How can I Landscape a hillside and get rid of all the weeds?

Question

My backyard is a sloping hill with weeds. I have put down black plastic tarp and covered it with mulch and planted plants, but the darn weeds still grew thru the plastic. I took up tarp and put more mulch, LOTS of mulch hoping to kill the weeds, and sprayed with weed killer, STILL have weeds. I'm at a loss as to how to grow plants and flowers without getting alll the weeds. I NEED HELP! Thanks to anyone who can advise me.

Answer 1

Go out and buy Preen....now. It is a pre-emergent weed killer. It gets the weeds before they start coming up. You will have to reapply it every two to three months. I have used it for years and it is unbelievable. Here is a link to more information:
http://www.preen.com/newpreen/prdpreen/app.jsp

In addition, you should select plants to eventually cover the slope for erosion control. You can either choose shrubs or perennials. Take into consideration their mature width. For example, if you are planting a group of shrub roses that will be 3' wide, you will want to plant them 3' apart on center, so that ultimately your slope will be completely covered.

To supplement these plants, you can add a fast growing groundcover. Create a nice mix of shrubs, perennials and groundcover. Select plants based on your sun and shade conditions. Check your zone and compatible plants. Select deer resistant plants if you have a deer problem.

Apply a minimum of 3" of mulch for additional weed control and moisture retention. Good luck!
Susan

Answer 2

It sounds like you have already decided to not put in grass (if you put down a lot of mulch), so if you want to grow plants and flowers then you are going to have to do at least some weeding. If you do it a few times a week, it wont be that bad (provided you don't have a huge lawn) because you will get everything while it is small and easy to pull, and before it has time to spread. If there was a sure way to grow flowers and vegetables and to not have any weeds, then it would be advertised like crazy and everyone would do it.

Answer 3

Try terracing it off, dig up the existing weeds and plant things that are quick spreading and choke out the weeds, like periwinkle or other ground covers. Once you get rid of the existing weeds you should be able to mulch with success. I have had luck with laying down newspaper then covering it with wood chips from a tree service. I have also used old carpeting on top of the ground then covered it with mulch. Good Luck!

Answer 4

I had the same problem and I found out that when it would rain the water was spreading the seeds into the mulch. I had to build a barrier at the top of the slope to divert the water to the side to keep it from from running down the slope and spreading new weed seeds. Also they have a mulch from shreeded tires I am going to try this year. Also remember mulch will contain some seeds just from the way it is handled

Answer 5

Could be dust has blown onto the rocks, settled and now provides a nice bed for grass and weeds to ground on top of the weed barrier mat below. Or the mat has failed, wasn't properly installed, etc. If you are seeing mesh, they were skimpy with the stone.......it should have been at least 2 inches thick, better three. Short of ripping it up and starting over, plan a regular campaign with Roundup or other similar material. It's one of the problems with rock landscapes.

Answer 6

As john L said use a Glyphosphate based weed killer, that truly will kill anything so don't allow it to come in contact with anything you want to keep and I mean anything including trees! If you have weeds in a garden with plants you can use a paint brush to coat the weeds to avoid contact with other plants. Unfortunately if your in a windy area it's almost impossible to stop weeds as the wind blows the seed onto them, (my main problem here)! Never ever use plastic as a ground cover under mulch it doesn't allow the soil to breath and causes the soil to go sour minimising plant growth. Best things to use is proper weed mat, newspaper,carpet or even cardboard. I've used all these things with good success.

Answer 7

The best thing with a hill is usually to terrace it and probably use a mixture of methods, really hard wearing thick weed suppressent fabric, weed killer (if your confident to use it) and once the worst is killed off, plant low laying ground cover plants which spread reasonably quickly and stop weed growth, sometimes for really hardy weeds this process has to be repeated a few times.

Answer 8

I don't know what weed killer you are using but try round up it works well for me as far as mulch you will have to go 4" deep to 6" deep and work it time to time with a wrake this time of year every thing will germinate so you will need to spray more often.I planted elephent ears this is a good plant to cover a nice area plus when it hits it's highest points it will block out the suns raise don't forget when mulch drys up and crubles it is like top soil and things will grow in it.with out getting in trouble use a desil fuel that kills every thing you got to kill the root base to get rid of all them weeds then cover it with your plastic

Answer 9

Pick a calm day and spray with a weed killer that contains Glysophate, this will kill all weeds that are showing green foliage but it will not harm the soil, the weeds will die in about 3 to 5 days, any that are persistent give them one more spray, this weed killer will only work on weeds that are showing green and kills them down to the roots, after the weeds die you can plant in the same soil, but be careful to avoid any drift of the spray going on to other plants as they will suffer, so pick a calm day. I have used this method and it does work, as you have used weed killer in the past without success I can only assume that you are using the wrong weed killer.

Answer 10

Well: according to "Scott's Garden Supply they Suggest that
you can get rid unwanted weeds by using Turf Builder an
great way but flowers needs alot of Plant Food "
yes & known because I am a Professional Lawn &Garden
Care Specialist for 2yrs "!