cheeky chappie wrote:
hi

picture the scene, i have a front garden comprising rectangular lawn
surrounded by 4 x borders, within which i've planted various (mainly
everygreen) shrubs. within the centre of the lawn there is a circular
area of soil with no plants/shurbs in it.

the borders and circular area suffer badly from what i think is 'sheeps
sorrel' and, after reading online and being advised on here, i now
realise the best way to tackle this weed isn't to turn the soil and pick
out what you can but rather to use a suitable weedkiller on the leaves
without disturbing the soil, right?

It would help a lot if you showed a picture of the plant that you think
is 'sheeps sorrel' and explained why it has become a noxious weed.

I would have expected in the UK that liming the grass and regular
cutting would do for it in the lawn and judicious application of
glyphosate would zap it in the borders. Maybe with a bit of digging out
a few weeks later. Chemical and physical attack is the best way and
perhaps a couple of cycles of this through the season.

i tried this approach towards the end of last summer in the circular
area (really good dose of weedkiller, haven't turned the soil since) and
whilst i can see a few bits of the weed reappear it's nothing to worry
about. the easy thing about the circular area was no plants/shrubs to
worry about, i only had to ensure the grass surrounding the soil wasn't
touched by the spray.

You haven't said which weedkiller you used. They are *very* different.
And they only work when the plant is in active growth. In grass you can
use a broadleaf specific weedkiller to zap things - amongst shrubs you
want a contact weedkiller that is specific against green plants.
Glyphosate is the canonical choice for this sort of spot weeding.

my challenge with the borders is all the shrubs, i need to protect them
and the grass. someone advised i brush the weedkiller on by hand but
i'd rather spray. based on this will the following work and, most
importantly, will my shrubs survive?

1. cover all shrubs in plastic sheet tied at base i.e. all leaves
protected.
2. cover edge of lawn with plastic sheet.
3. this leaves me to liberally spray all exposed areas of soil in the
borders.

You should be able to direct the spray accurately enough not to need to
cover the other shrubs unless you are exceptionally cack handed. The
thing you must watch out for with glyphosate is not to get any spray
drift in the wind or spray onto your boots or you will leave outline
footprints across your lawn. Grass is exquisitely sensitive to it.

my hope is the weedkiller will be absorbed by the leaves of the weed and
kill the weed by killing the root system ... however if the roots of the
weed are entwined with my shrub roots is there a risk my shrubs will be
affected, or will they be okay due to their leaves being covered during
spraying?

Depends what you spray them with - some weedkillers are translocating,
pesistent and damaging to the soil and some like glyphosate will only
kill plants where they have touched the green parts.

bear in mind i'm intending to give the soil quite a good dose to try and
eliminate what is quite an unsightly weed which spreads like mad!

You seem to have failed to grasp the fundamentals of modern weedkillers.
You hit the *PLANT* that you want to kill - all the best weedkillers are
*deactivated* on contact with a clay soil by adsorption. Spraying the
soil with it is just burning your money to no good end.

Regards,
Martin Brown