Comments on: How to defoliate a vacant lot?

Question: How to defoliate a vacant lot?

aleahey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:38:27 -0800

Short of agent orange, what are my defoliating options? I have a large open lot (45 x 100) in a major city. I need to spray something, lay something, chant something or light something that will insure that I do not have a repeat of last years 7' high weed-forest.

A lot of bamboo grass, it seems, and just general weedy nasties.

Area is too rocky to mow, so my only mechanical option is weedwhacking, would much rather prevent the problem before it starts. Any tips?

By: carefulmonkey

carefulmonkey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:29:34 -0800

You could salt the earth but that might be too drastic.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:33:21 -0800

Plant something that stays low and can crowd out the weeds.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:36:33 -0800

Goats? We have friends here in the Bay Area that hired a heard to come and eat a huge lot that was hilly and had a lot of poison oak. Apparently, goats can't get enough of the stuff.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:37:10 -0800

You could rent goats.

By: amfea

amfea — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:43:19 -0800

Farmers use herbicides like Roundup to control weeds, so you could probably find some in quantity at any farm supply company. If the label is to be believed, Roundup is pretty safe stuff.

By: iamabot

iamabot — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:56:35 -0800

Sheet mulch.

Soak ground, lay down cardboard (unwaxed), soak cardboard, lay down mulch, soak mulch.

Weeds be gone.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:57:37 -0800

When we moved into our old house, the back yard was full of neck-high weeds, rocks, and various chunks of metal and glass. We hacked the weeds down, raked the shit out of it and rented a rototiller. A few months later we had a velvety green carpet of grass.

Instead of grass, you could also look for a hardy groundcover that wouldn't require a lot of maintenance and wouldn't grow to extreme heights, nor be crowded out by sneaky weeds, if you're not looking to create a lawn.

By: Rabarberofficer

Rabarberofficer — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:59:45 -0800

Another non-herbicide-solution could be to cover the ground with special ground-covers (dark, wowen plastic) to cut of sunlight for the weeds. It might not look very nice, but it is effective and quite maintanence-free once you got the plastics down.

If you need aestetics - make an container garden a-top of the plastics.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:58:47 -0800

Plant something that stays low and can crowd out the weeds.
If you are going to go this route, might I suggest kudzu.

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:11:23 -0800

Black plastic is very effective at killing anything under it. It works best when it's in direct sunlight; the combination of the heat and lack of sunlight is deadly to anything photosynthetic underneath. If you do that for a while (say, a few weeks), the area will effectively be sterilized of weeds. You can then roll the plastic up, and go through and plant something that will take over and displace them. I'm fond of Pachysandra as a groundcover, but it takes a few seasons to really take hold.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:37:31 -0800

They sell roundup at any big box hardware store. Just go to Home Despot. If you buy the concentrated stuff it goes a fairly long way for a small bottle.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:19:26 -0800

If you really want to defoliate this lot, Roundup isn't the right substance. Use Triox. But don't put Triox anywhere that you think you might ever want to grow a plant. The guarantee is for one year, but in my experience the earth is still salted 10 years after application, and nothing will grow in it.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:58:10 -0800

Kadin and iamabot have it. You can get rolls of the stuff (about 8 feet wide) at Home Depot or Lowes. Put sand bags on top to keep it from blowing around. Looks like hell, but only has to be there for a week or two.

I don't know how it would cost vs. "Triox"

By: tomble

tomble — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:19:49 -0800

I would say that any of the glyphosate weedkillers would suit, they break down pretty fast once they're in the soil, and if you spray anything green in the area it should stay pretty dead.

However, I agree with the idea of covering up instead if you're willing to do that, it's quick and it's easily reversible.

By: buttercup

buttercup — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:12:27 -0800

"general bamboo grass" combined with a rocky disturbed lot might mean Japanese Knotweed which has bamboo like stems but really is not a grass at all. This stuff is extremely difficult to kill with herbicides.

Current research on its control indicates a combination of repeated cutting and properly timed herbicide application is the best way to kill it. It will take you five to ten years of repeated cutting to get rid of it otherwise.

By: buttercup

buttercup — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:14:50 -0800

Also, if its is knotweed it will break through a layer of plastic and has been noted to be able to stay dormant for quite a while under plastic.

By: Capri

Capri — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:15:34 -0800

Roundup is rumored to be safe. But when I was in grad school in biology at Cal, I read a bunch of studies showing that it causes all sorts of weird mutations in mammals that come in contact with it, or eat plants that have been sprayed with it. I can't find the citations right now, but I remember being horrified: bunnies with deformed eyes, things like that. It wasn't pretty.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:35:59 -0800

Preen or Corn gluten spread on the ground will prevent most seeds from germinating. Existing plants like some grasses and rhizomes and bulbs will still sprout.

By: Lanark

Lanark — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:15:52 -0800

It's in a city, why not turn it into allotments?

By: ZaneJ.

ZaneJ. — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:11:26 -0800

Denmark outlawed glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup after discovering the active chemical building up in their precariously small water table. I would not consider any wide spectrum chemical a solution to a problem, especially since just about anything can be released into the public without it having to be proved absolutely safe.