I wrote an article about Weed Barrier Fabric and lots and lots of people said; “Hey Mike, if weed control fabric isn’t good, how do we control weeds? So here’s the low down on weeds and how they think.
Think about weeds and what they need. They need water, nutrition and sunlight to thrive. Since those are all the same things the plants in our gardens need to thrive, as we tend to our gardens trying to create the perfect home for our plants we are at the same time creating the perfect home for weeds. Water and nutrition are must have things for our garden and even without our intervention there is plenty of nutrition in the soil and water comes naturally. So the only thing left that we can control is the amount of sunlight that we allow the weeds to receive.
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Bingo! That’s it. We can control the weeds simply by controlling the amount of sunlight that we allow them to receive. That’s great if the bed is to be mulched with some kind of material that will block the sunlight. If for instance you don’t want to mulch your garden, then you have to use other measures to control the weeds. But let’s first consider ways to block the sunlight.
Two to three inches of mulch does a pretty good job of blocking sunlight. But the secret to using mulch to control weeds is to get the garden almost 100% weed free before you apply the mulch. That’s a mistake that a lot of people make with their gardens. They never get ahead of the weeds! I am growing thousands of plants in beds and it’s really too much area to mulch so I use pre-emergent herbicides and I’ll explain that in a minute. But even with the pre-emergents I still get weeds. And if I don’t stay on top of it I have a mess on my hands.
For the past week or so I have spent my time pulling weeds in these beds. Some of the weeds are 18″ tall or taller. But I want the situation under control so I am going through the beds and the isles and I am pulling all the weeds. In the aisles where I can run a rototiller I will leave a weed if it less than 2″ tall. Even then, I pull most of those too! Anything larger than that I pull because I want the weeds gone. After I pull the larger weeds I go through the bed with my Action Hoe and loosen the soil between the plants and remove any tiny weeds that I might have missed when hand pulling weeds. Once I’m done hoeing (is that a word?) I rototill the isles and when I’m done the weeds are gone. Immediately I apply a really good pre-emergent herbicide that will last for several months.
You should see those beds now! They are spotless. I know they won’t stay that way, but what I just did will last a long while.
Using Newspaper to Control Weeds
Now, for you at home, you have to do the same thing. Get all of those weeds out of the beds before you do anything else. Then if you are going to mulch, put down newspaper 8 or 9 inches thick then cover it with mulch. The newspaper will blow around easily so lay the newspaper down as you mulch. Don’t worry about the ink on the newspaper, it’s all soy based these days and will not harm your plants. Then if you want to use a pre-emergent herbicide like Preen you can apply it after you mulch. Read the label carefully. They might suggest working it into the soil. I don’t think so, but if that’s the case you can just apply it before you put down the newspaper.
These are the steps.
1. Weed the bed until every weed is gone.
2. Lay down newspaper or brown paper grocery bags. Newspaper should be at least 5 pages thick, but 8 or 9 pages thick is better.
3. Put down two to three inches of mulch.
4. Apply a pre-emergent herbicide like Preen.
If you do a really good job weeding, put down the newspaper and the mulch, you probably don’t need the pre-emergent herbicide for a while. Pre-emergent herbicides prevent weed seeds from germinating. When applied they create a vapor barrier that nips the tiny weed sprouts as soon as they germinate.
If you don’t want to use chemicals that’s fine, you’ll get good results without them if you stay on top of the situation.
The Biggest Secret of All!
You have to stay on top of the situation. Weeding is not a once a year job. It’s something you do several times a week as you enjoy your gardens. Now when I say several times a week, I don’t mean get out the gloves, the bucket, the knee pad, the dirty jeans and get down and dirty and start pulling weeds. But as you casually stroll through your yard reach down and pull the weeds you see. If you do this, you will not have any weeds in your yard and you won’t have to dedicate a day to pulling weeds for a long, long time.
What if the Area is too Big to use Newspaper?
Chemicals? Or No Chemicals?
If you have a large area that is full of weeds and grass or one of the other and you want it to be a really nice garden you can make the area weed free simply by tilling the soil or turning the soil. All you have to do is till the soil, tilling in all the weeds and grass. Wait about 5 days in warm weather then till again. Just keep repeating this process over a period of several weeks until you see absolutely no sign of weeds.
This is what happens. You till the soil and some of the weeds and grass that you tilled in will be near the surface. The hot sun will bake them, drying them out until they are no longer viable. Other weed and grass plants will not be near the surface and will be suffocated being under the soil. When you till again you are once again exposing viable weed and grass plants to the surface and the sun. At the same time you are pulverizing the weeds and grass that are not exposed to the surface.
As you are doing this there is a third process that is taking place but going unnoticed. The soil is full of weed seed. Weed seeds often germinate in a matter of days. After your first tilling their are thousands of weed seeds that are trying to germinate. When you do your second tilling you are literally cutting them off at the pass and stopping them in mid germination. Once the seed germinates and is terminated by you through this tilling process, it is no longer viable. Several days later you till again. Thousands more weed seeds are rendered no longer viable. The more times you till the soil them more weed seeds you are eliminating.
Of course it would be foolish to think that we could completely eliminate all of the weed seeds from the soil. They blow in by the thousands.
So . . . with this in mind think about your veggie garden. You don’t want to use chemicals in your veggie garden, but if you can keep it tilled or cultivated on a regular basis you can keep the weeds at bay that way.
Chemicals
Rule #1. Read the labels and wear protective clothing.
Yeah, I know. Many people reading this article think that nobody should be using chemicals to control weeds. I love that idea but I’ve pretty much done nothing in my life that wasn’t somehow gardening related and I know the realty of people not using chemicals. We want nice green, weed free lawns so we apply chemicals. We don’t want the Japanese Beetles to eat all of the leaves from our roses so we apply chemicals. The garden stores have a complete isle of gardening chemicals. Therefore as a garden writer I have to address the subject.
And I have to admit, already have admitted in this article, that I use chemicals to control weeds. Basically there are two kinds of chemicals for controlling weeds and unwanted grasses. Pre-emergent herbicides I’ve already mentioned in this article and post emergent herbicides.
