Landscaping question

[nitanee123]

I purchased an existing house a few years ago. The beds are all rocks but there are so many weeds growing around that I have decided to keep as many shrubs as I can but rip out everything and lay mulch. I started taking up the old fabric underneath and it has to be 20+ years old with the roots of shrubs and weeds. I told a friend of mine that it would take me 100+ trips with my wheelbarrow to haul everything to my woods. He suggested I merely lay spray Preen or other weed killer and then lay down new fabric with mulch over top of the existing rock and fabric.

Does this seem like a good plan? Any other suggestions?

 

[sluggo72]

I purchased an existing house a few years ago. The beds are all rocks but there are so many weeds growing around that I have decided to keep as many shrubs as I can but rip out everything and lay mulch. I started taking up the old fabric underneath and it has to be 20+ years old with the roots of shrubs and weeds. I told a friend of mine that it would take me 100+ trips with my wheelbarrow to haul everything to my woods. He suggested I merely lay spray Preen or other weed killer and then lay down new fabric with mulch over top of the existing rock and fabric.

Does this seem like a good plan? Any other suggestions?

it does to me!!

 

[alexpsu7]

Relatively small area, it is probably the easiest way to go. Large area, that's a lot of poison going into your dirt and it isn't always thoroughly effective either. (But your are dealing with rocks too so that make it tough.)

A few years back I had a landscaping company tell me they were going to dig up and till a large grass section of my back yard, plant some agreed upon shrubbery and plants and then mulch to give me a nice finished look to the back entry of my house. It looked nice when they were done but within a week I saw weeds and grass popping through the mulch. When I dug up some mulch, I saw that they just left the grass and mulched over it. They said they sprayed the whole area with round-up or something like that. I was really ticked off. They told me earlier that that's what some companies do for small patches and areas but they would never go that route especially over a large section. Apparently they wanted to save some labor and thought they could get away with it with the mulch covering it up. (And they would've gotten away with it to if it wasn't for those meddling weeds.)

 

[Talpsu]

First off it really depends on what your future plan is. If you do not remove the rocks now they will definitely come back to bite you at some point in the future. Laying fabric over them may work but if you ever need to plant anything again you are going to have issues. My suggestion on this part is to rent a small bobcat type loader to make it easier and just back blade it, scoop, and haul to you woods. If you are not capable of using a skid steer like that then rent a cement buggy. its basically a motorized wheel barrel. You will still have to dig the stuff out but it will make the hauling super fast.

Problem two is the weeds. Mow them down with a weedeater then round up them. You will have to round up them probably more than once though. Once beds are finally clean and you have added your mulch that is when you will use the Preem. Make sure you read the label because some need to be put down before the mulch. I suggest getting one that can be put on top of mulch.

Weeds are a pain but can be controlled without the fabric. Your beds have an existing "seed bank" in them. You need to deplete that seed bank. By killing existing and preventing with a pre-emergant you will eventually get there but it takes time. Pre-emergant is the most important factor imo

 

[nitanee123]

Thanks for the replies guys. I just stopped in to see an amish guy about helping me out but I think the bobcat may be the way to go.

 

[PAgeologist]

Get the heavy duty fabric. I went with construction grade geotextile (the felt like fabric). Also, you have to watch mulch near a house. It attracts insects more than rocks will. Also as the mulch breaks down it will be a place for weeds to root and grow.

We had mulch beds when we bought our house. They had ants and other insects all through them. I tore out the beds and rebuilt with river stone. Not nearly the insects as before.

 

[PS4814]

I'd also like to add in that with mulch next to the house you have to look out for artillery fungus. When we lived in our townhouse the previous owners had a row of shrubs and mulch next to the house. We started seeing black dots on the siding and upon further investigation, and with the help of professionals, determined it was artillery fungus. The fungus can often times be transported to your house via mulch.

The damned things shot up to the 2nd story level and you can't clean the black dots off without great effort. Power washing doesn't work. Basically involved going at it with a sharp knife and magic eraser. We decided to go with rubber mulch on top of weed barrier fabric after we had pulled the shrubs and removed the natural mulch.

I strongly recommend to not do mulch against your house for fear of going through what I did.

"Penn State Plant Pathology department has tested 27 different kinds of mulch and found that with enough time all of the mulches were supporting the evil spore-shooting mushroom. The only way to ensure that artillery fungus never comes back is to take out the mulch completely and replace it with stone, artificial mulch or ground-cover plants. However, if you dislike stone and still want to replace the fungus infested mulch with organic mulch, the best way to keep the shotgun fungus away is to use a course ground of wood chips ( our playground chips would do ). The larger pieces of wood will stay mostly dry and the artillery fungus won’t like it as much as moist, finely ground mulch. Generally, the key to preventing the artillery spores from ever sprouting is refreshing your mulch regularly."

http://rayhaluchinc.com/getting-rid-of-artillery-fungus/