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PostPosted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:38 pm 
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Hey All,

My girlfriend and I recently purchased a house in Arizona, and the backyard has typical rock landscaping around the outside of the pool decking, with a few Palm trees here and there.

I've got lots of grass and weeds growing up through the rock, probably from a poor installation to start with.

To date I've been simply weed eating down but I'd like to find an organic way to kill all of it, and any further patches that come up moving forward.

The rub is, we have a small baby in the house crawling about, and a dog that uses the backyard to play and do his business, so I can't have him tracking in anything toxic or dangerous to the baby.

I'm attaching a pic for reference.

Image

Any assistance would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks.

Vince


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:17 pm 
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Vinegar. The best is 10% white or pickling vinegar. Full strength, sprayed on the grass on a warm sunny day. You can find stronger vinegar, and there is a petroleum product sold as 20%, but you should get the actual food-grade vinegar.

You kill the grass or weeds, but it may take a couple of applications because the roots may have stored energy and will try pushing out more green. Kill the tops and once the roots are depleted the weeds will be gone.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:44 pm 
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Hey thanks so much.

I'm assuming it will work quicker if I apply it after freshly weed eating the long weeds so that I can get it closer to the roots?

Thanks again.

-V


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:40 am 
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Spray enough so that the blades are drenched with vinegar and you'll kill the entire blade, whether you mowed or not.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:43 pm 
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I couldn't find any store here locally that sells 10% vinegar.

I used the 5% a few days ago and I'm seeing some yellowing this morning so perhaps a few more sprays will do the trick.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 11:57 am 
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See if you can find any merchants near you: http://www.dirtdoctor.com/organic/garden/advance_business_listings/

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:37 pm 
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Another way is to smother it with compost. First of all your bermuda lawn should be mowed down to 1 inch high. Weed eaters are not appropriate for bermuda. Once it is down that low, then simply covering it with 2-3 inches of compost will smother it out. A few straggler strands might pop out later but you can dig those out. If you don't dig them out, it will return very healthy.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:04 am 
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Yeah I'm not hardly gonna cover my rock landscaping with compost.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:17 pm 
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There is a tool that can be used in the kind of gravel you describe that you might want to try. It's an "action" or "stirrup hoe" that is a "D" shaped bladed apparatus used to through loose soil or gravel and cutting off the weeds underground.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ames-54-in-Wood-Handle-Action-Hoe-2825800/204476206

Image

The stirrup hoe is a bit larger and heavier that the Ames action hoe, and of you google them and look at the images of each you'll be able to decide which is best for your yard.

Image

I have the smaller Ames hoe and I use it around the garden while the weeds that are coming in are still small. Once they get away from me then I'm back to pulling them out by hand.

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PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2016 11:33 am 
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I'm in the Midwest, Chicagoland area. We have rock around our flowers and bushes rather than mulch. We have some weed issues in certain places through out the rock, with little annoying weeds. We used landscape material under the rock, but these seem to be growing on top of that. Is the vinegar mix going to change the soil at all? Ive heard it makes it unfertile, in case we would like to plant something later on down the road. Any suggestions?


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PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2016 12:46 pm 
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To the contrary, vinegar will act like a fertilizer in small amounts. If you use it to kill weeds, residue is not a problem.

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