apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Every master gardener I know says to bust out the Round Up. They only advice is to use a less expensive brand! I do keep it away from our vegetable garden, where I hand-pick.

I've found that white vinegar does a pretty good job of killing plants. Be careful though, it'll kill your grass too, as well as the weeds.

I have a gravel driveway that needs to be weeded and I can't wait the several months for solarization to work. I'm planning on buying a weed torch and killing them with the flame.

this works i've done it with newspaper - and i'm all for the greener way of doing things - i've started using neem oil as a fungicide for my plants - so far so good

but anyways - yeah it takes a awhile, and doesnt looks great - but i'm glad ur doing it that way

Here's a question - if you lay the plastic down about the time of the first snow could you get a head start on the weed-killing by the following spring?

yes I don't know what the AT-ers who don't like Round-up are basing their opinion on. My most trusted sources say Round-up is okay.
also, what are you going to do with that plastic afterward? And is it made from petroleum products?

round up is a vegetation killer - its all chemicals - and it can leech into nearby vegetables, may be harmful to bees, and affects our groundwater. there's lots of reasons to avoid using if its possible

and as far as the plastic - maybe it's already being re-used - maybe it was a tarp or a painters sheet - and if not - it could easily be re-used for different things.

its like when people say "whats the point of ordering a diet coke with your big mac and fries?" the point is - every little bit helps - and any step towards being more conscious is a good one.

Has anyone tried Nature's Avenger Organic Weed Killer? I'm intrigued but haven't seen any reviews yet, good or bad.

I'm using black plastic bags (that were purchased before my 'green' home makeover) AND Round-up (also purchased before my 'green' home makeover.) I have to. We've got crazy english ivy lurking all over the place (it was there when we bought the house 3 months ago) and its getting into the sewer pipes. A little Round-Up or a basement full of sewer? You decide.

I tried that. The Bermuda grass I was trying to kill loved it. It was like a little electric blanket for them.

Round-up (aka gylphosate) has been tried, tested and true. Use it if you're allowed to and not banned from chemicals and pesticides in your area. But use it wisely.

Or get a manual weed remover... no more bending over and they work!

We just finished a round of white vinegar, salt and dish soap - on our gravel driveway. It was very effective and fast at killing the weeds.

Solarizing kills not just bad things in the soil but good things like beneficial bacteria, earthworms, insects, and so on. It literally sterilizes your soil, which means that when you want to plant, you will need to spend a lot of time rebuilding the soil food web. It works best for clearing areas where you are going to put down a patio, not where you want to plant.

Also, Roundup does not leach into groundwater. It is inactivated by contact with soil because of its chemical structure. There is plenty of research about this.

some of you need to read a little more about Round-up (Glyphosate is the active ingredient).

It takes 6 months for the chemical to degrade 90% and up to two years for it to degrade entirely. Glyphosate is considered a carcinogen and it has been found in streams after applications. Glyphosate is a hazard both to our health and the the environment. The surfactant in Round-up is also quite dangerous to amphibians.

I would never spray it near a vegetable garden, or anywhere else for that matter. Besides using plastic, try newspaper. There are many safe alternatives - vinegar based products, weed torches, good old fashioned weed pulling and even a pre-emergent that is corn gluten based. Do a little research beyond reading the misleading information coming from Monsanto (the company that makes Round-up).

For those who have lawns---grass clippings are excellent mulch for suppressing weeds. And they degrade eventually and enrich the soil. Pile them up a few inches deep around plants (leaving some bare earth around their stems) and tromp them down. Newspaper's also great--wet it thoroughly and stomp on it, too. Weed and put down straw as mulch. There are many ways, some more aesthetically pleasing than others. I had an erstwhile bamboo escape its pot and send runners under our hardtop driveway. When the little buggers found a crack to grow up through, I greeted them with kettles of boiling water. Bye-bye, bamboo.

Depending on the type of plastic you use, compounds just as dangerous as glyphosate could be leaching into the soil. Heat and humidity can cause large quantities of formaldehyde and bisphenol to off-gas quite readily in some cases. Burlap might be a good substitute though.

I've read that taking used carpet and laying it down also works, and you don't have to worry about it ripping and blowing away. I agree about the Roundup....I'd rather have the weeds. Not sure about any toxic run off from the carpet.

I just lay down newspaper and then wet it and that kills all the weeds and also brings lots and lots of worms to the surface. The newspaper just breaks down and then you can plant whatever you want and mulch over it. No more weeds!

ChristopherB, plastic foil is polyethene, which should not emit harmful substances.

Bisphenol and formaldehyde are ingredients of hard plastics. Bisphenol is expensive, used for polycarbonate and epoxy. Formaldehyde is inexpensive, and used in glues and bakelite.

PVC would be a possible plastic for foil, but again it would be too expensive.

A landscape gardener recommended to my sister, who has a herculean task ahead of her to get her ground ready for planting that she should lay down about 6 layers of cardboard, and then weigh that down with rocks or something. The cardboard will block the light, like the plastic does, but it'll also break down into the soil, instead of just lying on top like plastic so it's a more green alternative.

I've used piles of oak leaves that fell from my neighbor's tree to cover an area and kill off the grass there. It worked pretty well. You can also pile it along fences and in places you don't want grass to grow.

plastic?? are you kidding??

how is that a 'natural' alternative?

you may try weeding your garden properly (get the suckers out by the root) and mulching as another poster has offered and not looking for the all-american Easy Way Out.

plastic. sheesh.

plastic?? are you kidding??

how is that a 'non toxic' alternative?

you may try weeding your garden properly (get the suckers out by the root) and mulching as another poster has offered and not looking for the all-american Easy Way Out.

plastic. sheesh.

because plastic bags are so environmentally friendly.. a little contradictory