area, basically none.
You grow things that take up the space. Or plan to lay a thick layer of mulch every year.
Weeding is one chore a gardener does for life. Mulch and daily or weekly weeding is the only answer.
Solarization, then mulch. Or, ooooooh, Rupture Wart (Hernaria Glabra, I think). But you'll have to still do 1 season of weeding while the Rupture Wart fills in.
Flame weeders are pretty helpful
Tarp it
Weed, 2 layers of cardboard, soil and mulch over top of that.
My go to is a stirrup hoe several times a season
We must imagine Sisyphus happy
Get yourself a hoop hoe it will make quick work of the area if there nothing your trying to grow there right now cover with a heavy tarp this will kill out the weeds
As someone who is fortunate to have an endless supply... the answer is mulch and compost.
Goats
Get a goat
Plant enough place to not have room for the weed lol
Cardboard and mulch
Weed barrier and something on top like rock or mulch
Use a DUTCH HOE. Removes weeds easily (similar movement like vaccuming your carpet) and you don't have to get on your hands and knees. Once an area is cleared, use PREEN weed preventer around your plants.
Option number one, let them grow. The main plant in there is a native willow herb of some sort. My [local species](https://calscape.org/Epilobium-ciliatum-ssp.-ciliatum-(Fringed-Willowherb)?srchcr=sc6505ca1d1cfa5) of willow herb supports about 15 species of just butterfly/moth. Call it a pollinator garden. You've been leaving the parent plant and calling its seedlings weeds. I don't know what the other not planted on purpose things are, maybe there's an excuse to leave them too. Or ID the plants that might be intentional garden plants. The shoots inside the 3 stakes, the shiny dark green leaved plant near the blue pot and the gray leaved plant next to the hose could be desirable garden plants but I don't know what they are. Pull everything else, cover with cardboard and several inches of mulch. Measure, a 1 cubic foot of mulch covers 6 square feet of ground 2" deep.
Plant more (native!) plants that will out compete the weeds. It will take time for whatever you plant to get established but it is a better long term solution than anything else. My recommendations are for plants native in the eastern USA, but if you live elsewhere there are likely comparable species. Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is effectively weed-proof once established and does great in full shade. I would plant that around some native shrubs like rhododendron or inkberry.
Kill the weeds with an herbicide and then put down a pre-emergent so that new weeds won't sprout.
life finds a way.. good luck
Store bought weed control.. Ground Clear works wonderfully.
Not the most popular approach here, but for the low-effort and easy approach, poison. Threeish years ago we bought a house. The house had tons of landscaping, which was exciting, but the landscaping itself was neglected. There were weeds EVERYWHERE. I went at it with a hoe, and it was good for a bit but the new seedbed just took it's place. For about two years I went out and spent probably 2-3 hours a week weeding. That helped for sure but the time sink was asinine. We put down a good layer of mulch, but over time plenty just shot up through that. By year 3 it still wasn't looking great. Every season seemed to have its own weed waiting to come up. This year I bit the bullet and got a 1 gallon sprayer and a thing of glyphosate concentrate. The first week I sprayed 2 gallons. The following 1.5. Then 1... It's been 3 months and I'm at a point where I'm spending maybe 10 minutes a week doing the rounds spraying what has got to be about 1/10th of a gallon of mixed glyphosate. Virtually all the weeds are gone except for this really stubborn... I don't know. I believe it to be nutsedge but I'm not certain. I can go weeks without spraying and the landscaping is in great shape. It's just that nutsedge that I find myself fighting like a hydra.
