Garden/Lawn weeding issues.....HELP!

[akyramoto]

Hi all, I'm new here.
I don't even know where to start with this. LOL.

I've moved my garden closer to my house in the back yard - yay, because I tend to be a bit lazy once it hits around 98 degrees!! and my previous location was just too far to walk out to in the heat, let alone drag a hose out there!

anyways, I've recently set up fencing so that my dogs can hang out in the back yard - eventually I'll have perimeter fencing around the garden to keep them out of my planters.

Since day one this place has had foxtails! and foxtails & dogs do not mix.
Every year prior I've had to keep the dogs in a smaller run that has rocks for footing - even though grasses are starting to creep through. Basically doggie prison until the foxtail season is over. I've decided I need to get rid of these things and let my dogs enjoy a bigger area!

In past experience mowing/weedeating does not solve anything, they just grow back and shoot up the awns earlier, so in the end i have foxtail plants 2" tall with heads!!

My BF wants me to just spray roundup on everything. but I'm too worried about what it'll do to my dogs as they love to eat grass, also worried about what it'll do to the soil even though ten million people on the internet will tell you it's safe. I just don't feel right about it.

I got some 'natural' weed killer called 'worry free weed & grass killer', I sprayed some down the other day & not sure if it'll work or not. I'm at that stage where I realize I have to do things NOW because the plants are growing and it may be only a week or two before they get their heads ( so yes a bit of a meltdown going on). ( worry free is citrus based).

Today I went out and hoed where the majority of the plants usually grow. I threw anything with a head on it in a trash bag ( going to the dump). will hoeing the plants themselves kill them? or do I need to go out & collect all the plant parts and throw them away.
I feel like they're so evil that they're just gonna take root where they landed & come back!

I've tried vinegar in the past and the weeds start to wilt, but then come back in a few days. Do i just need to keep reapplying??

The yard itself I would like to reseed & make it grass to choke out all the weeds, but it's pure weeds right now. I can't really til alot of it because I have sprinkler lines underneath. Is my only choice hand hoeing it?

I also have all the other parts of my land that I would like to get rid of weeds/grass cover so that I can grow hay for my donkeys.

So basically I need an eco way to get rid of a LARGE quantity of weeds (FAST) so that I can reseed with good to choke out the bad.
But I think priority #1 right now is to KILL all the foxtails. ( backyard priority #1 for dog saftey, rest of property #2 - although foxtails are bad for my donkeys - AND I don't want any of them to go to seed period, I want them to stop this year). LOL. ok, does that sound impossible?? Sorry for the novel!

[akyramoto]

For the backyard ( and other places) can I just mulch it really thick & kill off everything, then pull the mulch back & plant grasses???

[cynthia_h]

Kitchen-strength vinegar won't do it. You want horticultural-strength vinegar. I forget the percentages right now, but hort. vinegar is something like four or five times stronger than kitchen vinegar; weeds *really* don't like it.

I know from foxtails. I have 'em, too. If you can get out there right after a rain--and this is the tail-end of the rainy season, at least in the Bay Area--pull those suckers out by their roots. Leave any non-spiny, non-burr-producing, non-thorn-producing plants out there because there needs to be *something* left; Nature abhors a vacuum, and it's better to leave a tolerable plant in place than to pull up absolutely everything.

Over the past three or four years, I've eliminated redstem filaree, burclover, Yellow Star thistle, and wild onions. OTOH, I only have a 50' x 100' lot. Sounds like you have a great deal more to contend with. Last year was to have been "elimination" year for foxtails, but first Vergil tore his ACL and it took us two or three months to get a definitive diagnosis, and then he needed surgery. Then it was the dry season....

I have a couple of weeks of rainy season left during which I can pull out foxtail plants. Definitely going to do some damage.

So what's left? Oxalis, and lots of it; mallow, which doesn't produce thorns, spines, or burrs; and some native California bunching grasses which do NOT produce awns. They're more the feather or broom type of grasses. The oxalis is as annoying as all get-out, and I do pull it from the veggie boxes and from among the lavender plants, but I'm not on an extirpation campaign.

If you're in a pinch for time, try boiling water on the foxtails. The problem with the boiling water is that you'll also cook any earthworms below the roots of the plants. But I used boiling water to remove weeds from the cracks in the sidewalk and between the sidewalk & the asphalt (!) that the previous owners placed out front; the boiling water worked just fine out there.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[akyramoto]

I have an acre of land. so it's alot!
I've decided for the back yard I'm going to pull what I can, then put down cardboard & mulch as much as possible. I'd like to turn almost all of the backyard into a garden.

I'm going to try the same thing for the outer areas of the property where I'd like to plant hay. put down cardboard/mulch. wait til it's dead, then I can pull it back a little at a time ( as to not overwhelm myself) and plant hay in the bare ground.

Going to mulch the front yard too. right now it kinda seems like thats an easy answer to my situation and I can plant 'other' things as I can manage. ( front yard is foxtail heaven too)

It's difficult right now I can't tell what is or isn't foxtail -because they do not all have their heads yet! so it's difficult for me to tell whats ok to leave & what I should yank out. I guess time will tell & I'll just have to get after them the best that I can.

there are lots of the weeds I don't mind, I can live with them, but not with the foxtails.

I think mulching the backyard is the safest bet for my dogs.

I'd rather not have clover in some places of my property - because of the donkeys, I've heard that it's bad for them. but again, rather have clover than foxtails!! it least I can mow the clover!!

anyways, THANK YOU for your reply, it makes me feel like I'm on the right track.