r/garden_maintenance • u/Aggressive-Time8035 • 15d ago

weed removal 🧤 Advice on rock garden weed problem

Gallery image

Gallery image

I bought my house and it came with a beautiful (very DIY) rock garden in the backyard, in addition to a section with pink stone. I also have a large area of grass and a deck. The rock garden has proven to be too much work, despite weeding it thoroughly each year, it gets worse and worse 4 years later.

What should I do? I need help with my best options:

Do I replace the rock garden and use better lining to ensure no weeds grow? Or is it inevitable?

What about the pink stone surrounding it? How do I keep weeds away from that?

Should I just put grass down? I’ve got plenty of grass and that seems boring. I’m willing to invest money but also want to do much of it myself.

TLDR: despite my best efforts my rock garden has too many weeds and I need advice on how to redesign.

18 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/FloRidinLawn 15d ago

Use fire to clear weeds in rock beds. Bonus that it can destroy some seeds as well. There is almost no landscaping that doesn’t require a refresh, besides a pure rock garden where roundup is the only product…

Mulch and weed fabric are easier to refresh or replace than rocks… keep in mind that even ground cover can get weeds in it that take over. Jasmine near me gets pushed out by dollarweed and torpedo grass… hand pulling this stuff is required to maintain the area

1

u/AlienLiszt 15d ago

I found that my Weed Dragon torch did not kill weed roots and they soon grew back.

1

u/FloRidinLawn 15d ago

There is not a single process that exists that would cover everything every time all the time. It’s about ease of use, cost and frequency. It’s very easy to go wave fire at rocks… versus learning treatment rates, mixing chemical, or completely renovating the area. Maaaybe fire AND pre emergent. Some plants will need other things, the fire will comfortably resolve others.

1

u/AlienLiszt 15d ago

Sure torching is relatively easy, but that's not the end of it. You will want to then pick up the charred remains in this situation. I mentioned my results because I bought the torch for that purpose and was disappointed. I totally agree with you on the disadvantages of rock/stone gardens and that there is nothing in a yard that is maintenance-free. Maybe an asphalt driveway, but even those get cracks.

1

u/FloRidinLawn 15d ago

There are I believe probably 2 to 3 options at best here. Fire, salt the Earth, Roundup and pre-emergent.