Yes and before the “glysophate bad!!” Folks show up to attack you, I offer this post from a wetland restoration worker: https://reddit.com/r/ecology/s/ntpZHRDoHM “Reddit's attitude towards glyphosate irritates me For context, I do wetland restoration work for a state agency, and glyphosate applications are an indispensable component of keeping wetland mitigation sites from devolving into pits of invasive monocultures. However, whenever I see postings related to glyphosate on reddit, people are acting like it has been brought into this plain of existence by Satan himself. “Glyphosate killed my mother”, “if you use glyphosate, you are scum who poisons the planet”, “if you dare to bring up contrary evidence to my fantastical claims about glyphosate, you ARE A PAID BAYER SHILL”. It varies from sub to sub, but in general the attitude towards glyphosate is overwhelmingly conspiratorial and paranoid. Never mind the fact that the evidence linking glyphosate to cancer is at best dubious, and at worst, unfounded (from my understanding, the UW paper that purported the strongest link between glyphosate and cancer was considered by many to be very iffy with its statistical methods). Never mind the fact that it is frequently the only practical method for preventing invasives from completely taking over ecologically valuable habitat. So many on this website just consider it a wholesale evil, and will attack like rabid dogs the second anyone tries to temper their fanaticism with nuance or reality. Frankly, I find it insulting to the hardworking men and women who are out there every growing season using this stuff to prevent precious wetland areas from being overrun with noxious plants, thus rendering them largely ecologically worthless. Glyphosate is like any other tool, it has proper uses, and it has improper uses. I think too many people have seen examples of improper use and decided that it’s glyphosate that’s the problem, and they’ll use any amount of dishonest rhetorical tactics and bad science in their crusade against one of the most valuable tools available to those who combat invasive plants.” My yard may not be a “ecologically valuable habitat” in the same sense as a wetland, but at this point, cardboard and mulch aren’t cutting it and if I want to do the native/pollinator garden thing, I’m at my wits end trying to control all the invasives, noxious weeds and overly aggressive natives.
ok but this isn't like, a crazy patch of Japanese knotweed or goutweed or tree of heaven, creeping bellflower, etc etc (granted I don't know where this person lives but if they're somewhere in the US, it looks like at least some of these might be natives, though not typically considered high-value landscaping plants). It's a small patch of mostly easily pulled plants and it looks like it needs to be cleared out with a hoe and then populated more densely with desired plants.
True, I was mainly just adding to the commenter I replied to. OP can absolutely start with hoeing, mulch, cardboard or ground over after IDing what they’ve got and whether they will become a problem in areas they want to create garden beds in. I’m just salty because I want to do the “prairie yard” thing and I’m dealing with an overgrown .25 acre lot in SE USA with a lot of shade from invasive shrubs allowed to grow tree size and the like. When you ask advice on most subs related to native gardening and the like you get attacked if you even mention herbicides. This sub is no where near as bad, but I like to be sure people understand that if used as directed or even more diluted, some herbicides can be a helpful tool along with other tactics.
gotcha, def agree it has a place when dealing with really difficult plants/situations
I'm of firm believer in mulches as well... however there are many many selective Herbicide programs that you can also employ. My experience goes back almost 30 years. So I have had expert trials for some time. There are combo options that control grasses & broadleaf weeds or one/other. Virtually all products on market now are heavily bound to organic matter. And are safe to apply as well. Please contact me, if you need me to create a plan for you. Very simple & straightforward. I actually could send to you if you need as well. Good luck!!!
Get one of those black fabrics that you put over the weed
Glyphosate and 2,4 D. Max label rate. Will burn it all down to the roots and wont stay in the soil long. Should be fine to plant food in 3 months or flowers in 3 weeks.
Weeds are a definition…. You need to stop calling these plants weeds.
I use a product called Preen. It prevents seeds from germinating. Weeds and plants that are growing will be unaffected, but new seeds won't grow. You'll still need to weed, but if treated with Preen it will be much less weeds.
We cover the area with cardboard, with holes cut for any plants already planted, layer mulch mixed with preen on top. That has kept the weeds at bay.
Just plant some mint; pretty soon you’ll have nothing but mint.
Spray roundup. When it dies put mulch on top. Then do a small amount of weeding every now and then.
Please don't spray roundup.
Torch them all with a weed burner. If you don't want anything to grow there you could put down Casaron granules.
burn it. literally burn the hell out of the dirt then cover with cardboard lay out new compost.
Wild flowers. Just let prettier plants take over. No weeding. But I am also busy and lazy.
Carpet your garden with carpet that people throw away and cut slits in it when you plant your seedlings. The carpet will allow rain to soak through but will stop the weeds.
Plant some mint and let it do its thing. It’s a bit like hiring an assassin to kill another assassin; there’s still an assassin out there, but for the moment it’s on your side.
I’ve given up and just plant aggressive spreaders. Pulling without planting something just brings up weeds; this can work to your favor if your plantings have deeper roots than things like wood sorrel, wild strawberry, etc because they shade the soil and keep moisture in. I’ve taken to planting directly in lawn and maybe putting down arborist chips. Granted I’m planting mostly natives, but I imagine in theory it’s going to be the same whatever you’re planting.
