How to stop grass and weeds from growing??

[Foogoo]

We thought we had solved our foxtail and weed problem last year by ripping everything out of our backyard and covering it with wood chips. Well this year the grass and weeds simply pushed the chips aside and started growing again.

Is there another cover or method (non-chemical) I can do to stop them from growing?

[amcarrig]

What I did last spring was spray a ton of weed killer on my garden(s), layed down some polyethaline(sp?) plastic then covered with mulch. The only weeds that come up now are the ones that grow as a result of bird seed and tree seeds that fall into the mulch. Seeing as they can't root in dirt, those weeds are very easy to pull. I'll never pull weeds again.

[mrferrit]

rake the mulch in a pile law down newspaper water spread mulck again over the news paper and it will die.

i saw my friends dad do ths and he swears by it

but maybe thats just in FL heat idk

lined with plastic is a more permanent route though

[redawg]

My MIL just laid brick pavers in her entire backyard! Seriously, she didn't want to deal with weeds and sand and keeping the lawn alive. She lives in FL.

[Scuba_Dave]

[CPT. MURPHY]

Step one pull all vegetation
Step two pour vegetation killer over area
Step three apply mortons iodized salt over unwanted growth area
Guaranteed never to grow again

[Muttling]

Originally posted by Foogoo

Is there another cover or method (non-chemical) I can do to stop them from growing?

There are many ways to MAKE nature bend to man. Chemicals are the first and most economical choice. Sadly, you seek a natural way to create a setting that doesn't happen naturally.

[Lotus99]

You could try weed cloth underneath the mulch.

[Beaner3]

Get a goat, they love weedy stuff, and thier poo pellets are good for gardens. No chemicals, and you get a cool pet that can take out your friends!

[jpfelix]

pigs are great at keeping vegetation from growing!

[meco65]

Use the SW from your tank to water the wood chips with, the salt should kill the weeds.

[Satori]

Here in Arizona, most yards are just rocks. We lay thick black plastic on the bare ground then put the rocks or wood chips on top of the plastic.

[dinoman]

Originally posted by Satori
Here in Arizona, most yards are just rocks.

Here in Wyoming, our yards are mostly rocks too. Not by choice though, they're just too darn big to dig up!

I'm assuming the reason he's looking for non-chemical ways is because of the pets, which is something to be very careful of - you apply some type of chemical weed killer to the whole lawn and here comes the dog zooming out of the house and right over the area you just sprayed. It goes back in the house, licks its paws, and pretty soon you're rushing a sick dog to the vet .

Probably your best bet for a non-chemical solution would be like has already been posted. Take up all the current woodchips, clean the area of any currently growing vegetation, lay some plastic or some type of weed guard, and lay totally new wood chips or rocks or gravel or whatever you want.

[Satori]

Some people here paint their rocks green.

From down the street it looks like a nice lawn, but then you see that it's just green rocks.

[chainsaw5vent]

Pour concrete, asphalt and then maintain the cracks...ever see an abandoned parking lot? the weeds, grasses and trees still attempt to take over the old habitat.

[Foogoo]

I like the goat and pig idea, I'm not sure if my dog will like it though...

I'll look into the weed cloth/plastic however. Concrete isn't a bad idea, except it would be nice to have somewhere for the dog to dig and do his business.

[BigSkyBart]

I suppose this is completely out of the question



I remember riding bicycles behing the mosquito fogger truck as a child in the early 60's...

[Cubman777]

you could cover your yard in rock salt. I promise you that nothing will grow there for a while.

[Beaner3]

This thread is a little disturbing to me. After reading it a few times, some of you advocate and encourage foogoo to pour toxic chemicals on his/her lawn. I think that meco65 nailed it. Now I'm going to try to be objective here and tell you all why this would be a terrible thing to do with out sounding like I am on a soapbox.
Foogoo dumps toxic chemical of choice on said nasty weeds, nasty weeds die, but toxic chemical remains in the soil until it rains, then toxic chemical is either washed into street drain and into local river/stream then into major river where it eventually
end up in the........anyone?.....Ocean, that is correct. OR, toxic chemical is forced deeper into ground by dissolution of water and ends up in the..........Anyone?......Correct! Watertable.
Thats all of our and our kids drinking water.
Lets say foogoo lives in a major metropolitan area, and that his neighbors on the block all chip in and have the big green Chemlawn truck swing by in the spring and douse everyones lawns,.......and you end up with exactly what you paid for,...a chemlawn, for your kids and grandkids to crawl/ walk bare foot/play baseball in. And that is just on thier block in one metro area.
If any of you live near the Mississippi River at all take a look at it sometime. Pretty little oily slicks reflecting rainbows all over the surface.
I have snorkeled in the Mississippi once when I was younger, about 20 miles south of the headwaters up here in MN. It was really cool, lots of small mouths and crayfish and painted turtles all over the place.
Then you get to St. Cloud and things get a little murkier (sp?) South of Minneapolis and St. Paul? forget it, way too much runoff from all the humans that live along its banks, and that is still up here in MN. I can't imagine what it must look/smell like in St. Louis or Nawleans.
Just something to think about I guess. I'll go ahead and step off of the box now. Merry Xmas


Oh....and bigskybarts post made me laugh at how dumb we really are as humans, seriously,.... out loud (not saying that he is lacking in intelligence whatsoever, just humans as a generalization based on his fogger pic.)

[Foogoo]

Beaner3,

Don't worry, I know the consequences (immediate and otherwise) of chemicals so I'm staying away. Problem is, I doubt 80% of the rest of Los Angeles residents know or care for that matter. And we're ironically close to the ocean and running out of clean water fast...

[Beaner3]

LA huh? My buddy coaches football with USC out there.

[jdieck]

Here you go:
A regular weed cloth or polyethylene(which will not let water thru and will run off) will last about 5 years, this one usually lasts 15 to 20, made of something like fiberglass.

http://www.catalogclearance.com/prod..._dept-142.html

[NYIntensity]

Pour a high salinity mix (table salt is fine, don't want to waste reef salt) of water onto the undesired growth locations.

[amcarrig]

Originally posted by jdieck
Here you go:
or polyethylene(which will not let water thru and will run off)

I poke a ton of holes into the plastic then cut holes in the plastic to plant flowers. I have no problems with run off

[drauka99]

yep table salf or rock salt will kill off weed close to the house and such if you don't mind the ground taking a while to leech out the salt so other stuff can grow there.

and an assist