Weeds, weeds, go away, don't come again another day

May 19, 2021 9:14 AM

I do not like to weed, I do not have time to weed. Even if I had time to weed, I would rather cook or do a 1000 other things from my chore or fun list. I could hire someone but there doesn't even seem to be anyone to hire right now plus I keep getting poison ivy and ticks from my yard. I do not prefer to use chemicals. There has to be some battery or electric tool?

Upon a quick search, I found long garden tools that heat up to kill weeds and long small rototillers that look like a weedeater. I imagine these would be faster and effective than what I'm doing now. Any recommendations for some kind of automatic tool?

Any other general garden recommendations, tips or tricks would also be great. We have some old, run-down foundation plantings, deer who eat everything, some large overgrown pines and an old huge arborvitae, dandelions,

I image this question as if someone said I hand scrub my deck every year with a scrub brush and surely there is another way and someone introduces them to Power Washer, ta-da!

posted by RoadScholar to Home & Garden (16 answers total)

It's a bit of work, but layering newspaper, wetting it thoroughly and covering it with mulch, straw, grass clippings...will keep the weeds from coming up. Thick overlapping layers, you need to prevent any light getting through. Rain will penetrate and the newspaper will slowly degrade. I use straw as a cover. Make sure to either soak the papers or hose them completely or you will be dealing with them blowing all over the place.
posted by LaBellaStella at 9:38 AM on May 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

You can put down black plastic sheeting, and poke holes for plants to come through. I recommend some kind that allows drainage, or plan for what to do when you need drainage.
posted by bbqturtle at 9:44 AM on May 19, 2021

It's ugly, but you can first mow down the area as much as possible, then get an old carpet or rubber mat and lay it over the area. After a few weeks you can lift the carpet/mat and yank out or rake just the few pale stragglers.
posted by mezzanayne at 10:07 AM on May 19, 2021

The main trick here is have as little lawn as you can get away with. If you grow perennial shrubs, you can mulch them in the spring which will suppress weeds pretty well.

If you want somewhere to sit, you can seed clover instead of grass, it starts very early in the spring and outcompetes pretty much everything by the second or third season. You can grow it as a monoculture for a few years but it will be much more disease resistant if you intersperse some other things, like self-seeding wildflowers. (Note that this assumes you're somewhere reasonably wet and cold, probably wouldn't work in the Southwest!) The other advantage is that without a monoculture lawn, the weeds you do get won't stick out as much and you might be able to live with many of them.
posted by goingonit at 10:24 AM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

A pretty effective weed-killer is concentrated vinegar (normal white vinegar is 5% strength; you can get stuff at the hardware store that's up tp 30%). Spray or drip it on weeds on a sunny day; wait a week or so; rake 'em up. Fairly low maintenance.

Totally nontoxic, obviously.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:41 AM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Where are the weeds? Are they in between patio bricks? Along the edge of something? In between plants in a garden that you would like to keep?
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:45 AM on May 19, 2021

Response by poster: The weeds are mostly random in planting beds that also contain stuff that I would like to keep.

(High strength vinegar!!)
posted by RoadScholar at 11:13 AM on May 19, 2021

Do you mulch your beds in spring? That is the easiest and most cost-effective solution - it suppresses most weeds and makes new ones stand out for easy plucking as you walk by.
posted by Think_Long at 11:27 AM on May 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

Oh, if you like the vinegar solution, boiling water might be good. This is also a poison ivy solution. You don't have to get anything caustic! You just have to be able to carry a kettle from your kitchen out to the yard and direct boiling water only onto the weeds you want to kill. You could even, if you have a metal watering can with a long spout that you could safely fill with boiling water, get more precise than the kettle.
posted by limeonaire at 12:07 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

This sounds like an excellent afterschool job for a neighborhood teen, provided they are forewarned about the poison ivy and wear appropriate protective gear that will be immediately washed at home separately from family laundry.
posted by ananci at 12:17 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I believe some people kill weeds with purpose-built propane torches. I have never tried it, and don't know if it would be targeted enough to spare your other plants.

Once you've got an area clear, though, sheet mulch is probably your friend. Lots of mulch. Newspapers, telephone books, old carpet (non-synthetic, of course), cardboard - cut and layer it to fit around the plants you want to keep, then cover it with something more attractive like wood chips. For wood chips, see https://getchipdrop.com or contact your local arborists directly. They are often willing to drop off chips for free in urban areas. You may want to specify things like "no chips from diseased trees" and whether you want rot-resistant woods (they last longer) or non-rot-resistant woods (they break down and improve your soil faster) and whether you're ok getting a few stumps or logs in the mix.

Sheet mulching is a lot of work up-front (maybe hire that neighborhood teen ananci mentioned?) but it'll help keep the weeds down going forward without adding chemicals or plastic to your soil.
posted by sibilatorix at 12:43 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

We burn weeds with a propane torch. But please note that we live in the Southwest USA and have a gravelscape. The news paper method referenced above has the benefit of actually feeding and improving soil as it decomposes. Black plastic is a horror as it starts to age and decay. The people before us used it and now, 5 years later, I am cursing them every time I bend down to clean up scraps of decomposing plastic blowing around the yard.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 1:33 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mulching is the right answer, but I don't personally use wood mulch for reasons. Instead, I use compost (I get a deal on it from a local composting place) to mulch. It smothers weeds as well as any other mulch, and has the benefit of adding good stuff to the soil. This article talks about mulching with compost. Make sure you get good compost that doesn't have any weird stuff going on with it. You want to mulch around the plants you want to keep, but avoid touching the stems or leaves with the compost as it is 'hot' and can damage them if it touches them directly. Ever since I switched to compost for mulch my plants have been very happy!
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 1:40 PM on May 19, 2021

Highly recommend mulching over weeding forever! Water-permeable mulch is good, otherwise you have to manage watering under it where your plants' root systems are spreading.

Just spitballing, but I would wonder if concentrated acetic acid might not be great for your soil fungi and bacteria in the planting bed.
posted by away for regrooving at 1:41 PM on May 19, 2021

Mulch heavily. Don't add stuff like vinegar or boiling water to your garden beds, you kill the soil ecosystem, which contributes massively to keeping weeds in-check.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:54 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Your local county extension office (or garden center) can advise you on ground cover plants that would be suitable for your yard.

Goats will eat poison ivy leaves. Goats can be rented for such task.
posted by oceano at 5:03 PM on May 19, 2021