"Stephen Henning" wrote in message
news
catcher wrote:

Our flower beds and slate patio have tree-like weeds and are utterly
gross. We're looking for something that we can put down to kill the
weeds for longer than four weeks, and hopefully prevent them from
returning.
We've been using Roundup for years. It does kill the weeds, but they
come back quickly.

When you spray roundup on the green tissue of plants that are mature, it
travels to the roots and kills them. It leaves no residual chemicals
and has no residual action. It doesn't kill anything besides what you
spray.

You need to learn the merits of mulch. It is a material that you place
on top of the ground to hold in moisture and prevent weeds from growing.
When weeds do grow, they are very easy to pull out because the soil is
moist. Mulch benefits the good plants and prevents the bad plants from
growing.

Cornell University has a good article on mulches for landscaping:

http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/fac...mulchland.html

I recommend spraying with roundup before mulching. Ignore the fact that
it takes a couple weeks for roundup to kill the weeds and mulch within a
couple days after spraying with roundup.

indeed. Glyphosate poisons will kill weeds totally so you are getting newly
seeded weeds coming through. Even using a weed killer it will be an on going
job. Using mulches will dramatically reduce what come through. It will cut
down on your use of sprays nd make it easier to weed when you want to.
Around your patio standard boiled water will do the trick. You will have to
continue to kill the weeds whether you use poisons or hot water as you can't
mulch.

rob