" Frank" x wrote in message
. ..
On going struggle with weed removal in the backyard.

1 Weed killers, kinda slow, would take a week or more to see the effect
and than the same partial dead weed would grow back. Would need couple
more applications, lots of poison in the ground, and than the weeds would
come back in a few more months.

2 Weedwacker to remove weeds at the ground surface, grows right back
with a vengeance in a few weeks.

3 Dig out and remove the weeds and roots by hand, pretty nice for about
three months than new weed pops up again, less time if we have rain. Same
thing using a 6hp rotor tiller.

4 Try burning it, but seems like my touch is too small and flame too
weak to do any good.

5 Installed no weed fabric. That controls it but a small amount of
weeds growing above and below the fabric.

6 Pour concrete slab over much of the backyard, about 25 yards of
concrete!

I have another house to do, don't want to pour 25 yards again - too much
back breaking work and getting too old.


1. For lawns -- the best way to keep out weeds is to have very healthy
turfgrass. That means starting out with a weed-free yard, then giving it
the right amount of care -- e.g., no weed-and-feed, which has too much
soluble nitrogen; not too much water, which doesn't encourage healthy root
growth, not too much nitrogen, which encourages tender greenery that bugs
like, etc.

2. For gardens -- the best way to keep out weeds is a one-time effort to
get rid of all of the weeds, then keep the garden heavily mulched -- at
least 3-4 inches of mulch at a minimum, at all times. To keep that from
getting expensive, I have a tree service drop off a truckload of wood chips
from one of their jobs at least once a year. You may not have space for
such a mulch pile, but it saves me a fortune in big-bix mulch and
weedkillers.

I only use weedkillers to keep weeds out of the shellrock driveway, the
swale along the roadway, and on some paving-block walkways. Everything else
is mulched on a regular basis.