Killing weeds in desert landscaping

Gaddabout · March 28th, 2008, 01:51 PM

My front yard looks like a desert wild weed display and my backyard is growing weed trees. I've used weed killer in the front with little success. Just turned a portion brown. I'm afraid to use it in the backyard because I have dogs.

I recall salt killing just about anything. I was thinking about getting a couple bags of rock salt, mixing in some water with a cap of chlorine, and pouring around my front yard. Does anything this is a bad idea? Doesn't it seem like a more eco-friendly solution?

Please advise.

Gee! · March 28th, 2008, 01:55 PM

Weeds in the grass or rocks?

abomb · March 28th, 2008, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaddabout

My front yard looks like a desert wild weed display and my backyard is growing weed trees. I've used weed killer in the front with little success. Just turned a portion brown. I'm afraid to use it in the backyard because I have dogs.

I recall salt killing just about anything. I was thinking about getting a couple bags of rock salt, mixing in some water with a cap of chlorine, and pouring around my front yard. Does anything this is a bad idea? Doesn't it seem like a more eco-friendly solution?

Please advise.

The eco-friendly solution is mixing 1 gal vinegar, 1 c of table salt and a tablespoon of dishsoap in a weed/bug sprayer. Saturate the weed leaves if there are any. It works and is natural.

Heucrazy · March 28th, 2008, 02:03 PM

Salt will kill your weeds.

And make it so that nothing at all will grow there for years. So bad idea.

bankybruce · March 28th, 2008, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heucrazy

Salt will kill your weeds.

And make it so that nothing at all will grow there for years. So bad idea.

But its got what plans crave.

DeAnna · March 28th, 2008, 09:09 PM

Donald's solution is the most eco-friendly but, at this point, it probably won't do much. You have to pull them out by hand when they're young. You'll prolly need a shovel to get them out now.

Trey · March 28th, 2008, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaddabout

My front yard looks like a desert wild weed display and my backyard is growing weed trees. I've used weed killer in the front with little success. Just turned a portion brown. I'm afraid to use it in the backyard because I have dogs.

I recall salt killing just about anything. I was thinking about getting a couple bags of rock salt, mixing in some water with a cap of chlorine, and pouring around my front yard. Does anything this is a bad idea? Doesn't it seem like a more eco-friendly solution?

Please advise.

I'm not sure what "weed killer" you've tried, and how you mixed and applied the product, but the best solution I've found for a large, overgrown area, is to use Ortho's weed-b-gone. It's available at places like Home Depot, and is distributed with the hose-attached sprayer that you have to purchase separately (though the sprayer is quite handy to have as you can use it for herbicide, plant food, pesticide, etc). You can cover a really large area, very quickly, and the product doesn't kill your grass.

If you are spraying in a rocky area, or only have spotty weeds, then you can use something like Round-up. The problem with weeds in a rocky yard, is that spraying them leaves you with a forest of dead weeds, as opposed to in a lawn area where the weeds will get chewed up by the mower, and over run by the grass.

As for eco-friendly, I believe abomb is on the right track. But depending on the size of your yard, and the scope of the problem, it may not be realistic.

Also, in the preventative maintenance side (which passed you by this year

), I always had great success using Scott's turf builder with weed control in the late winter/early spring. Kills the suckers before they have a chance to take over your yard. For next year...

Gaddabout · March 29th, 2008, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heucrazy

Salt will kill your weeds.

And make it so that nothing at all will grow there for years. So bad idea.

I can live with that in the front yard. It's all desert landscaping save for a few cacti I'd love to dig up and throw away forever.

Hollywood · March 29th, 2008, 08:19 AM

I don't know if it has been said but have you tried a flamethrower?

CardEd · March 29th, 2008, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaddabout

My front yard looks like a desert wild weed display
.

You must be my neighbor.......

Gaddabout · March 31st, 2008, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardEd

You must be my neighbor.......

Unless you put $2 million worth of power tools in a 2-car garage and smoke 4 packs of Camels a day, no.

The guy across the street from me does landscaping. I offered his kid $50 to clean up my front yard and he laughed at me. Apparently he makes that in 30 minutes with his father.

Bada0Bing · March 31st, 2008, 05:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hollywood

I don't know if it has been said but have you tried a flamethrower?

I had a neighbor once that actually set his entire back yard on fire in the middle of the night to kill all the weeds. The guy was a firefighter, so I guess he thought it was a great idea.

I use the stuff from costco, not sure of the brand.

Most of my neighbors put down some weed preventer each year. This time of year, it's pretty obvious which guys haven't.