I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead? Thanks
for any answers.

In article ,
says...
I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead? Thanks
for any answers.

Kill it.

And be prepared to re-dose the tougher plants that poke thru
the mulch.
--
Mark

The truth as I perceive it to be.
Your perception may be different.

Triple Z is spam control.

I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and
would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover
with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead?
Thanks
for any answers.

Well, how about both for an answer? Here's what you do....

1) Save up a BUNCH of newspapers. Have your friends and family do the same.
You want only the printed section -- i.e., the black and white section where
they have the news.

2) Do a good and low cutting of the grass in the strip. Bag and/or rake
your clippings as normal.

3) Take the newspaper you've saved up and put it down over top of the grass.
The desired thickness is right about 8 sheets, give or take a few.

4) Spread your clippings over the newspaper (no particular thickness -- just
good for soil).

5) Cover with about 4 inches of mulch (don't crowd the tree trunks of
course -- you don't want to cause rot).

6) Fluff the mulch every few days or so (use a rake to sort of flip it).

7) Wait until next spring and plant as normal.

This technique WILL work and it works just fine. You may want to toss a
little nitrogen down on the mulch after a while (use corn gluten) to help
replenish what will be taken out of the soil as it decomposes but that's
about all there is to it. This will effectively kill just about anything
there, most grass and weeds will not be able to come up through the paper.

In the spring, when you're ready to re-plant, your bed will be ready for
you. You can till it a bit if you like, add some more nitrogen, give it a
good raking, etc.

I just finished doing this on a 10'x30' strip in the front yard. Worked
like a charm. I think I've had 4 or 5 dandelions poke through some spots
where I pulled the newspaper up while fluffing the mulch (oops) as well as a
few blades of grass under the same conditions, but other than that -- nada.
Best part about it -- I haven't had to use any non-organic or herbicidal
techniques to get the desired effect.

James

Ortho makes a product called "Grass-B-Gone" that targets just grass. You
can spray it on bushes to kill grass growing through it and also spray the
grass around them. You could use regular Round Up, but you risk the chance
of hitting other plants, shrubs and trees. It will kill everything it comes
in contact with.

After spraying the grass, you may have to do it again after 1 week or you
can just cover the grass area with thick pieces of newspaper (white only)
and then lay down weed block material on top of them. Weed block is sold in
Home Depot or Lowes in 3' x 50' or 3' x 100' rolls. Just cut it to fit
around the trees and bushes and make sure to overlap the edges. You don't
want to leave any open spots for weeds or grass to pop back up. I would
also highly recommend using the pins that they sell to hold the material in
place. I recommend the newspaper because it really keeps weeds from
popping through the porous weed block. I used this method for my veggie
garden this summer and I have not had to pull one weed all summer. Water
will still penetrate, but the newspaper with keep the soil moist below and
keep weeds from coming up. After pinning down all the edges, cover the area
with 3-4" of mulch or decorative stone.

Good luck.

Penny
Zone 7b - North Carolina
"PaNjDeFemale" wrote in message
...
I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and
would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover
with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead?
Thanks
for any answers.

On 25 Aug 2003 01:44:48 GMT, (PaNjDeFemale)
wrote:

I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead? Thanks
for any answers.

RoundUp is probably the easiest. You need to be very careful about
what/where you spray.

Another thought. Use three layers of (no color) newspaper and put
the mulch on top of the newspaper. The grass and weeds will die
before the newspaper rots.

On 25 Aug 2003 01:44:48 GMT, (PaNjDeFemale)
wrote:

I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead? Thanks
for any answers.

The natural (and thus less expensive) solutions would be newspaper
mulch and/or sunflower seeds. Depending on the size of the lot you
might not be able to find enough newspaper to kill all the grass. The
sunflower seed shells are phyto-toxic, so they would kill the grass
and the resulting space would be taken over by the seeds. I bet if
you got a big $10 bag of black sunflower birdseed from wal mart and
threw them around in early spring you could have the place full of
sunflowers by july or august

Dan

In article ,
says...
I have an area in the shape of a strip with a few trees and shrubs and would
like to eliminate the grass that fills in the rest of the area and cover with
mulch. Do I have to remove all the grass or can I kill it off instead? Thanks
for any answers.


