Posted on 05/04/2024 12:11:37 PM PDT by Leaning Right
An older friend of mine inherited a house with a large flower garden in the back. The flower garden is maybe 10 feet by 30 feet.
Between the flowers and the shrubbery there are many weeds (no surprise there). A landscaper she talked to will clear the area of weeds, and has given her some options to control future weed growth.
Convert the plot to a basketball practice area...
I asked my father one time how he kept weeds out of his flower garden. He pointed and said, “I use that 5 gallon bucket”. Of course, I asked how a bucket killed weeds. He said, “that’s what I sit on when I pull the weeds”.
A shallow pond with a pond liner is cheap and low maintenance.
But the pond liner only lasts for 4 years.
Grass and weeds grow through the weed fabric.
You have to move gravel and rocks to pull weeds out of the weed fabric.
Bark decomposes and turns into soil.
Roundup and Preen works but if you have dogs it’s not a good idea.
The roofing roll is strong and lasts a long time.
The horses sometimes escape their arena and walk across it.
Google says concrete slabs are between $4.00 and $8.00 per square foot including labor.
A wood decking is too expensive here in Los Angeles.
I’m laying painters plastic down and putting in 12-inch square stepping stones at $1.75 each.
A lot of people use DG, it’s like sand, and then spray a sealer on it.
It’s too slippery for me because some of the DG breaks loose from the sealant.
For my vegetable garden, I buried stepping stones 6 inches deep with no plastic to keep the gophers and rabbits out.
I put a chicken wire fence around my garden with fruit tree netting on top because rabbits jump.
If you live in Florida the rocks will just sink into the ground. Everything sinks in the Florida soil.
I would not put the larger stones, having removed such things twice (once from home because I wanted flower beds and once from business because I did not want easy projectiles around my windows.) It’s easy for a landscaper to install, but terrible for anyone who doesn’t want that look anymore to get rid of them, because you can’t just shovel them up. Pea gravel you could shovel up. Mulch is good because you can still plant stuff by cutting through the landscape fabric, and then you won’t have stones falling in the hole you dug.
Timing is everything in gardening. The Old Farmers Almanac says the best time to "Nuke it from Orbit" is:
When the moon is in the seventh house
And jupiter aligns with mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
I heard it’s good with a light spray of veg oil on the cardboard. Said it’s better than weed fabric.
That may be true. I use vinegar.
Pull out by hand what you don’t want and then encourage what you do want to grow.
Weed fabric. easy to replace as necessary
THE traps that ACE hardware sells——
OR JUST ONE BITE at ranch supply.
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