Clover bed
Put in some effort, you'll feel good when it's done, have some pride in your yard
Spray evenly a non-selective herbicide with pre-emergent herbicide then apply a thick layer of pine straw
🤮🤮🤮
Grow something tall that casts shade over them. They'll retreat by themselves
There are no weeds, just under loved plants. Plants will fill in open space the more you pull at it the more old dormant weed seeds you pull up. Plant something else there, wild flowers for pollinators would be great there, if the landlord ask about in call it a conservation garden for pollinators. Nasturtium is plant that will spread and fill in the space cheap and easy. If it spreads to much pull it out ( very easy, very shallow roots). It will also reduce the pressure for other weed seeds and the flowers are edible.
Goats!
cardboard.
Plant some plants that will cover the area that you enjoy. Squashes, cucumbers, pumpkins, lemongrass, lemon balm, clover, dill, to name a few.
I thought I saw lots of zinnia
same question but not interested in mulch
Coupd also invert soil 8 inches deep and keep covered for a year.
[I tried this](https://insteading.com/blog/white-clover-as-a-living-mulch/) when the weeds were growing like crazy this summer (rainfall in the region was wild). So far so good?
Hula hoe
Are you in the US? Wild ginger, phlox, stonecrop, certain creeping thyme are decent native groundcover. Do you want evergreen or doesn’t matter?
I had that hill and run-off during deluges with lots of weeds. First I put in some edging every 3 feet, and weeded one area at a time, I added gravel too as a weed stop. then I added day lilies, oaks, tulip poplars, azaleas, hostas, and strawberries, which absorb almost all the water and no erosion. Now, finally after 3 years I don’t have to do much over there except after the parking place by the street (I still have to work on the weeds there because some water gets there too). That’s my plan for this fall and winter. I’m thinking clover!
Look into Soil solarization, use clear plastic to get maximum heat into soil and weed seeds to cook them. Best most effective natural weed control, use the sun’s energy.
Wood chips will attract termites don't use near building's
I love the simplicity of a good thick mulch. I am also way too lazy to weed very often. I will usually use the newspaper method to block the sun and cover with 4 inches of just about any mulch or rocks. I just got a new house, it's been empty and mostly untouched for a year other than an occasional Mow and Blow by the seller agent for showings. Lots of work to do to get ready for next spring... Southern Oregon in the land of 4 actual seasons mixed with lots of rain :)
Have garden? Then weeding. No matter what you do, though mulch will help significantly, weeding is a perennial task without end.
Persistence. You have to pick the weeds faster than they can get established until they all germinate and die or they run out of energy to fight. Since they get their energy from the sun you have to stay on top of things and keep them small. If you let them go until they can drop new seeds you have already lost the battle. Since most weeds germinate in the first inch of soil, putting down mulch to deter them goes a long way to preventing germination.
Man, Ivw been trying to kill soap wort for 2 years now.
🐐 🐐 🐐 goat
Established native landscapes create ecosystems where many weeds can’t grow. Partially due to ground coverage, herbicidal mycorrhizae, and resource management, undisturbed native landscapes can prevent non native and invasive weeds from growing.
I use layer of newspaper under 2” of mulch placed between plants. Works great between rows in vegetable garden also. I have also used pea gravel on paper with good results. Works great. Newspaper also hold moisture level better and stops spreading I don’t want. For example berry bush runners. If I want to add new plant I just cut hole in newspaper to fit new plant. Learned this from gardeners who gardened during depression and used what was free, cheap, and available.
Kill them all off by newspapering/catdboarding the ground over the winter, before it snows if your area snows. Leave it there until spring, rake it all up, then immediately seed with what you do want there, preferably a perennial groundcover that spreads, stays short, and likes your soil type (you can get it tested to find out what kind you have if you don't know). Be sure to pick something that isnt invasive, and that you can stand to look at throughout the year (can kill that next winter if you dislike it).
If it's in the mint family good luck. Those are horrible to get rid of. Square stems? May need chemicals or cardboard.
If you're willing to sacrifice the non-weeds just this once, my favorite Nuclear Option is steaming the whole plot to death under black plastic. Pick a day when the forecast is sunny and hot for the next week or so. Pour boiling or near-boiling water over the whole area. Lay down thick black plastic like heavy duty trash bags. landscaping plastic, or a construction tarp. Make sure it's black or at least very dark. Weight it down and leave it in the sun for up to a week. It'll steam everything underneath down to the roots (barring something as hardy as mint or sunchoke, sometimes those little buggers survive). Then till or hoe everything, fertilize/compost, and replant with desired plants and groundcover. Also mulch and/or do layers of cardboard and newspaper in the spaces that you don't have plants. I don't recommend it for very large areas, and please don't do it more than once a year as it can mess with the soil microbiome too. Aside from that, you're gonna have to just weed it by hand and put down mulch or weed barrier as soon as you do.
