mikejford
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Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:49 am

Landscaper question/problem

I have a yard that is .6 of an acre. It is mostly lawn with a large inground pool in the backyard. My flower beds got way out of control with weeds and I hired a landscape company to "hand weed" all of the beds and apply mulch. The cost of the job was about $4,000, which included putting down 21 yards of mulch. They also did about one hour of trimming some shrubs. The yard looked beautiful when they finished, but within five days we had hundreds of weeds coming back out of the mulch. Four guys spent two days working on the project.

The owner of the company tells me I had unrealistic expectations and the only option he will offer is to come in and spray Roundup, which I do not want. I want them to hand weed the yard as per our contract.

Am I being unrealistic?

Ksk
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Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 11:57 am

Gardeners are in a growth industry. :) That is why services come back once a week, once a month etc. Weeds are like cockroaches so to get rid of them you have to kill the source: seeds. Therefore you are really never really completely rid of the possibility of weeds coming back. The seeds can blow in from next door or be left in bird and animal droppings. It is a process.

Mulch must be quite heavy to resist the return of weed: 3 to 5 inches. Weeds are also activated by distressed soil. So when you scratch around or dig, weeds that are dormant in the soil will start to grow. Some seeds last for decades waiting for the right conditions. Notice how weeds grow around new construction. That is because once soil is disturbed old seeds become active as they are exposed to sun and rain. This probability increases if it rains and weeds come back very fast.

If the mulch is only an inch deep, he/she should have put down more. A black plastic under the mulch helps stop weeds but the seeds are still there.
If you are in a hot climate you can put black plastic down to Solarize the weeds and many seeds. If you are feeding your plants the weeds get fed as well so it is all connected.

Roundup and similar weed killers are rather indiscriminate and usually kill most everything around.

I would just start pulling the weeds and get the gardener to add more mulch on top. It takes time but eventually the weeds are displaced by the plants you want.
Hire someone to come on a schedule and the weeds will gradually disappear if you don’t have time yourself.

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Wow! $4K ! How much garden space do you have (you said most was lawn)?

If you don't have time to maintain it yourself, sounds like you will need regular help. Regular help makes more difference than a one time thing. This doesn't need to be high priced landscapers. Could be motivated high school student as long as you can train/ trust them to only pull weeds. But someone putting in an hour or two once a week will do more than a one time thing.

It does sound like your landscapers probably skimped on the weeding. There's weeding, where you pull all the big weeds, and there's WEEDING, where you pull every single thing and cultivate the top layer of ground. And they probably skimped on the mulch layer also.

mikejford
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Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:49 am

Thanks for the responses. Our garden beds are around the perimeter of the yard. We fully expected to have some weeds here or there, and expected to spend an hour or so per week to maintain it once we had it done. However, I literally have at least 20 hours of weeding to do. At this point, it's been five weeks since the original work and my very expensive landscape company is unwilling to really do anything but do one treatment of Roundup. For $4,000, I am shocked.



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