Best solutions for weed control?

I am looking for the best way to reduce weed growth in a bed which may have some ornamental plants, and the rest will be covered with mulch.

The two most common solutions are landscape fabric, which I used the first time and frankly, don’t want to use again. After the mulch breaks down, the weed seeds can grow just fine and their roots tie into the fabric itself, making removal a true nightmare.

I found some landscape plastic, which will probably work for a season or two, but it is fairly thin and will rip fairly easily once I toss the mulch onto it. Weeds will grow wherever there is a tear in the plastic.

One solution I thought would be perfect, (but couldn’t find anything online) would be a spray on weed block solution.

I would think it could be applied like a thin layer of tar, overtop of every uncovered dirt area, and the mulch could be tossed on top of it.

This would resemble the “oil/tar and chip” that some towns put on their roads in the summer instead of paving. But I cannot find a commercial product that does what I am wanting to do.

Anyone have any ideas, or if there even exists a spray-on weed block?

The best solution is:

  1. Plant ornamentals close enough together that they will eventually shade out/overgrow any weeds.
  2. Mulch well to prevent weed seeds from germinating.
  3. Hand weed.
  4. If hand weeding seems too onerous, it’s a signal that your planting bed is too big for you to handle.

There is a pre-emergent herbicide marketed to gardeners (Preen), but it may have a negative effect on certain beneficial creatures (like amphibians) and it prevents reseeding of desirable plants. As you noted, weed block fabrics/plastics have undesirable qualities and weeds eventually sprout and grow in the mulch covering them. I don’t know of any spray-on weed killer you can use on such fabrics.

A couple of layers of newspaper beneath 4" - 6" of mulch.

In a few of our beds we gave up the fight and just planted ground cover. Pachysandra in one and myrtle in a couple of others ended up looking nice once it filled in.

Yep. (“Mulch” here meaning organic materials that break down into soil themselves, not trash.)

That’s not giving up, that’s winning. The way to eliminate plants you don’t like is to occupy the space with plants you do like. Everything else is just a delaying game.

About the ground cover…

I have a hillside that I have grown tired of. It was mulched, but it is too steep and too big to hand weed.

I planted groundcover, but I think I made a mistake by not removing the old mulch first, and getting down to the original weed control fabric. The mulch broke down, and weeds took hold in the mulch along with the ground cover. It is a pain to keep it weeded.

Did you plant the ground cover directly into the beds without any mulch/weed fabric/etc? And if so, did the ground cover do its job and choke out the weeds? Or do you still have to hand weed the beds?

The only way I can see to remedy this is to pull out the ground cover (I used myrtle), remove the mulch and weed fabric and re-plant the myrtle directly into the hillside and let it choke the weeds… Assuming this works, of course.

Depends on the weed. Some can be pulled up by the roots, some can’t. Weeds exist because they have evolved a greater tenacity than the things you desire. No silver bullet that distinguishes the good from the bad.

Fair enough.

I guess I could use that stuff they use on highway hillsides, but I don’t like the flower much.

I hate this damn hillside. Maybe just planting grass would be easiest… I’ll just have to figure out how to mow it.

You might look into zoysia grass. A neighbor planted it on his steep hillside and it worked out really well for him.

Pros: Zoysia has very deep roots so is good for areas like hillsides where erosion can be a problem – and it rarely or never needs watering. It grows very slowly, doing more spreading out than growing taller, so needs far less mowing. It grows very densely, naturally choking out weeds.

Cons: It takes some babying to get a zoysia lawn started; it is usually planted with plugs rather than seeds (but once it becomes established it requires very little maintenance.) Zoysia doesn’t stay green through cold winters; it browns out in the fall. It is invasive; if planted next to a neighbor’s lawn, it needs a physical barrier to prevent spreading where it isn’t wanted.

I’m in Southern California, and replaced my lawn with low-water plants, mulch, and drip irrigation. I still get weeds, and occasionally I pull them, but they don’t do as well with no water.

Every place I’ve ever seen that used weed fabric/plastic has ugly exposed ripped fabric/plastic and lots of weeds.

You generally need to top up the mulch as it breaks down. Once a year should be enough or even once every 2.

How long has the myrtle been in? It should make a good cover, maybe needs some TLC to get established.