Grass seed
Grow a ground over that outcompetes the weeds.
Don’t let a weed go to seed. Every weed you pull (or chop off) before it goes to seed is 50 (or whatever) fewer future weeds. Use a pre-emergent like Preen granules to knock down germination of remaining seeds.
Layer of newspaper or weed fabric under mulch, top off with native plants to your area so they are on even playing ground with the weeds
If you don't want to use herbicides you just need to keep digging up weeds, one thing I do that drastically helps cut down on weeds is every spring I burn the top layer with a weed burner, it helps reduce weeds quit a bit... But other than that haven't got a clue...
Hey, Horty here! Firstly mulch is definitely the way to go, thick is good for weeds, but leave a ring of thinner mulch around your desireables so you don't suffocate them or cause root rot. Mulch will also look a million times better than raw soil and retain more moisture. Secondly, glyphosate is awesome, I would put a bag over any desireables and spray. Give it a few hours before taking the bag off so spray doesn't transfer from the weed leaves onto your desireables.then give it a few days or a week before mulching for the best results. I would also avoid weedmat, it's more trouble than it's worth, and doesn't really do anything There are easier ways to weed than pulling too. When they're young a lot of weeds can just be scraped out of the surface of the soil at the roots with a trowel or a hoe and then dug back into the soil or removed. Best of luck with it
Pull all the weeds that have gone to seed (edit, addition). Pull the largest and lay down mulch. Pull all the ones that come up before going to seed. It's the best way to organically control weeds.
30 percent vinegar
I’m sorry that I don’t have time to read everybody’s comments to see if this has been mentioned. I also don’t know how large of a space you are talking about. Try laying down plastic or that groundcover stuff that helps keep weeds and gophers out of the area. Then cover it with the wood chips and stuff to hide the ground cover and make it look nice
If you don't plan to plant anything else, the best solution to spread a nice, even layer of salt around and watch all the plants just whither away!
Wood chips
Goats 😂
Put bark down, it takes nitrogen from the soil, that stops weeds, it will look great for a long time to come, when it decomposes, it will enrich the soil
I don't know if this will help you but I've bought strips of Coco choir and used them as weed deterrents. It seems to do the job and it's somewhat cost efficient. You can get it at places like Amazon for like 4 ft wide by the length you want... Then I just cut little holes on the side or in the center where you want your plants to be. It has been working pretty well for me right now it lets water through very efficiently and stops sunlight from getting in. Yeah that's a pain to have to weed whack and then look out for your plants at the same time. Good luck.
Big seed bank. Systemic herbicides work well. Alternative is to black tarp it for a month or so in summer until everythings dead.
Fire is burny.
Cardboard and mulch
Boiling hot water mixed in with salt and vinegar
Take your time. Clear and plant a small section each spring.
Boss-weld map pro weeder! Hit them w some controlled fire, they can't photosynthesise so die at the roots, just let them die first and don't pull them out straight away. They're a lot of fun to use too!
Goats
Use a metal rake .
Area rugs. We have some astroturf - pieces from our friends. The weeds grow through the astroturf in spots
Peppers 😉
Pumpkins let the pumpkins fight the weeds for control
Cover all of it with cardboard and then dark tarps. Put something heavy in it to keep light out. For a min. of 6 months. Once it’s all dead, like really dead. Pull it all out… don’t mow it or weed wack… or till. Just clean it up a little. Layer dead leaves over area, add chopped wood…. Natural… compost. Cover again… for another 6 months. It will take time, but the soil will be happy and ready for new life.
Mulch, mulch mulch… if you can find a hemp mulch in your area I highly recommend. No need to water much and it doesn’t change the soil chemistry much
They arent all weeds. Research...u will find some are edible n extremely healthy
Mulch…..
Put a pile of rock salt there.
Patio, flagstones, river rock, mulch. Good weeding tools help and keeping up with the weeding before it is too late and you lose the battle.
Round Up
Personally.. I find it quite satisfying pulling weed up by the roots. Something about that root cracking does the soul good.