Weeds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jbcorbin]

At our home in suburban Atlanta we had a truckload of freshly chipped pine mulch (assuredly no plastic) dropped in the driveway. I took all weekend with my wife shoveling into two wheelbarrows that I wheeled into the back yard to clean it up. It was so fresh that in the middle that ten foot pile, it started smoking from the moisture and heat. BUT...it was really good stuff. We have about a 6 inch layer back there now and it is composting into good dirt.
The problem down here in Port St. Joe/Mexico Beach is that none of the tree services have chippers. They just haul everything to the landfill and/or the sawmill. I get around here to look at the landscaping a lot and I have never seen another home with large mulched areas like ours. Just not done around here. Just the way things are.
But…it’s like a parade route with everyone stopping in front of the house to look at the yard. Must be doing something right. Of course, we are always out there, pulling weeds.

[Northwoods Voyager]

In our garden areas we use 'landscaping plastic' and then put grey coloured pebbles/rock over that. The landscaping material is somewhat porous, allowing moisture to penetrate. We have done this around 2 trees where I have my Hosta gardens and there has never been a problem with the tree roots.

Also have this material near my boulder (HUGE ROCK) garden, with excellent results. No weeds to pull, ever, and plants look great even in this extreme heat we are experiencing Today 111 degrees here at home!!! Of course I do water the garden and the birds love this also. They land on the bushes while the sprinkler is running. That is a sight to see. Good Luck to you.

[FLPL75]

another thing you can try is layers of newspaper under the mulch.
Not only will it attract earthworms but it will help keep the weeds from germinating.
I have used landscape fabric but made sure it was the professional grade not the thin stuff you can easily tear with your hands. I have found that water easily flows through.

With the heavy duty stuff I can just slide the mulch over if I want to put in new plants.

Another tip I use to help prevent weeds is I "nuke" the birdseed before I put it out for the birds. This will prevent it from germinating, I had some pretty strange stuff growing around my bird feeders before I started doing this.

One of the reasons they have just added Nadina "heavenly bamboo" to the invasive list is the birds eat the berries then fly about and when they pooop the seeds are distributed and you end up with the plants everywhere.
The extension office said if i removed the berries I could still keep the plant in the garden so my yard would be considered "florida friendly"
The reason is they want to keep non-native plants from taking over the native plants.
karla

[wit-nit]

Porous weed mats, heavy covering with bark chips, good mulching are great ideas.
Pre-emergents such as Preen are good to the extent that it kills seeds as they germinate but before they can mature. This means if you plan to plant flower/vegetable seeds in the area, the pre-emergent will prevent them from growing also.
Hand picking is best for eradicating a small number of weeds. Round-up, which is a post emergent systemic vegetation killer is next best when using it with care. Systemics only kill the vegetation it comes in contact with. They are not soil sterlilants that kill everything in the soil. Soil sterliants can be very devistating to nearby wanted vegetation as it travels in the soil when watering.