As mentioned, pre-emergents are designed to do one thing and only one thing and that’s to prevent weed seeds from germinating. They have absolutely no control over weeds that are already growing.
Post emergent herbicides are designed to kill weeds and unwanted grasses that are already growing. For the most part when you are buying a post emergent herbicide for home use you are buying what is called a non-selective herbicide. Unless you are buying something for your lawn. The weed and feed products that you use on your lawn are “selective” herbicides. In other words they will kill broad leaf weeds like dandelions, but they won’t kill the grass that you are trying to make prettier. But if you accidentally get them on the plants in your flower beds, they will see those plants as broadleaf and could kill those as well. They are designed to not harm anything in the grass family.
The most common “non-selective” herbicides contain glyphosate which is a non-selective herbicide that will kill weeds, grasses and other plants that it touches. I use a generic (don’t ask me the name, I don’t remember, I get it at the farm supply store) to spray the weeds on the edges of the nursery. I pretty much use it any place where there are weeds and grasses that I want to completely eliminate and I can spray and not get the herbicide on other plants.
For instance, when I get ready to landscape the old house I showed you in the other article I will first mark out the beds with orange spray paint, then spray any and all weeds and grasses inside of the beds before I do anything else. That saves me having to dig them out and it’s 100% effective at eliminating them so they don’t come back and haunt me.
Once you spray weeds or grasses with a glyphosate product you have to leave them alone giving the herbicide a chance to work. Glyphosate is sprayed on the foliage of the leaves and grasses that you want to eliminate. More is not better. All you have to do when applying these non-selective herbicides is wet the foliage. If you spray to the point that the product is running off the leaves you are apply too much. Just wet the foliage. Then wait!
The way that Glyphosate works is it is absorbed by the plant and the chemical is trans-located through the plant. That’s why when it’s first applied you won’t see any immediately sign of the weeds dying. You have to give the chemical at least 72 hours to do it’s job. After 72 hours the weeds and grasses won’t look dead, but for the most part they are. After 72 hours you can dig and chop, till the weeds in etc. Doesn’t matter, if you’ve applied the product correctly and given it time to work, those weed and grass plants are dead.
Does it linger in the soil?
People who are very committed to nobody using chemicals will tell you that it does linger in the soil. People like me who use it on a regular basis and have been doing so for many, many years will tell you that it does not linger in the soil. I believe the manufacture claims that it does not linger in the soil but I suggest you research that on your own if you are concerned. All I know is that I can spray a bed or a section of my lawn with glyphosate and three days later sow grass seed or install plants and the plants do fantastic and the grass seed grows just fine.
Tips for applying post emergent herbicides.
As I mentioned, read the label and take all of the recommended precautions.
When you apply it you should have a small one gallon sprayer that is clearly marked with a permanent marker, “for weed spray only”. Never use the same sprayer for any other task around your house.
When you spray you have to be really careful to not allow the spray to drift or to get any over-spray on the plants you want to keep. The nozzle on the sprayer is adjustable. You can adjust the spray from a long stream to a very fine mist. The very fine mist is the most likely to drift. So I do two things when I spray a non-selective herbicide. One, I only pump the sprayer just enough to deliver the product. The lower the pressure the less of a mist you will have. It takes pressure to create that fine mist, and I don’t want a fine mist. So I only pump the sprayer just enough so the product comes out the nozzle.
The second thing I do is adjust the nozzle so the spray pattern is not a steady stream, but a heavier spray pattern and not a fine mist. The heavier the spray pattern the larger the spray droplets and the lower the chance that they’ll be carried by the wind.
Third. Never spray a non-selective herbicide on a windy day. Wait for nice calm day to do your spraying.
Now keep in mind, a non selective herbicide will get rid of the weeds that you have today, but it’s a very short lived, step one. Three days after you spray the weeds and grasses that you want to get rid of, you have to employ one of these other strategies to keep that area weed free.
Okay, lots of good information here on weed control. I hope you find it useful.
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The Gardener’s Secret Handbook reveals why what you thought to be “good gardening practice” could actually be destroying your gardening efforts! Here’s just some of what’s inside:
- How to compost the easy way… you’ll learn why your back-breaking composting methods are actually slowing down the decomposing process
- The BIGGEST secret to weed control and why you should NEVER use that ugly plastic weed barrier
- A little-known fact that the big, greedy fertilizer companies don’t want you to know… and much, much more!
Mike:
In your article on weed control, you wrote to lay down newspapers 8-9 inches deep. I think you meant to write “pages deep” not “inches”
Take Care,
John
Glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up works by blocking a plant’s ability to take up vital minerals. The toxin works by starving a plant to death. Monsanto has created genetically modified “Round Up Ready plants” that are able to over-ride this disability; however, they will not take up the minerals either.
Glyphosate does not degrade in your soil, so when you plant your vegetables in the soil you poisoned, it is sucked into the roots of your plants. If you’re eating them, this means that they will be devoid of minerals they– and you– need to be healthy.
If you use compost produced by plants that were subjected to glyphosate or manure produced by chickens, cows, rabbits, or other animals who ate plants grown on land that was poisoned with glyphosate, then your soil will contain glyphosate and your plants will not be able to take up vital nutrients.
There is a link between allergies as well as diseases such as Alzheimer’s. I forbid the use of toxins on my 74 acre ranch. I forbid the use of GMO seeds or plants on my land. It is a matter of protecting my little postage stamp of land and making every effort to heal the land so battered and abused by Man.
Mike – I’m with you on the newspaper and constant weeding. These methods work. I also abhor weed barrier cloth – ugh! But I don’t use herbicides – don’t want to poison my soil or the local wildlife.
3-Bell Ranch – How do you control your weeds? Help us out here. I’m still looking for a less labor intensive wasy after 61 years of gardening, especially after 61 years because it’s getting harder not easier!
