Hello, I long ago abandoned my front flower bed. All of these plants were planted before I bought the house, and once the weeds got into the damn drift roses, it was all over with.
So I want to start over, completely. Go scorched earth, so to speak. I just have some questions over the best way to approach the weeds removal.
Such as: would you just try and rip as much out by hand or weed eat it down and remove the waste plant material?
No matter what I have a lot of card board saved up that I plan to cover the area with. But being that it's the winter right now, would placing card board over the flower bed even 'starve out' the weeds?
In times past when I've placed cardboard down before planting, I always waited a few months and it was always coincidentally the summer too.
I just want to make sure I have a good plan in place so I can try and knock it out as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Thank you!
by ActinoninOut
7 Comments
I personally would pull and dig as much as I could, let it sit a short time to see if anything resprouts from the shrubs, and then plant it up as densely as possible to prevent weed issues in the future. Nature is always going to fill a vacuum, and if you plant densely there is less vacuum to fill, so to speak.
There is going to be a significant seed bank under there and weeds will continually return. I recommend solarizing when it’s warmer. Repeated herbicides are also an effective option.
I would chop it all down, leave everything there (as in don’t rake it) and cover with cardboard.
As it warms up, it’ll smother the seedlings and allow the biomass of the dead stuff to begin to decompose. Then you’ll have some great soil by March
if you want to go scorched earth and start over completely, dig up as much of what’s there as you can, and either throw it out or, if the weeds haven’t gone to seed, consider composting. Mow it so everything is low and even (not required but might make things easier). Cover the entire surface with overlapping cardboard, so that no sun can get through any cracks between pieces cardboard and let the weeds grow back again. Hose down the cardboard, then cover it all with 6 inches (15cm if you’re not in the US) of compost and/or top soil. You can plant right away into that; no need to wait at all. Mulch with wood chips to avoid new weeds starting (you WILL get weeds, but mulch makes the easier to pull — but you do have to stay on top of it a bit)
I’m not in the right zone to know what to suggest as native plants or perennials that will work where you are, but other redditors will surely have suggestions.
Good luck!
I would first identify what plants you have and determine if any are worth saving or pruning back. Then I’d start pulling as much as I could and scraping up the top layer of soil with a rake until is mostly barren soil.
If you’re able to compost the plant material (excluding any invasive plants or seeds you may have) I would do that or else take it to a compost drop off or if anything just else burn it.
After that, layer of cardboard or thin non bleached paper to suppress weeds and then layer of wood mulch on top. Look for mulch and not chips as mulch has already started the process of decomposing and will be more beneficial to the soil quicker. Give it a few weeks or months to make sure you’ve killed off any unwanted plants and then replace with whatever natives you want! Keep up on weed removal, especially before anything goes to seed. Occasionally add thin layers of mulch to suppress weeds for the first year or two until your new natives are established! Have fun!
I had a wildflower bed get overgrown with 10ft tall weeds and was able to restore that within the span of several months. I started off by cutting the weeds as close to the ground as possible. If any had gone to seed/flower, I removed those clippings. Otherwise I left it. I covered with wet cardboard and then like 2ft of wood chips I got for free from an arborist. The wood chips pile shrunk down by like 75% from August-now. The wet cardboard should help germinate the hidden weed seeds, which should then be killed by lack of light. When weeds try to grow on top of the pile, pull them before they spread. If I were you, I would start the process at the end of spring before the weeds start germinating again. That way your cardboard doesn’t decompose too early. But if you really have a ton of cardboard, you can just layer it on and start whenever. Be careful with your weed eater, since some of those weeds look like they are wood. Speaking from experience, when the weed eater/line trimmer hits wood and breaks off and hits your legs, it hurts.
People suggesting cardboard are underestimating these weeds. If you do cardboard, you’ll need so many more layers than you think. It might be good to try straw bale gardening for a year (bales on top of cardboard in this case)
Then in the fall, loosen the bales and enjoy your mulch.
I asked one year about using cotton sheets to suppress weeds instead of cardboard, which failed me numerous times. Haven’t tried it yet but if I did, I’d either do straw bales on top, or mulch with woodchips on top and then cut through the sheet and plant natives in the fall.