threadwalker: (Amazon Warrior)
threadwalker ([personal profile] threadwalker) wrote2007-06-19 07:45 am

yard question and mini-rant

I am working on the front yard. It gets water, sunlight and therefore needs weeding. Previous owners let the golden poopies run amuck, but I don't know how they did that without also letting the weeds run amuck. I've discovered that tearing up the weeds just tears out the poopies at the same time. And they both sprout as fast as ... weeds.

Anyway, overall on-going.

I weeded, dug, scraped, and turned up the soil. Weeds were removed. Black weed suppressant fabric was laid down. Holes were cut for a few existing plants. Bark was put in place. 2 weeks later, weeds are poking up through the fabric and bark.

WTF??? What did I do wrong?

And they continue to pop up in waves like small green tentacles trying to sneak some sunlight. Grrrr....

In after-the-fact passenger sort of way, the Hubby said I shoulda sprayed chemical weed-death first. That didn't occur to me and even if it had, how do you do that without killing the plants I want to keep? I'm so pissed. The whole purpose of this was to NOT have to weed. Hence the back-breaking weeding and soil tilling that lead up to this. And now the area is covered in bark and ground cloth, so it's not even easy to rip it up and do a fix.

In the meantime, I am now weeding my barked area every few days and getting a lovely collection of slivers on the backs of my knuckles.

RAWR!!! fricking weeds.

[identity profile] tusya1300.livejournal.com 2007-06-19 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I hate to agree with Hubby, but he is right. A good weed killer will only kill the weed growth and potential new growth. The tricky thing with weeds is the root system, which is different (more invasive) than other plants. You can still use a spot weed killer (Round Up or the like) on the weeds breaking through.

[identity profile] dame-cordelia.livejournal.com 2007-06-20 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
Take a good sized piece of cardboard with you when you spray chemicals so that you can shield plants you would like to keep. And the bit about not spraying poison when it's windy will help to get the poison where you want it.

And don't do like I do - wear gloves.