Weed Control for Rock Beds

[Dave Schreib]

For people recommending not to use weed block fabric, what's the alternative? I agree, dirt gets under the rocks and some weeds penetrate the fabric, but still better than nothing, isn't it?

I've found weed block to be ineffective and it eventually gets exposed and ragged. For me it would be round up in a 2 gallon pump sprayer. I walk the beds once a week or so. A gallon of concentrate lasts me a couple of seasons. I would have zero concern about the round up affecting future plantings including any vegetables that I would eat. The veggies you eat from the store and at a restaurant were grown with similar herbicides. It's not that I think they are harmless. It's that I think the alternative to using herbicides is worse.

[Rob Luter]

Hemlock is also a chemical. So yeah, as I stated, I'm concerned using herbicides might cause problems in the future when I plant trees and a vegetable garden. The Amish tend to be very resourceful. I'm surprised they haven't developed some kind of natural weed killer. But I supposed pulling weeds every day would work. That doesn't work for me.

Neither Roundup or Preen will cause problems in the future. A rock garden is the perfect spot for both.

Roundup works by being absorbed through the plant leaves. It has no impact on soil. The overspray that hits the rocks and other areas surrounding the weeds gets burned off by the UV in the sun's rays in pretty short order, especially at altitude like you are.

Preen prevents weed seeds from germinating. It is a temporary measure, just like crabgrass preventer (same stuff).

Your situation is pretty common for rock gardens. Dust, pollen, and tree litter collect in the nooks and crannies. I have a gravel path at my home that was put in 30 years ago. The original gravel bed is nearly covered by composted organic matter as mentioned above. Roundup and Preen are applied every spring to keep it looking like a path.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Vinegar solution 1:4

[Keegan Shields]

Also 2-4 D works great. Add some surfactant also. Both available on Amazon.

[Mark Wedel]

Most of my yard has a thick layer of mulch, which I'll hand weed. The mulch keeps most of the weeds down, but for those that do sprout up, they are not rooted in the dirt so easy to pull up (dirt where I'm at is heavy in clay, so once weeds get rooted in that, hard to pull up). Keeping on top of things is fairly important - easy to pull up small weeds, harder to pull up big weeds, and really want to get rid of them before the produce seeds to make more weeds. A couple hours a week is more than enough to keep those areas fairly weed free.

But for my pavers or rocks where weeds sprout up, I use round up - no danger of overspray hitting plants I don't want to kill, but otherwise trying to pull up plants that are growing in the cracks between the pavers does not work very well.

As an aside, in the summertime, everything is on drip irrigation (no rain here in the summer) which also greatly reduces weeds vs sprinklers which spray water over a large area (which I see some people using for entire planting beds, but it does mean that sections of that bed are getting plenty of water for weeds to grow where there are no plants)

All of this depends on the amount of property one is maintaining. If my properly was 4x bigger, I'd probably rethink a lot of this, but that would also lead into other thoughts on what to do with all that space.

[Bill Dufour]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m88JLUAW2l0

[Clifford McGuire]

I cover my beds with preen every spring @ 32lbs before my landscaping guy mulches then I plant annuals afterwards. . 24 yards of mulch this year,, I have a landscaping addiction. Brian

24 yards of mulch!!! That's gotta be a couple truckloads.

Do you start your own annuals fromm seed?

[Brian Runau]

24 yards of mulch!!! That's gotta be a couple truckloads.

Do you start your own annuals fromm seed?

I admitted I am a landscaping addict! I'm 67 so I pay a guy to do this.. His crew swarms the yard for @ 4-5 hours. We have a shade garden, perennial cutting garden , herb garden, lavender bed along with all the shrubs and trees. Zinnias mostly from seed, more lavender this year and 36 caladium bulbs we start early. Thanks brian

[Mark Wedel]

Several years ago I refreshed my mulch, and rather than pay money for it, I used getchipdrop. I think I estimated that it was close to 30 yards - the somewhat annoying thing is that since it comes from a tree service, they have their machines that shoot the mulch high into there covered truck, so a truck can carry a lot more than one might be able to reasonably load in other trucks. I liked the fact it was free, liked less that I didn't have a lot of say in how much I would get, and the quality of some of it wasn't great (decent sized chunks of wood, and not mulch). Plus side is I got plenty of mulch to cover every inch of my yard with several inches.

[Brian Runau]

We've planted liriope and pachysandra in some beds or it would be worse. Brian

[Jim Becker]

Several years ago I refreshed my mulch, and rather than pay money for it, I used getchipdrop. I think I estimated that it was close to 30 yards - the somewhat annoying thing is that since it comes from a tree service, they have their machines that shoot the mulch high into there covered truck, so a truck can carry a lot more than one might be able to reasonably load in other trucks. I liked the fact it was free, liked less that I didn't have a lot of say in how much I would get, and the quality of some of it wasn't great (decent sized chunks of wood, and not mulch). Plus side is I got plenty of mulch to cover every inch of my yard with several inches.

The issue with fresh, uncomposted chipping is that it can mess with the soil in a negative way, pulling out nitrogen, etc., out. So it's great for "those areas" that are not intended for planting, but not advisable for areas that are considered gardens. It's best to use composted mulch for that.

[Ken Platt]

Add me to the former user of weed fabric crowd. The stuff just makes the situation worse. I found that the weeds actually anchored themselves in the fabric, where as with the mulched beds, as someone else posted, the weeds root in the loose mulch and can be pulled or removed with any weeder device easily. (I favor the stirrup weeders, and have several of them in various lengths and configurations. Highly recommended).

For the rock and beds, which I have surrounding the house foundation, I've used a weed burner to hit the ones I want to get rid of(I let the desirable stuff grow, like violets, wood aster, ferns. I think they look nice in the rocks). Easy, and admittedly rather satisfying.

Ken

[Jim Becker]

For general beds, I actually agree about eschewing the weed barrier material because it does cause issues over time...and our dog likes to dig it up. But for beds that have stone, you kinda have to use some kind of geotextile in the base to keep soil from leaching up through the stones and the stones sinking down into the soil. It's the same issue as when building a stone driveway or a dry lot paddock for livestock...soil moves.

[Pat Germain]

Sounds like I just need to plant a Fairytale Forest in my yard. Those seem to be low-maintenance. Might be a problem keeping it watered here on the front range...

[Ken Platt]

Good point, Jim. I haven't found this to be a problem here, possibly because my rock beds are immediately surrounding the foundation, so maybe the ground is compacted enough? But for the rocks I use for borders at other places, they sure do sink in. I periodically move these as I slowly extend beds, so still don't use fabric....I've really gotten to loathe the stuff. I guess it's personal now