I have a 40 acre farm. We grow squash, zucchin, onions, melons, watermelons to sell at our produce stand. Every season I find myself out on my hands and knees pulling weeds. don’t want to use chemicals and I can’t see using newspaper or weed fabric in a field that is 50′x100′. What do you do??
I have had good success in my fruit garden with using used carpet. I basically tile the area between rows. Periotically I remove it to tear off the few things tough enough to grow through it, but there isn’t much. Put it fuzzy side down.
Carpet is a win over landscape fabrics in that it doesn’t blow around.
For an annual garden like yours, you’d have to take it up completely each fall.
You can also use straw. Get a hold of weathered bales. You want bales that have been wet for a year. These will have very little viable seed in them. Place the straw down in ‘books’ to not blow around. Once your squash sprout, tuck the straw around them. This will not eliminate weeds, but it will allow them to be pulled more easily. In the fall either rake up and store for spring, or till in and add some fertilizer to get it to degrade into compost.
Sherwood, some folks have had issues with mold using old carpet. I think the guy that I’m thinking of used it in a closed hoop house and had problems because of the mold in the carpet.
3 Bell Ranch- Sure appreciate u sharing those facts on weed chemicals.. For something that important, u would think more of us would actually spend the time researching weed chemicals. But, I’m as guilty as anyone so thanks again.
I LOVE your articles…but in the beginning of this article you said to use 8 – 9 INCHES of newspaper….we all know that you meant sheets or layers but I thought it was worth replying to just in case someone tried to put down 8″ – 9″…lol…again, LOVE your posts.
“Then if you are going to mulch, put down newspaper 8 or 9 inches thick then cover it with mulch”.
did you mean 8 or 9 inches thick or 8 or 9 layers thick? and what kind of mulch will stay on a hillside?
I read the whole article and excellent stuff there…but one thing you didn’t mention (if you did, I missed it…sorry) and I question this, too…but if you spray Weed and Feed, Weed B Gone (anything liquid) if you spray it in weather hotter than I think 80 degrees, it will drift in the air and kill stuff next to where you spray…IS THIS TRUE? Can you use it on a hot, summer day??? and thanks for your input!
I believe the labels on Weed-be-gone say you should apply it in the spring and fall when weeds are coming alive.
ALWAYS read the manufacturers label on ANY product. It will tell you what the purpose of the product is, how and when to apply it. It is not wise to apply any chemical on a windy day. Ever!
Mike or anyone, how do you get rid of out of control Trumpet Vines? Mine is taking over my fence and back yard.
We have a trumpet vine that a past owner placed on the property line. It is growing up under our new neighbors car that sits idle, and is coming up in our yard in 36 places all along the side of our lovely home.
HELP HELP WHAT CAN WE DO??
Meredith, spray it with a non selective herbicide or just keep digging it out.
My weed control of choice for this would be to dig up the root if possible, if not then bring along a kettle of boiling water and pour it sparingly on the plant at it’s base. Be careful whatever it touches will also die, but if it’s something you can always reseed then you are home free, no toxins in your soil just good old water way too hot to allow the plant to survive. I have used this on dandelions too where I can’t get all the root out and it usually works on one application. Check the results next day and see if you need to do it again. the offending weeds will be brown and dead, just take them out or till them in!
Yes. 2-4-D is volatile, and on a hot day, it will evaporate from the target plant and move around the garden. There is a less volatile form that is used in warmer climates. Read the directions. Read what the active ingrediants are. Research the active ingredients.
Mike, Is there ever a time that weeds are actually beneficial?
Mike,between the rows in my garden I lay down cardboard boxes, usually two layers thick. Not only does it prevent wees from growing it also makes getting on your knees less dirty and it elininates to till the middles of the rows.
sOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA. I HAVE SEEN VEGETABLE GARDENS WITH 12″ DEEP SAWDUST, IT IS CLEAN, NEAT, AND IT HAD NO WEEDS. HE ADDED ADDITIONAL INCHES EACH GROWING SEASON TO GET THE FINAL 12″
Meredith, fresh sawdust, or almost any sawdust will rob the soil of much need nitrogen. It will keep the weeds down, but sawdust needs nitrogren to decompose so it will pull it from the soil, robbing your plants of nitrogen.
Great article with good information!! Just what I needed to know! Thanks Mike!!!
Always GREAT ADVICE…
But I have a question:
My lawn has been diagnosed with “BROWN SPOT MOLD/FUNGUIS” not from animals. Do you have any suggestions to treat?
Here is some information about brown spot in St Augustine grass. We had this problem in central Texas and the cornmeal treatment cured it!
“You can treat brown patch organically -apply cornmeal at the rate of 20 lbs. per 1,000 square feet and dry molasses at the same rate. Cornmeal works better as a preventative so try to apply it in August before brown patch becomes active. 10% Terraclor is a great curative fungicide.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Mike for your response, appreciated it so much. I bought your program several years ago, but was not able to implement it. The time is still not right. I just retired. After we sell our house and move to where we are planning on living I really would like to sell bedding plants as you have outlined. We are looking at places to live with that in mind.
Have appreciated your emails and being able to learn about gardening that I have been able to implement now.
Ruth
The nasty fact is that in Southern California, NOTHING gets rid of weeds. Our climate is a blessing and a curse.
Under your “Using Newspapers To Control Weeds” you mention 8 or 9 inches of newspaper. I believe you meant 8 or 9 pages.
thanks for the info, my husband loves to use roundup, but I always tell him, ‘I’ll weed, like that I know they are gone, and I don’t have to look at that ugly brown stuff.’
About growing plants at home, I am elderly, love potted plants, but don’t like to throw away cuttings. I have at least a hunded plants, all sizes, and about 26 varieties. I had a plant sale, but they didn’t move very well, so I still have a bunch. How can I get them sold without getting your backyard growing system. I’m 74 years old, and can’t start that now at this sage of the game, I don’t know how much longer my health will allow me to do the thing that I love. Will appreciate any info.-Mary
Mary: I would be interested in some of your plants if the price is right and you know for sure what they are and they are not patented. Also, I am in Michigan and need to know that they would survive our winters here.