If you do decide to kill the grass, look for a product that contains
glyphosphate. It breaks down quickly so it won't work its way through
the soil and possibly harm the trees and shrubs. I believe Round-up
contains glyphosphate.

I recently did 500 sq.ft. Killed the grass, layed a weed blocker fabric,
and mulched. Looks much better.

-Chris Swartz

Mark, good news that we can do that. One respondent suggested the chemical
glyphosphate (possibly in Roundup). Do you agree? Also any disadvantage to
using two layers of weedblock fabric and would it help to curtail the tougher
plants? Thanks for your information.

Sherry

James, there are 3 adults here and to tell you the truth, we have few friends
(and no relatives) to help with the newspapers. Can we use less newspaper and
make up the difference with weedblocker? If not, would just weedblocker fabric
do just as well? We really won't be planting anything else in that strip.
Thanks for your information.

Sherry

Penny, I've heard of the Grass-B-Gone but had no idea you could get it directly
on your plants. I do often have weeds growing right under and through the
plants, especially junipers, which we have a lot of. Others have suggested
newspaper but we don't get many and don't know many who do so we may just buy
some newsprint since it's a one-time job if it's available in a large roll. So
meanwhile I'll hit the weeds under my shrubs. Thanks for your information.

Sherry

There seems to be a consensus on mainly the newspaper, also with grass killer
and mulch on top. I think we know what to do now. Thanks for your
information.

Dan, that's a novel idea about the sunflowers but the area is in the front
along a fence so we'll go with just killing off the grass with newspaper,
weedblock, and if needed, grass/weedkiller and add mulch. Thanks for your
information.

Sherry

Does your area have recycling depots or bins? You can get your newspapers
there. You may have to pay at the depot, but if you hang out at the bins on
the weekend you can ask the people dropping off old newspapers if you can
have theirs for a gardening project, and get them free!
--
Jayel
"PaNjDeFemale" wrote in message
...
There seems to be a consensus on mainly the newspaper, also with grass
killer
and mulch on top. I think we know what to do now. Thanks for your
information.

James, there are 3 adults here and to tell you the truth, we have few
friends
(and no relatives) to help with the newspapers. Can we use less newspaper
and
make up the difference with weedblocker? If not, would just weedblocker
fabric
do just as well? We really won't be planting anything else in that strip.
Thanks for your information.

You *CAN* but I recommend against it for 2 reasons -- first, you may later
decide to put something there and that means getting it all up (a pain at
the very least); second, it's the use of an inorganic solution where an
organic solution is more than adequate. You may find that for this
particular case it would be easiest to just buy a couple of extra Sunday
papers. In my case, I used mostly a 1 month run of the Wall Street
Journal -- my family saved up maybe half as much additional newspaper for
me, if that -- and my project covered far more area than yours.

All in all, I have only used weedblocker fabric once in my landscape -- we
have a smal pad for the central air unit and I put down weed fabric around
it, covered by a few bags of landscape rocks (about 4 or 5 inches worth) to
extend about a foot or two outside it. Every year I *STILL* have to get in
there and pull a few weeds. Weed fabric also typically holds water and soil
from runoff and such, so it's seldom an ideal long term solution IMHO.

In cases like this, I'd suggest still planting something in the area simply
to enhance its interest. For example, a small strip such as the one you
describe (fairly shaded, right?) would look great if filled with a few
varieties of Hosta -- they're not expensive at all, require little to no
upkeep, and they add something of a flair with their foliage and unique
flower spike. There are also various grasses (miscanthus) that can add some
vertical interest in patches where there is more sun, and a number of
low-growing perennials that are suitable for bordering walkways and/or
adding fragrance to an area. The options are truly limitless and a small
strip like this just begs for a little bit of variety to add that additional
interest.

Just something to think about. Good luck!

James