wuballz
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Best Cheap Way to Kill Weeds & Grass?

Hello all, thanks for reading.

I'm a new home owner and know nothing when it comes to lawn care. (first time in my life I had to take care of a yard) and have been doing a lot of research.

I have a 700 square foot yard filled with rocks.

Now a ton of grass and weeds is growing though the rocks. previous owners did not lay down tarp underneath.

So after a lot of research, which is the CHEAPEST WAY to KILL everything? I have a dog so chemicals is not an option.

A propane touch? (probably around 280.00 for the whole set up)

salting my entire back yard? (no sure how much salt I will need and where I can buy salt in bulk or an easy way to go about distributing it)

or vinegar my entire back yard? (might be more expensive then buying torch, not sure how much vinegar I will need either and also not sure how to pour it over such a large area easy.

any help or advice is appreciated. thanks.

imafan26
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Salting the earth will kill everything but it would take a lot of salt and it will ruin the soil until it is leached. Vinegar changes the pH but would dissipate faster. I would probably also take a lot of vinegar. Organic herbicides are usually for pathways and change the soil environment for a while so they are not friendly for replanting. To kill everything with the least residues boiling water will work. It will take a while as you will have to put the boiling water on everything. You will be able to plant after that.

Torching will kill the top growth but not necessarily the roots of persistent weeds.

As a new homeowner, who does not know anything about taking care of a yard, you might consider hiring a yard service to take care of the yard. They will mow the lawn all you have to do is make sure it gets watered. They can install sprinklers for that. They will have to do weed control and that would mean they have to use chemicals unless you specify that they pull the weeds by hand. That will cost more for labor. Most weed killers today are safe for animals after it has dried. You just have to talk to your yard service and specify in the contract that when they fertilize or use weed killer they let you know when it will be ok to let the dog out. You will have to pick up after the dog, yard services don't really like getting piles of poop flung at them while they are mowing.

If you have time or interest in taking care of the yard later, it will be easier to take over once the yard has been fixed up. In the beginning a neglected yard will take a lot of time and effort to put in and maintain.

if you want to kill everything and just have dirt in the yard, the dirt will end up on and in the house.

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applestar
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I can't even imagine 700 sq ft "filled with rocks" -- are you saying the entire area is mulched? Is/was it a rock garden? What besides grass are growing? Are they really all weeds (in a sense that they might be useful/usable -- but if you don't want them then yeah, by definition "weeds") ...Or is/was it supposed to be a Japanese zen garden that has been neglected? Not a lawn at this point for sure.

You might want to redesign the area into spaces with how you intend to use them, and then decide the best way to go about handling weed removal and ground prep for each space depending on what they will become. Depending on your budget, the rocks could be raked up and used elsewhere... or you could advertise on craigslist and offer the rocks for removal.

...huh just realized you didn't indicate where you are from -- so rephrase that to craigslist or similar internet advertising to offer unwanted things for free, barter, or reasonable cost available to you....

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You will need to put the time in to ridding your garden of weeds (and get some exercise out of it, too). Take a look at a scuffle hoe, also known as a winged weeder, and triangle weeding hoe. They cost about $19 to $30 (and up). They make weeding a little easier because they can uproot them fast.

Another tool that is similar is the short handled cultivator, also known as an asparagus fork. It has a four tine (prong) or three tine fork on the end. It'll work well for weeds like dandelions.

wuballz
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Sorry guys for not being specific, I live in Vegas so we are only allowed desert landscaping. My whole back yard is filled with tiny rocks. The previous owner just laid a bunch of tiny rocks/pebbles over the entire back yard. Now a ton of grass and weeds is growing though.

I want to kill everything and make sure nothing grows back. Removing the rocks, putting down tarp and then putting the rocks back on is too expensive for me right now. So looking for a cheaper alternative to kill the earth so nothing grows.

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You need a weed barrier to cut off the sun so that the weeds cannot grow. The cheapest way to do this is to stack newspapers as a weed barrier or to use wet cardboard. The idea is that whatever you use will block the sun while allowing the water to get through.

using newspaper as a weed barrier
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43258

Weed Control
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=30893

imafan26
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Even if you have a dog, an herbicide is still the easiest option. Herbicides are designed to affect plant systems not animals so most of them are less toxic to animals in general. You will want an herbicide that has residual effects. You can use something like glyphosate to kill whatever is there now but it will not have lasting effects on any seeds so you would need to follow up with something like Preen to prevent seed germination. There are herbicides that will have lasting effects for a few months or up to a year.

Most herbicides are safe for people and pets to go on after they have dried. Just read and follow all label instructions.

It is not necessarily the cheapest way, but the concentrate is cheaper than the ready to use sprays.
Covering with newspaper, cardboard is cheap but you need for it to stay in place for weeks and totally block out the light. It will not kill dormant seeds. Using weed block or plastic sheeting costs more than buying herbicide.

wuballz
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Thanks I will try herbicide, my yard is quit big so it will be hard to cover the whole yard with news paper and cardboard. I will try the herbicide you mentioned. Thanks.

wuballz
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I just looked up preen and it says it only prevents weeds from growing. Are there any herbicides that's dog safe and works on grass too? thanks

Steve17
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imafan26 wrote:Even if you have a dog, an herbicide is still the easiest option. Herbicides are designed to affect plant systems not animals so most of them are less toxic to animals in general. You will want an herbicide that has residual effects. You can use something like glyphosate to kill whatever is there now but it will not have lasting effects on any seeds so you would need to follow up with something like Preen to prevent seed germination. There are herbicides that will have lasting effects for a few months or up to a year.

Most herbicides are safe for people and pets to go on after they have dried. Just read and follow all label instructions.

It is not necessarily the cheapest way, but the concentrate is cheaper than the ready to use sprays.
Covering with newspaper, cardboard is cheap but you need for it to stay in place for weeks and totally block out the light. It will not kill dormant seeds. Using weed block or plastic sheeting costs more than buying herbicide.
Nice information, I will try this too. Thanks.

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tomf
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Hire someone to dig all the rocks out then plant it with what ever you like. Or pave it over what ever you like but rocks are not the best thing for a yard, even rock gardens are a lot of work keeping the clean or lots of Round up.

jeff84
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its not super cheap but ortho ground clear prevents anything from growing for a year. it is safe for animals. it can be diluted a bit more than recomended which will help it go further. you could always tarp over the areas that are growing as well. plants cant live without sun.

and its probably not on the shelf in nv, but rock salt can be purchased in large quantities for fairly cheap, and with what little rainfall you get it would take years to leach out. if you don't want anything or don't want to be able to grow anything a heavy dose of rock salt should do the trick.

imafan26
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The weeds have to be coming in from somewhere? Even if you kill your weeds, if the source of the seeds continues, then you will still have to repeat treatment. Salting the earth does make it so nothing lives, but environmentally, it is a destructive way to do it.
Parts of Iran is desert now because of farming and diverting water for irrigation that deposited so much salt on what was once rich agricultural lands that it is mostly desert today.

"When you clear a forest in a high-rainfall tropical area, new trees grow up to a height of 15 feet within a year; in a dry area like the Fertile Crescent, regeneration is much slower. And when you add to the equation grazing by sheep and goats, new trees stand little chance. Deforestation led to soil erosion, and irrigation agriculture led to salinization, both by releasing salt buried deep in the ground and by adding salt through irrigation water. After centuries of degradation, areas of Iraq that formerly supported productive irrigation agriculture are today salt pans where nothing grows."
https://articles.latimes.com/2003/jun/15 ... -diamond15



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