My wordy title is pretty much everything 😅.

New to home ownership, I didn’t know about pre emergent (or if it would’ve even worked for this)?

Lots of gras came up between these rocks despite having a tarp under these rocks (the tarp is a minimum of 10 years old though I think). I put down grass killer and then went away for vacation. Now I have more greens!

Effectively, what would be the best way to remove this grass? I’ve been doing it all by hand but it’s pretty much miserable, there is more rock bed than what is in this picture.

I think if a hoe works I would be pretty happy with it, but I’m not sure if there’d be a better way to tackle this?

  • @nerin
    link
    English
    31 year ago

    I just had to do this in some gravel. I used a shovel and and metal rake. Shovel to loosen everything and then rake to get the plants out of the gravel as best as possible. For what it’s worth, people are very split on if putting landscaping fabric or tarps down actually does anything good. I know I just redid all my mulch and I didn’t bother this time. I did the last two times and things just grew on top of it because dirt will accumulate on top it no matter what you do. Most people in groups that hate grass say cardboard is your best bet.

    • @scarabicM
      link
      English
      31 year ago

      I’ve done two kinds of weed mesh and the weeds just grow right through it. As soon as it’s down, a layer of fine dust begins to settle onto the top of it, either from dust in the wind, footsteps nearby, or your mulch/bark degrading. Seeds germinate in that fine layer of soil, and their roots penetrate the mesh. I have seen roots travel a yard laterally and then penetrate the mesh. It’s maybe better than nothing at all but for the amount of work it takes to put in, you do not get the value you think you will.

      And grass was the most pernicious plant I had to contend with.