Look forward to hearing back from you. Natalie Brocieus
Mike, your information is always so complete and useful, but also easy for the average person to understand. I try to convey information in the same way to my customers, so I really was delighted when I found your website by accident about a year ago. Keep up the excellent work!
In your response you state newspaper 8-9 inches thick…do you mean pages thick as 8-9 inches would be quite a lot of paper. thank you for your great tips and advice. app0reciate it.Beverly
DOES THE NEWSPAPER DISSOLVE INTO THE GROUND COMPLETELY EACH YEAR? IF SO THEN EACH SPRING IN THIS ONE PARTICULAR GARDEN – IT GETS NO ANNUALS, ONLY EVERGREENS, MUMS AND ONE JAPANESE MAPLE – AND NOT MUCH ROOM FOR A GARDEN SPADE LET ALONE A TILLER – I WOULD START OVER WITH PREEN, THEN NEWSPAPER, THEN MULCH, THEN PREEN AGAIN. RIGHT? BUT WOULD THE NEWSPAPER KEEP MY MUMS FROM COMING UP OR SHOULD I LEAVE THAT AREA EXPOSED?
I cut a hole and put my plants down in it and pull the newspaper close as I can to the plant.
Where I news-papered this year, I put in new soil. So, I put the newspaper and then the several inches of new dirt and then my mulch. I also ended up putting in Hosta in the dirt, so the roots will maybe grow down through the newspaper by next year.
I have not had to replace newspaper every year. It has taken a couple of years when I placed it around a pond area that I had several years back.
I hope this helps you out.
Kim
many many thanks.a good and very useful article you have posted.
All good information in your articles. Just a few more items. Spraying should be completed before 2pm. In the hot sun, plants are shutting down, not absorbing liquid like they do in the morning. The spray will sit on the leaves overnight and be diluted by the morning dew, reducing the effectiveness of the spray. I sometimes use a handheld piece of cardboard as a barrier to protect plants while spraying. Be careful not to flip it over and rub the good plants with glyphosate soaked cardboard. Another tip is to work backwards so as not walk in the spray and leave footprints on the lawn. If you accidentally get glysophate on your shoes, scuff them on bare soil. The glysophate is readily bound to the soil and this will help “clean” the shoes. Working in close areas presents some challenges with overspray. A foam paintbrush works well as does the “Glove of Death” Google this phrase for an explanation. Your newspaper trick works well, I have been doing this for many years in my vegetable garden. I simply pin the paper with rocks and pick up the rocks at the end of the season. The paper is nearly gone at this point and easily tilled into the soil.
Your weed control article says to lay “8-9 inches” of newspaper down. REALLY?????
Mike, this was a very informative article and enjoyed reading it. I have a real problem with grass between my hostus. We put down fabric and mulch last year, now the grass is coming through and just like you said it is a nightmare. Thank you so much for all your info. I am planning to order your program,just gotta find the right time.
Mike,
Really? Newspaper 8 or 9 inches thick? You must have stock in the local newspaper.
Just kidding, 8 or 9 pages is my guess.
Thanks for the article.
In the south we have a weed called briers that have roots that go to the center of the earth. you can till for ever and they still come up, through newspaper, maybe not 8-9 inches, but many pages. Herbicides are marginal, roundup will not touch it, brush begon isn’t much better.
Any suggestions? Most of the local nurserymen are not much help.
I’ve used the newspaper and mulch combo before and it works better than anything else we have tried… my husband thought I was a frugal nut for doing it but most of the expensive products will not work any better and will end up being a ton more work in the long run!
I am interested in seeing answer to Mary Hook’s question above about the newspaper dissolving each year and will newspaper keep mums from coming up?
Thanks,
My mother used the newspaper, with dirt or pulled weed clods on the corners, for her huge annual veggie gardens for decades. Just 3 layers snugged around each plant once everything was up. One preliminary weeding with hoe. It took a LOT of time, BUT once finally done, that was it for the remainder of the hot Ga. summer. By fall, all was easily plowed under. We left the stacked newspaper in the rain beforehand, to slightly dampen so as to prevent blowing away before weighting corners. No mulch over. Goodness, I would have been a really grouchy teen if we’d added time for that. She canned/froze enough that we only used the groc. for staples like flour. Older cows from their dairy sufficed for meat.
Mike, how ’bout an article on fire ants and poison ivy? If it weren’t for acres of both, I would have gone organic.
Not sure about the poison ivy, but a few teaspoons full of Amdro sprinkled around a fire ant hill will kill it in about two weeks. Our daughter had two acres in LA with at least a dozen hills in her yard before I started applying the Amdro. It took most of the summer to clear the entire yard of fire ants, but it worked great. They have a product specifically for fire ants, but I used their And Block and it worked just fine.
Pam, I don’t know about poison ivy but I do know if you sprinkle dry oatmeal near their nest, (or whatever), they will carry the oatmeal back inside and as it moistens it expands and, wala! ant hill is gone. I’ve use it for a long time and have almost no ant hills left in the yard.
put the oatmeal by the ants home.
Does oatmeal work for gorphers?
Hi Mike,
I want to send for your book just don’t have any extra money, after I buy hay for the horses and pet food and gas for my car and maybe is $5.00 left.
I love the paper in the gardner I have used for yrs. The first year when we move to the country 12yrs ago I forgot to put the black paper down for the garden and thought I could pull weeds for the summer after about a week the weeds got so tall that I gave up.
Question – what can I use to keep the weeds growing in my raspberry patch? I keep pulling them but its a losing war. 3 yrs ago I did use paper it work great. then last 2yrs i got sick and could not weed. now I am tryting win the war again. What type of much to use grass clippings or straw?
Under using newspaper to control weeds, could you apply the pre-emergent weed control solution before the application of newspaper to kill weed seeds before they sprout?
Thanks MIKE, yes its a battle
I have a great suggestion for those who do not wish to use glyphosate “non selective” herbacide.
I use a propane driven Weed Dragon that melts the protective outer layer of weeds and grass, killing them. It’s a safe, fast and inexpensive way to rid the garden of weeds without any chemicals.
