<p>So I started gardening about six months ago. A recent, very rare in our area, freeze killed everything I put in. However, the weeds have come back bigger than ever! Even before the freeze, I was getting tired of spending 90% of my gardening time weeding.</p>
<p>Is that just the reality of gardening? I’ve been using Round Up to little effect. Would ground cover help? I had mulch but most of it has blown away and now I’m wondering if maybe something heavier would help stop the weeds? </p>
<p>Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated!</p>
<p>Mulch shouldn’t blow away- where are you? & what does your soil look like? red clay? sand?
The kinds of weeds that present will tell you alot about your soil.
Improving your soil will help you nurture the plants you want to keep
Ground covers are a possibility but many ground covers are not dense enough to keep out all or even most weeds.
What sort of native plants grow in your area?</p>
<p>If you have a texas sized yard- I suggest you keep some horses/chickens/cows/goats for a couple weeks. that should add a lot of nice organic material.
No I am serious!</p>
<p>Weeding? We have 2 feet of snow on the ground and could have more blizzards coming. This doesn’t answer your questions, but might make you feel happier about your weather.</p>
<p>Yes, we do need to know more about
*where you are
*size and layout of garden
*what you want to grow
*what kind and depth of mulch you are using</p>
<p>Options for those of us who do not like to weed include: containers, landscape fabric under the mulch, ground cover, spreading shrubs/perennials which will fill in and crowd out weeds.</p>
<p>Seems like pretty typical gardening to me Weeds have developed mechanisms to cope with sub-freezing temperatures. Even when we had a nasty freeze, the little suckers were trying to bloom in my graden! You have to make sure that you are getting out the roots and do not let the weeds produce seeds. “Unflavored” Roundup is pretty safe as far as herbicides go, but it does not kill broadleaf weeds and it is not effective when the temperatures are below upper 50s. Mulch is efficient in preventing weed growth, but the layer has to be fairly thick (in my garden, it needs to be 2-3 inches, at the bare minimum ).</p>
<p>Once my grandma plants, she has this stuff she sprinkles in her garden and it keeps new seeds from germinating, so no weeds grow in after that-- flowers that have already sprouted are fine but no weeds grow. Maybe something like that would help. It always works at our house.</p>
<p>Amending the soil will help. You could try weed cloth, which is available at any home store. Or an alternative is to put down 8-10 layers of newspaper, wet, and cover with leaves, grass cutting (provided you don’t have weeds in your grass!), mulch or even soil. The paper will eventually decompose and you’ll have to reapply occasionally.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07 is refering to Preen. I use it to keep the weeds under control under trees and in areas where I don’t want things coming up from seed. </p>
<p>I wish I was worrying about seeds. Our snow has finally gone away.</p>
<p>Weeding is much easier with soft loose soil (which you get by adding organic material). I use a scuffle hoe to weed; I find it makes the task much easier.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much! I live in south Texas on the gulf coast. It is very windy here which is excellent for sailing all year round but I think my wood chip mulch was too light. </p>
<p>I absolutely have weeds in my grass, which is also driving me to distraction. Our soil is not red clay, not sand. It’s generally dry (except for hurricane season!) here but then we have the air moisture from living so close to the gulf coast. Also, it’s hot most of the year. Hot, hot, hot. Except when it freezes overnight, two nights in a row once every 25 years. </p>
<p>I’m completely open on what to grow. I love colors but mostly I want to grown something that is not weed friendly, that will choke out weeds. This is part of the problem of being a beginner…the people who owned the house before us were serious gardeners and I have a lot of different plants/flowers/trees but no knowledge of what to expect from them. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit but four years of observation have only confused me further. Local friends have been helpful but a lot of it remains a mystery. </p>
<p>We have a big yard but not big enough for an animals. Believe me, I’d happily plop a goat or sheep back there!</p>
<p>Yes, Preen works great. It will keep weeds away for about 4-5 months. However, you can also get any generic “weed and grass” pre-emergent chemical from your hardware store at a much lower price. In fact I bought some today to spread in my landscaped areas. A 35 lb bag was about $24. However, remember this does not kill weeds that are already up, it prevents new ones from coming up. So if you already have weeds then you should use round up to kill them and put out the pre-emergent to prevent new ones from coming up. You will thank us later.</p>
<p>I did some landscaping at my house and it’s always over run by weeds. I try so hard to keep up with it but I guess I’m just lazy. It grows weeds upon weeds until my mother comes over to visit and gets on me about how weedy the front of my house is and that if I don’t weed it she’ll be “forced to take a half day and come weed it while I’m at work.” LOL. That gets me out there pretty quickly. It’s not like I want her to use any vacation on my yard but that is totally something she would do to keep it looking presentable. One thing I do occasionally spray is the weed killer (not grass killer) that you hook up to your hose to dilute it.</p>
<p>I can’t say that after I took up my sod/put down mulch, that I have had any significant weeds.</p>
<p>I get grass in odd places, but I just pull it up- I get dandelion coming through the ground cover ( fragaria chiloensis mostly) but watch where you get mulch from- some places it does not get to a temp that kills weed seeds- you don’t want to be * adding* weeds to your yard.</p>
<p>I haven’t used any chemicals other than occasionally round up on grass that I can’t get at otherwise for several years.</p>
Weeds have developed mechanisms to cope with sub-freezing temperatures. Even when we had a nasty freeze, the little suckers were trying to bloom in my graden! You have to make sure that you are getting out the roots and do not let the weeds produce seeds. “Unflavored” Roundup is pretty safe as far as herbicides go, but it does not kill broadleaf weeds and it is not effective when the temperatures are below upper 50s. Mulch is efficient in preventing weed growth, but the layer has to be fairly thick (in my garden, it needs to be 2-3 inches, at the bare minimum ).</p>