On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:30:27 -0800, JRStern
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:03:29 -0800 (PST), troyc
wrote:

There are no ground covers which will survive a glyphosate (Roundup's
active ingredient) application. If Roundup is sprayed near plants and
applied properly, it will not drift and your plants should be fine.
As far as planting in soil which has been sprayed with glyphosate, it
can be done almost immediately as there are no residual effects.

OK, thanks.

I should probably have the gardener put in the ground cover, he'll
maybe be more responsible about it that way.

J.

The main concept of ground cover is to behave as an invasive living
mulch that smothers other plant growth... simply till and plant ground
cover... there is no beneficial reason to spray the area with
defolient prior to planting. Any "weed" seeds already in the ground
and/or new arrivals will not be affected by defolient anyway and once
you plant ground cover you can't use a defolient on newly emerging
weeds without killing your new ground cover plants. Regardless what
you do there will always be weeds to deal with, the trick is to reduce
the probability of weed growth without negatively affecting your new
plantings. I would cover the newly tilled area with a layer of straw
and then put in my ground cover plants... the straw will act as a
short term mulch that will significantly inhibit weed growth until the
ground cover gets a good start. Straw is cheap, needs no tools to
apply other than your hands and becomes composted quickly which amends
the soil, much better than costly, dangerous, and pervasive chemicals.
Even if your ground cover is a newly seeded lawn covering the seed
with straw will encourage faster germination by retaining moisture and
will deter the birds from eating your seed.