Landscaping questions?

[Josh Goldsmith]

I bought a house that i am remodling to sell. I have alot of construction background but i have never really done much landscaping so i thought i would ask you guys. My front yard is going to be mostly bark with plants and some bushes spread thoughout. My question is how should i attack this correctly. Right now there are alot of weeds grown since we got all this rain lately. I was thinking about using round-up to kill the weeds and then putting black plastic on top of the dead weeds then putting the bark on top of the plastic. I was trying to keep any weeds from growing until i sell this house. Is there a better way of doing this? What mill of plastic should i use?

Now to the back yard. There is a large lot that at one time had grass that the previous owner forgot to mow,water, or anything to it. I got a tractor a month or two ago and scratched the top of the grass to level it a little and to get rid of the weeds that used to be grass. Well with all the rain we got and my to-do-list i never laid down sod. Now there is tons of weeds that grew really fast. There is some wild grass mixed in. How should i go about laying sod? Do i use round-up then wait a week and lay sod? Do you have a better way? Thanks ahead of time. Josh

[Joe Chritz]

Round up will kill everything if you put it on strong. Including the neighbors yews. (Don't ask )

It would work well for the mulched areas just stay away from any plants you want to continue living. I prefer actual weedbarrier over plastic. It is easier to work with, lasts better and does a better job. When I was working landscape we used a pre-emergent weed control called Preen. Used it by the pallet load and it works well.

For the lawn I would rake it hard with a bow rake to get rid of most of the weeds and plant seed. Use a starter fertilizer and it should take off well in a couple weeks. New grass will have weeds in until a few seasons of weed control, fertilizer and the established grass can choke most of them out.

When we re-did lawns (what a pain) we would lay down a heavy fertilizer to burn the grass then til it in with a tractor. Raked it out with a york rake the a landscape rake then seed.

You got a big project coming. I just did a few acres of new lawn last year and it is a project.

Joe

[Joe Mioux]

Round up is a post emergence herbicide.

If you want to eliminate weeds from sprouting use a pre-emergence herbicide such as Surflan.

If you use Surflan, you will not be able to germinate grass or anyother plant. But it will work well to keep weeds from sprouting up in the Bark mulch.

Since your back yard is weeds, work the ground, harrow or rake the weeds then lay your sod.

[Bob Johnson2]

I'd think about using something that lets the water thru as opposed to black plastic, costs more but it works better. If it's small enough I'd rent a tiller and do a quick go over with it, then roll it out to compact it a bit, plant and water in your bushes, put down the plastic or whatever and cover it with mulch.
Do you really need to sod the back? how about just cutting it short and throw on some fertilizer so it looks green. Weeds look okay when their green.

[Gary Herrmann]

Where I live, the time to grow grass seed is in the fall. Can't tell you about CA. Like any other landscaping, if you want something to grow, amend the soil. Till it up, add compost or other organice material, sow the seed or lay your sod. Water it appropriately for the type of soil and drainage you have. Neither seed nor sod will do well on dry, compacted soil.

Check lawn geek sites or talk to a local nursery for info relevant to your area. The fescue mix I use would probably burn to a crisp where you live, but I'm guessing even about that.

[Jim Becker]

Why use the chemicals? Whack down/pull the weeds and then use a permeable weed barrier to both kill the remaining plants and keep them from coming up again. If you must use something to kill them, consider high-strength ammonia designed for the purpose. (or ask Mike McGrath from "You Bet Your Garden" on public radio for additional advice)

[Bob Noles]

Jim,

"If you must use something to kill them, consider high-strength ammonia designed for the purpose"

Have not heard this one before and sounds interesting. Could you elaborate a little? Will plain household ammonia do the trick or is this something else that you are talking of? Sure would be cheaper and more desirable than some of the other chemicals they market.

[Jim Becker]

Have not heard this one before and sounds interesting. Could you elaborate a little? Will plain household ammonia do the trick or is this something else that you are talking of? Sure would be cheaper and more desirable than some of the other chemicals they market.

You can use household ammonia, but it may not be quite strong enough for some plants...it's quite diluted. There are some online sites that sell a "stronger, less diluted" brew...Dr. SMWBO knows more about it, but I know she got the source(s) from Mike's show. Note that this does make for a very alkaline situation around the plant you are killing (that's what does the job) and it's something you want to do "topically". We use it to discourage unwanted vegetation in the cracks on our patio while trying to keep it away from the moss that also grows there and looks nice.

[Bob Noles]

Thanks Jim...

I think we are going to look into this further as you suggested. Sounds like a great alternative.

[Joe Mioux]

Another source for ammonia is in your water soluble fertilizers.

Choose a high N fertilizer and pour it on the soil. Most Nitrogen is made up of Ammonia and Urea.

I still like Surflan, because eventually, the weeds come back and you have not damaged the soil.

Also, weed barriers are good up to a point. Once a weed barrier is laid down, weed seeds are going to fall on top of the weed barriers and you will get weeds growing again.

Also, weeds can grow through weed barriers.

A more appropriate name for weed barriers should be weed retardant barriers.

Joe