I use chlorine bleach in a sprayer to kill weeds. After 24 hrs. the weeds are all dead!
Thoroughly water before seeding or planting to remove residual salts from the soil and it’s good to go. Sorry, Mike, I had a *fit* when my son sprayed Round-Up on some weeds here. I picked a particularly nasty patch of weeds where I wanted to plant sunflowers and my “test” area was weed free and ready to plant before the Round-up weeds were dead.
==Susan…what are the proportions of bleach-water? Thx in advance….
How strong was your bleach solution.
Chlorine bleach kills earthworms! Use it with extreme caution.
I would like to know the ratio for Susan’s bleach spray. Also if it kills all plants or just some.Thanks Mike I totally LOVE your website.
The best weed killer I have ever found is BURNOUT II. It works waaaay better than Roundup. It is organic also! I love it so much that I became a dealer.
Please send me your BURNOUT website. I’m
trying to keep 5 A. with a well organic
for the native plants & Shrubs and vegetable
garden.
Thank you,
Windee
I would like to add a couple of things. I see this happen next door EVERYYEAR! If useing herbicides (selective or non-selective)it is important to do it before the weeds are ready to bloom. As you explained, the herbicide takes a few days to move through the plants during that time many weeds (whose singular function is to multiply) will bloom and set seeds. Not only have you wasted the season and chemicals but also you have exposed the pollinators.
When using a nonselective in a planted bed, it can be “painted” on weeds like wild morning glory and kept away from bedding plants. Also cardboard masks can protect plants when spraying nearby.
I’m glad you made the correction a few lines later .. I was about to go out to gather all the newspaper by the curb today (its the day we put out papers for the recycle collection). I would need them all to make 8 to 9 inches of cover.
roger
Now, for you at home, you have to do the same thing. Get all of those weeds out of the beds before you do anything else. Then if you are going to mulch, put down newspaper 8 or 9 inches thick then cover it with mulch. The newspaper will blow around easily so lay the newspaper down as you mulch.
Did I really say 8 or 9 inches thick. You folks have to keep me on track.
YES MIKE. IT REALLY GOT MY ATTECION. I WONDER HOW I WAS GOING TO APPLY THAT MUCH NEWSPAPER. GOD JOB MIKE .GOD BLESS YOU.
Preen is not the best pre-emergent. It is limited in control. The chemical you need, UNDER the mulch, is Treflan 5G. Totally safe for 90% of your plants, will last for years as long as no soil is exposed through the mulch. Over the top pre-emergent, just spray it over your mature perenials and shrubs, is Surflan AS. A good 3 month controll. Mike is right, get all the weeds out of where you are going to plant, however, pulling is NOT a good way as these beasties will go like crazy from the little bitty roots that tear of. Glyphospahte, round-up, is the ONLY way to go. Roots and all are destroyed. Then plant, apply treflan, and at least 2.5 inches of good mulch. Make sure you keep the area mulched as it will “rot” off in a season and again expose the soil, thus allowing the weeds to go at it again. Soil contains millions of weed seeds just waiting for a chance to make your life a nightmare. Glyphsate, round up, and Treflan 5G, will do wonders to make the area weed free for a long time.
Is Treflan 5G a restricted use chemical and do you know if typical L&G centers carry this ?
I have grass it grows under about a foot ,the roots are like asparagas,I,ve been fighting it for years in my perienal garden,any help
Lynn, the newspaper or cardboard should work or you can paint on a non selective herbicide with a foam paint brush. Be very careful what you paint.
I read once that some have used very thick layers of straw to control the weed population. I experimented with this and it helped but as the straw breaks down it makes a lovely place for things to germinate. I also experiemented with the fibrous mexican fan palms putting just one layer down on the ground with mulch over top and I haven’t had a weed in two years. On a large side area of my home the weeds were insanely out of control so I added the fabric weed block over the palm branches and will wait to see what happens but I am expecting excellent results!
I think if you can use something organic it is better but sometimes just to get control extra measures should be taken at least at first to ensure eradication. Periodic maintenance is key for catching new weeds before they get out of control!
Like all your INFO. Help. I have Berry Bushes. What is the best product to use to get ride of them for good????
I live in Washing State.
Thanks
Ed
Ed, cut them down the spray any new growth with glysophate and just keep spraying until they quit coming back. Or cover with cardboard then a thick layer of mulch.
Once our plants emerge large enough to work around in the vegetable garden we remove the weeds and place a couple of layers of newspaper and then place straw ontop. The pathways are covered with cardboard. We rarely have to deal with a weed all summer. In our raised bed area we use chunky mulch, mostly cedar in the pathways. The beds are treated the same way as the other garden, newspaper and straw once the plants emerge. Gardening has been so much easier since we started doing this and the garden looks and produces great without the competition of weeds.
How about using cardboard? Won’t that last longer and be easier to work with than newspaper?
Yes, I forgot to mention cardboard.
I’ve used cardboard. I works great, although it is not as easy to shape to the size of a specific bed as newpaper is. The tape on old card board boxes becomes a problem as you find yourself pulling out little scrapes of tape for years to come. One of the boxes I used once hatched out cockroaches. I think the box was from Korea, and the roaches didn’t make it through our winters, but at the time I was very upset to see them running out of my cardboard.
What about nutgrass? I recently added a flower bed and used top soil to fill in. Now I’m fighting nut grass. Any suggestions for getting rid of that stuff?
Mike you are saying 8-9 “inches” thick…I think you mean 8-9 pages thick. Correct me if I’m wrong!
I’ve been using newspapers for a long time in my garden all along the edges of my plants and through the walkway between them. Works well, but I have to throw some dirt on papers to keep them down. In fall, the papers get turned into the dirt and are finally used as compost.
Sorry should have added paragraph for the correction:
Now, for you at home, you have to do the same thing. Get all of those weeds out of the beds before you do anything else. Then if you are going to mulch, put down newspaper 8 or 9 inches thick then cover it with mulch.
left over tar paper was used for between rows of my rasberry bushed. I lasted many years an I did not slip out side when it got wet. It really looked rather nice and clean around many of my other rows. It was the roofing tar paper that was 2ft. I think in width. Loved it.
