Weed Control for Rock Beds

[Pat Germain]

My house has rock beds in the front and back yards. We can get a lot of water restrictions in Colorado Springs which is why the previous owners of my house opted for rock beds over grass. The front yard has two small trees with no trees in the back yard.

The back yard rock beds get a lot of weeds in the spring and summer. There is fabric beneath the rocks, but it doesn't appear to do much. Pulling those weeds is endless.

Does anyone have a recommendation for weed control in rock beds? I know the public areas in my neighborhood get some type of granules a few times a year to control weeds. I would like to avoid a chemical option since I would eventually like to plant some small trees and a small vegetable garden in the back yard. One of my neighbors uses vinegar to control weeds, but I don't know if that actually works.

Thank you.

[Brian Runau]

If there is a fabric weed block down with larger rock over it, what soil are the weeds growing in? Brian

[mike stenson]

Best bet is a pre and post emergent. This is the common deal in AZ, at least in the cities. Vegetable garden you could skip the area.

Otherwise, the only thing I've found that's reliable is a hula hoe.. And a regular weeding.

[Rob Luter]

Roundup to kill, preen to prevent future seed germination.

[Lee Schierer]

Maybe it is time to clean the gravel. You will be amazed how much dirt is under it.

[mike stenson]

Roundup to kill, preen to prevent future seed germination.

That stuff just turned the grass here brown for a week, then it grew 10"

[Pat Germain]

If there is a fabric weed block down with larger rock over it, what soil are the weeds growing in? Brian

The weeds poke right through the fabric. The same thing happened at my previous house, but the rock beds were much smaller and it was easier to manage the weeds. Landscape fabric works for a couple of years, then it seems to create more problems than no fabric.

Strangely, the area around my two trees in the front yard have no landscape fabric. The trees are surrounded by mulch and I almost never get weeds growing in the mulched areas.

[Pat Germain]

Roundup to kill, preen to prevent future seed germination.

Those are both chemicals.

[Pat Germain]

Maybe it is time to clean the gravel. You will be amazed how much dirt is under it.

Likely there is dirt between the rock and the landscaping fabric. Clearing out the dirt would involve completey removing the rock. MAJOR project.

[Bill Dufour]

Propane roofers torch.
Bill D.
https://www.harborfreight.com/propan...ter-91037.html

[Jerome Stanek]

I had good luck with Rock salt

[glenn bradley]

I have a gravel area with plants. The layer cake goes something like so . . .
- original soil
- Gopher screen (heavy hardware cloth basically
- About 1" of sand
- Double layers of stapled landscape cloth
- 3" of pea gravel

We have a lot of wind and dust. Not Dust Bowl-like dust but we are at the border between suburbia and horses. This means a collection of larger lots with animals and the open land to sustain them. The result is, despite the barriers the gravel gets loaded with blown in dust. The weed seeds get carried on the same wind and take hold. As long as we police the area and pull things when they are just getting started they pull out super easy. They have nothing to really establish roots in. If we slack for a few weeks, some of them are hard to pull as they have drilled down to the deeper layers.

We plan a similar area out front. We sill sink dummy flower pots that will hold the actual pots effectively isolating (enough anyway) the plants from the open areas. I plan to hit the open areas with Monsanto's latest World Defoliator-3000 (I made that up). It is not so much a failure of the barrier we put down or the depth of the mulch or gravel as it is my misunderstanding of what would happen when the gravel loaded up with soil being blown in.

[Jim Becker]

Fabric weed block down below, Preen to keep seeds from germinating in whatever you put in to fill the area and a vinegar/epson-salt/Dawn mixture to kill things that grow safely. (no need for "Roundup")

[Pat Germain]

Propane roofers torch.
Bill D.
https://www.harborfreight.com/propan...ter-91037.html

Hey, apparently a weed torch is a thing. Thanks. I had not considered that.

[Pat Germain]

Fabric weed block down below, Preen to keep seeds from germinating in whatever you put in to fill the area and a vinegar/epson-salt/Dawn mixture to kill things that grow safely. (no need for "Roundup")

Would preen cause problems later with planting trees or a vegetable garden?