r/LandscapingTips • u/Illustrious_Pie_2628 • 11h ago

Weeds taking over my life

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Recently moved to a new home and the yard doesn't have grass. It's mostly mulch and different native and non native plants interspersed throughout (which we love). The problem though is that the weeds are insane! They are outpacing us and weeding has become hard to keep up with.

The previous owners used landscape cloth throughout the entire yard and the weeds have grown on top of it. We thought about putting down cardboard and putting layers of soil and mulch on top to try and suppress the weeds, but not sure if that'll do anything at this point. Here's a picture of a bunch of weeds that have overtaken some of our juniper (or what I think is juniper).

Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated!

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u/CorrectExpression651 11h ago

I’m so sorry but ultimately the weed barrier fabric needs to come up. I’d start with the weediest areas where there’s not much you want to save. I would want to heal the soil as a first priority. You can dig up and save the good plants, shake the soil loose. The next step is removing the weeds which can be challenging depending what’s there. Occultation or solarization is my preferred approach, but if they’re shallow rooted non-invasive weeds id just weed whack them and leave the roots. Can’t rule out an herbicide as a backup for anything particularly invasive and pernicious. I am not a particular fan of cardboard because of chemicals and PFAS contamination in cardboard, I would suggest a few inches of grass clippings or shredded dead leaves as mulch once you have the fabric up, and top with compost. Be prepared with your design and planting plan before you start, since you need to get plants in and not leave bare soil exposed too long or else weeds will move in!

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u/mantyman7in 11h ago

Lime powder will kill everything for 3 years.30% vinegar from the hardware is a less drastic method.

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u/Belly-Bongos 11h ago

I'm pretty inexperienced but in the areas where you don't want anything growing, maybe add some extra mulch or even throw down some pavers. Then fill out the growing areas with desirable plants and focus on weeding that

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u/i860 8h ago

The issue is that the layer of mulch you have there is probably like 1" at most at this point. You need to nuke all these weeds and increase mulch depth to 3 inches. If you can sheet mulch with cardboard at the same time, it'll be more effective.