Got any tips on getting rid of a groundhog that is ravaging my arugula, swiss chard and herbs and is sure to be all over my squash corn and tomatoes? Havahart trap is a mere garden decoration to him.
I use newpaper every year. I cover up garden with black plastic painting sheet, throw old carpet, board, or bricks to hold it down. After planting, immediately cover bare ground with 10-12 wet newspagers. I collected whole lot leaves every fall and use it as mulch on top of newspaper. It is a lot work to do this. But after it is done, the whole season is weeding free. Pulling out a couple of weeds here and there is not a big deal at all.
Hope this help somebody a little bit?
Forget to tell: newspaper also help reserve moisture in soil. Also newspaper and leaves dissolve very well in the soil after a long winter and wet spring.
2nd year of newspaper treatment, garden has a lot less weeds coming out.
Mike-I love reading your article. Here’s a questio9n for you ! How can I get rid of scrub oak,yopan and other obnoxious scrub brush?? I have dug with a transplanting shovel but oh my aching back. Need something easier. Thank you-Ingeid
Ingrid, even if you spray these things you’d still have to dig out the stumps and roots. Hire a big ooff of a guy and let him do all that digging for you.
Sorry for the misspelled words and name-I sometimes have fat fingers and hit wrong keys.
Thanks !!!This info was very helpful, i have these weeds that will not leave my flower beds they are green and white star shaped flowers..but they are weeds..i will do the newspaper thing !!!
I use newpaper almost exclusively on a 1/4 acre vegetable garden. My experience is – don’t spend time weeding before – put that paper on THICK (20 sheets – whole sections!)the first year, and there won’t be any plants alive under it by fall. After that, you can back off the thickness a little, but remember you are blocking the light, so don’t tread too softly. If you do the applications as you plant, it’s really not that much extra work, and, man, do you save work the rest of the year – very little hand weeding. Worms love it, btw – and that’s where I have trouble with chemicals. They have their place, (none to minimal), but anything that kills worms is best avoided. Worms = fertile soil – feed them well!
Dave and I agree on the worm-supporting methods. I live in South Florida where the hot tropical sun of the summer is devastating to organic content in the soil. I’ve pulled out nearly all my plants by now, the end of June, and heavily mulched all my beds after having given all of them a dose of kitchen/ yard compost. Many are then covered with “weed-control” cloth (with holes cut for planting whatever). I don’t use the cloth so much for weed control (I’m the weed control) as I do for a layer of mulch underneath the rest. I do not take newspapers any more so I use copious amounts of hay atop the cloth. I consequently have a good crop of earthworms and other living things in my dirt awaiting my October 1 planting. We have the former CEO of Monsanto as a member of our community. Although I am very much opposed to glyphosate, I do admit to using small amounts of Roundup Pro on our poison-ivy and poison-oak, both of which grew 70 foot tall very thick vines up to the tops of the pine trees before eradication. Don’t want those “weeds” ever again.
Hope someone can help me. On the south side of my house is a huge area on the edge of the woods that is hilly and rocky. No way to mow or till it, rocks of every shape and size and tons of weeds, all this beauty right off the rear deck. Takes over an hour for my husband to weed eat the area and due to that it only gets done 3 or 4 times each season. I am overwhelmed it is so hideously ugly!
Dalyce, if it were mine I’d spray it all with glysophate, wait 10 days and treat anything I missed again, then I’d plant Blue Rug Juniper about 24″ apart. Then apply a really good pre-emergent herbicide, then stay on top of the weeding until the blue rug filled it. It will take time for the blue rug to fill in, but it would be worth it in the end.
Mike, how can you put that much newspaper and mulch down when in the spring, with new plants coming up. How do they get thru? If I put it on my stella dora bed, come spring, how will my seasonal flowers come up?
We enjoy your website very much.
Rita, you really need to put it down during the growing season so you know what you are covering.
I also use cardboard. If you read articles on lasagna gardening, you will find cardboard is good. I planted a raised veg. garden on top of the grass by just putting down a good layer of cardboard, then soil. I use it under mulch for perennials and shrubs too. If you have boxes around, recycle them. I also use newspaper if I don’t have boxes.
Wanda, yes, I forgot to mention good old cardboard. Thank you!
Mike ~
Decided to try the paper / cardboard method of week control. Question: after “papering” and mulching the garden, can I still use a soaker hose to water? Will it get through enough to really water the plants?
Wanda, you are absolutely right. The lasagna gardening method works wonderfully & is very simple to do. I use cardboard, manure & soil in 1-2″ layers . The cardboard is a good source of carbon for the plants ( and the worm population & the worms love manure)
I tried newspapers and ended up with lots a garter snakes. Can you write an article on how to keep snakes away?? Eeew!! Thanks for all your great info, Mike. I have your books!
Donna, I don’t think the newspaper had anything to do with the snakes that I can think of.
What I like about using the newspapers in my flower and vegtable gardens is in the fall, after everything is done producing and I’m ready to tear down the fencing and retire the garden area, I just till in the newspaper. The tiller does a number on it and it becomes a great addition to the soil as a compost afterwards. In spring…I till one more time before planting and the paper that is left breaks down even further. Then plant and do it all over again. The worms love the paper.
I use empty pizza boxes in the garden paths. They’re just the right width for a path and they don’t blow away. I throw any weeds that I find in the beds right on top of them. By the next spring they’re broken down enough to turn right into the soil. It’s not the prettiest mulch but it’s cheap and extremely functional.
Mike, what is your recommendation for killing wild violets in the lawn?
Thanks Ken
Mike, my large strawberry patch got out of control with weeds while I was away. Is there any spray that will work to kill weeds around them?
I really appreciate your newsletter
Every time I mulch the racoons dig up every thing, even my plants. I think they are after the earthworms. There are too many to trap.
I have a weed that spreads by stolens and tilling would just make more plants. Glysophate only stunts the growth and it comes right back.
Hi Mike, Really enjoy your website. I have a problem with slugs, eating my Primrose leaves and lots of other plants, I haven’t seen them only the destruction they leave behind, how can I get rid of them? Thank you.
Absolutely no chemicals in my yard. If you put the preen down then you can’t grow any grass type plants or anything else from seed. No mulch, rock or weed fabric in my yard either. I can’t get in there with the trowel and weed if that stuff is in the way. The best way to keep weeds down is get in there right away and get the root out, get em when they are small and don’t let anything go to seed.
You can also use vinegar and boiling water to kill weeds.
I have thousands of daffodils planted by my grandmother beginning before 1910. The weeds LOVE coming up in these beds before the daffodil tops/leaves turn brown. This year I hand weeded (yet again) and once the daffodil tops were brown, I covered the beds in several layers of wet newspaper, topped with 2 inches of shredded hardwood mulch, and then sprinkled Preen. I’ve had almost no weeds for the past 3 months and those that sprouted were easily pulled. The newspaper will have decomposed enough by next spring to allow the bulbs to sprout. I’m surrounded by pastures, so I’ll always have every weed known to mankind, but I don’t think I’ll have the overwhelming problem I’ve had in the past. Each year I plan to add a little more damp newspaper, and a new layer of mulch. I have sandy soil, so the mulch pretty much disappears after a year.
I love newspaper and use it a lot!
I had a driveway on a slope that an area was washing out from under it. I stacked wet newspaper and covered the newspapers with sod.Yhirty years later later grass still growing and no washout under driveway.
Mike, I have found a great and effective way to prevent weeds between plants.
I had an above ground pool that leaked and instead of throwing it away I laid it flat, cut the sides off and popped lines on the bottom paice as wide as my rows and laid these down between the rows.
WEEDS WILL NOT GROW UNDER OR THROUGH IT.
a LOT OF OLD POOL LINERS ARE THROWN AWAY IN LANDFILLS WHERE THEY HAVE A ROUGH TIME RECYCLING OR GETTING RID OF THEM. aLSO THEY HAVE PLANT POTS ETC. ALL PLASTIC AND LOVE TO HAVE YOU COME AND TAKE THEM AWAY FOR FREE!!!
Sorry for the typos and caps
I pull out the weeds in the beds, but used to
put weedguard on my pathways, but for a long
time know spray with vinegar mix with salt.
It kills the weeds and ants on my pathways.
I live in Fla. and have been using newspaper mulch for some time. It seems to work great, much better than the weed block stuff that I will be digging out until I’m too old to dig! I’ve never used any type of weed killer, but will try the pre-emergent the next time. Love all the good information and humor, thanks. :=)
Good article.
What I really need to know is how to get rid of wild strawberry from the area of my creeping floxx.
Doing it by hand is tedious and destructive to the creeping floxx.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
how do I upload a photo,for u to see..
How do you get rid of or reduce the amount of locust in a garden?
Good job Mike!
I plant about 40 Rutgers tomato plants each year along with other veggies. I have tried several things over the years and I agree; newspapers with mulch on top are the most ideal though I only use 3-4 sheets min. It is initially very time consuming but it pays off in spades in the long run. HINT – To get a decent paper “overlap”: Plant your veggies or flower plants as usual. Tear a 5- 6 inch “slot” in the center of newspaper bundle, short end. Slip the slot around the plant stem & slid the newspaper until the other end butts up against the adjacent plant stem. Then do the same from the other side of the plant. This is also an easy way to accommodate distances between plants for a full covering. For plant spacing less than about 18″ – 24″ you can tear the “slot” in the center of both short ends for two plants at a time.
I use straw to mulch but a warning: Be careful where you get your straw bails! Try to procure clean straw bails as they can be full of weed seeds! Having said that; Straw is the easiest mulch to apply, it is plentiful, easy to till in at summer’s end & reasonably priced. The worms & other “critters” not only love the newspaper & they also love the decaying straw.
I wonder if there is an inexpensive source of rolled newspaper or brown wrapping paper such as from a city newspaper printer. I.e. procure rolls that are too small to run on the printing machines for another addition maybe??? Roll out a couple of layers over each row BEFORE you plant, cut holes, plant & mulch. Just a thought…
WARNING: For the person that wets the stack of newspapers: If you have leftover stacks of wet newspapers DO NOT leave them bundled tight or under pressure! Believe it or not; the combination of pressure & (initially) wet newspaper can actually cause spontaneous combustion as they dry: FIRE! Talk to your local fire department for safety info.
You can buy end rolls from your local newspaper. These are left overs from a printing.
Hi Mike,
After years of pulling, digging, spraying and cursing, I have found that the best solution for controlling weeds is to plant ground cover! There are many different types for many different looks. That way there is no room for the weeds. I also use white vinegar in a spray bottle on a sunny day for lawn weeds.
Thanks for all of your garden talk!
This spring I tried to use newspaper in my veggie garden. The plants were about 3 inches high when I finally got two of the tweleve rows done. Then the cows got loose and got in the garden. They bit the tops off the corn and ate up all the beans and peas. The worst part was all the holes their hooves put in my newspaper! Newspaper is great for weed control but is not cow proof! HaHaHa
Living in a rural area, being an exfarmer, I for many years used corn and soybean bags in place of newspapers or cardboard.
We are now in a drought. I have been using my rainbird sprinklers to irrigate my rose garden and vegetable garden. Some people claim watering your garden does not work! The trick is to let the sprinkler run 6 to 8 hours! You cannot just go out and walk around with a garden hose for a few minutes!
My green garden and colorful rose garden really stand out in the sea of yellow/brown grass. I think if Mike did a rain dance, the drought would be over…….
For new beds, I’ve had good success with “lumber wrap”. It’s a plastic that most home centers will give away. Put it down and put some rocks on it to hold it in place. A few weeks of very hot weather will usually kill the starting weeds, but also the seeds.
Another quick thought is to use a ground cover that grows well in your region. In western PA I use Sweet Woodruff in shady areas as it gets very thick and keeps most everything out of my perenial garderns. I continue to experiment with other ground covers as I hate to spend my hard earned on mulch that is going to rot in a year or two.
Ground cover plants are a good alternative to mulch. They come back every year and look great around the perenials. I use Sweet Woodruff for shady areas here in Western PA with good results
I have an 3 (large)established perennial garden. The problem I am having is with “Wood Violets.” They are taking over the garden and choking out all the other plants. I can’t successfully pull them because if one piece of the root is left then the plant continues to grow. Another problem with them is that they are like a giant vine that grows underground, periodically sprouting up, everywhere. IF I break part of the vine, it branches and creates multiple plants from the break off area. I am to the point,of taking out all of my perennials, and using a chemical herbicide to kill anything that is left, but then I don’t know what to do after the violets are dead. I can’t put anything in the area for at least a year, that hundreds of dead, albeit beautiful perennials.
Dig out your perennials the dig the weeds out up. Pour boiling water on whatever weeds and roots you can’t get out. Leave it a day, make sure no weeds are still green. If so boiling water them again. Rake out the dead weeds and roots then plant your perennials back in using newspaper as Mike said. I then like to top it with 2 inches of shredded cedar.
I hope that helps!
Anyone want more tips on using old pool liners?
Can I use the pool liner to kill “grass” in order to put in a rock garden. We live in texas , no water for yards.
I have been using the newspaper trick for several years now. I put down three layers only because it takes a lot of newspaper to cover the garden. I then put mushroom compost on top of it. I hate to weed and all you have to do is till it back into the ground. For years before that I just used regular tarps. I bought cheap tarps and used them for two to three years and then buy more. It is also less time consuming than the newspaper and mulch method but then the mulch and paper make the soil much nicer after a few years
I’ve done the newspaper weed control and it works! A dear friend’s mother told me the secret of a weed free garden. Every day, pull a weed for every year you’ve been alive. It really works.
Mike, I had some blueberry bushes.The rows are 8ft apart,so I made a cardboard circle to put around them and sprayed the walk areas with round-up..well it worked great but there was a leaching affect.guess some root was entwined with the weed roots.It hurt them but they only lost a few outside leaves…also I contacted a lady.stay at home Mom.She has been doing your backyard gardening program for a couple years now.She says she has been having great success.Wife and I are driving up to visit her after the 4th.. Mike there are soooo many scams out here.It is really refreshing to meet a strait shooter like you..Oh and I forgive you for the 9 inches of newspaper.
How do you control thistle & timothy grass? We feel like we are fighting a losing battle! We have used PREEN and Roundup and have dug them up and still they have come back and multiplied. Help!
Thank you for the weeding info ! I have a huge problem under an evergreen. Now, that I have prevented the weeds from growing that are under the tree, they have spread out and are growing around the tree !
In stead of using mulch could I still use newspaper while using white rock in my flower beds.
Thanks
kathy
Kathy, sure you can put stone over the newspaper, but eventually the newspaper will decompose allowing the stone to mix with the soil. When using stone it’s better to use a weed barrier fabric, even though I really, really dislike the stuff.
We live in Florida and had used a mesh weed mat and then rubber mulch. To say we have been disappointed would be an understatement. My question is do we pull the weed mat and rubber mulch prior to putting down newspaper ?
Thank you
David,
I’d pull as much of the weed mat as you can. The rubber mulch? If you can pick up any amount of it I would just so you don’t keep seeing it for years to come.
if we currently have the black weed barrier fabric down, with white landscape rocks on top, is there a product we can use to control the weeds that will permeate the black fabric (the granuals in Preen seem to be too large to get to the soil beneath the black fabric). Your advice is appreciated.
Tracie,
Preen only works to control weed seeds, keep them from germinating. For that purpose the Preen should work fine just sprinkled over the stone. As far as weeds that are already there you can use Roundup to take care of those, then apply the Preen. Roundup is applied to the top of the weed not the roots. That’s how it works and that’s how it works best.
Hi! I am a renter in NYC and have access to the back yard BUT the landlord never did anything (grass/patio blocks etc) in the back so its just dirt and TONS of weeds. Any suggestions for a budget friendly fix, so I can finally enjoy the back yard? (Asking the landlord for anything is out of the question)
Thank you!
Kelly, the most budget conscious thing you can do with that backyard is cut down the weeds and start working the soil. If you had a small rototiller that would be great, just till, let it sit for a few days and till again. Before long you’d have the best soil in NYC and you could plant grass or whatever you wanted.
Mike: Would you let Mary Theriot know that I replied to her message here about the plants and would appreciate hearing back from her.
Thanks, Natalie
I have dandelions in the rocks surrounding and under fir bushes. Can I spray them if I spray only right where the come through the rocks? How can I spray but be sure not to hurt the bush roots?
Nora,
When you spray, just apply enough product to wet the foliage. If you apply it to the point that it runs off you’re applying too much.
Hi Mike, I have just mistakenly scattered weed and feed under ALL my flowers and shrubs. I immediately hosed them down and tried to wash the stuff away and then applied the product I meant to scatter in the first place. What else can else I do? I am frantic.
Thank you.
Jean,
I’m not really sure what to offer. Weed and feed sees most plants as broadleaf and that’s not a good thing. About all you can do is hope for the best.
see weed and feed disaster above.
Would be nice if this article had any picture so it can be pinned
It is a great article and definitely worth sharing!!!
Hi Mike! I have a puppy and a bare (dirt) back yard. I’ve raked and raked and raked and, of course, there are foxtail seeds everywhere, which won’t be pretty in the spring. What can i do to ensure those seeds don’t flower with a puppy in the back yard? I do have a kennel that i can lock him up in so he doesn’t have access to the yard; but, when i’m home, this won’t work. i can’t picture laying mulch down since i can forsee that will be all over my house. Help!!!
p.s. I considered getting artificial turf but at an $8,000 price tag, where i have more time than money, i’m trying to figure out another way. Thanks Mike!
Tanya,
the answer is a nice thick lawn that will not allow much anything but the grass to grow.