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gardening - help!


ROON

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Are there any (retired) landscape gardeners out there please who can give me some advice .... bit like closing door after horse has bolted, I'm afraid.

 

For various reasons need to get rid of lawn at front of parents' house and I decided to put stones down with a circular feature of flat york stone in centre. It has a path down side of lawn for car, a square lawn at side of path with a border for plants round the lawn. I decided I would leave the path (even though it would be covered with stones to make the whole garden a large flat area), dig up the lawn, fill it with top soil up to level of flags, cover the whole lot with the black blanket weed repressant (over the top of the flags as well), then put the stones on the top of the whole lot with the circular feature where I wanted it. Then a man at the stone shop, said 'don't waste your money on top soil, just kill the grass so it will become the top soil, and all you need to do is fill the border round it with soil to level everything up and then proceed as planned before. I have spent the week digging up the plants and putting weed killer down (painting gtes etc) BUT although the weeds have died the grass just looks a little bit poorly. I have dosed it with more weedkiller today. The stones are being delivered weekend. Question: If the grass is still alive and I cover it with the blanket stuff and then put the stones on, WILL it die cos of no light etc., or am I asking for trouble in a few months, or next Spring God willing? I really don't think I am up to digging up the lawn. Is there anything else you can suggest to kill the grass? I wouldn't care there are 2 patches where the dog has weed and they've died 8-) but weedkiller - NO.

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Hello Joy

 

I take it that you do not want to park a vehicle on this area.

 

As long as the blanket is thick enough it will kill the grass. Suggest that you give it a good spray of grass killer before laying the blanket. The killer you have been using is probably for broad leafed weeds and not for grass. Ask in your garden centre.

 

Also don't get stones which are too small because they will carry into the house on your shoes and kick everywhere.

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Hello Joy. As JohnP says make sure gravel is not the small pea gravel. It's an absolute b....r if it gets trodden into the house. We've used 20mm and thats fine.

As a matter of interest which weed killer did you use and did it rain within an hour or two of you putting it on?

Carol

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To late now the weed killers down Joy, but replacing that lawn with shrubs and groundcover plants would have made a far more easier and interesting area to maintain, which I assume was the problem, and still leave where the lawn was as a haven for wildlife and flora.

I know we have to do whats best for our own particular circumstances, but with so much ground, often front gardens, now being given over to parking and paving then any opportunity to retain natural space should be considered.

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Hi Joy,

As has already been said make sure that the weed suppresent is thick enough, peg down any joins. Use 20mm shingle about 2" thick. We did this last year to make the garden easy maintainance for when we are away. It looks great, we realy could do with another big bag of shingle. We then stand pots of plants etc around, mostly Geraniums. Several of our gardening friends did'nt think much of the idea at first now they say it looks great. It also helps keep cats out of the garden as they dont like walking over the shingle.

 

David

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Thank you everyone, much appreciated.

 

Carol, I used Pathclear but now as advised by our friend above, I will get special grass killer and put it down quickly. I will also use thick blanket cover.

 

Hi Howie, I know what you mean and I deliberated long and hard over this. The turning point was me now being diagnosed with lymphodema in one arm and I already struggle with the hedge cutter as well as the lawn mower. This takes away one of the problems. I will certainly make up for it with planting more wild flowers in the border of dad's back garden.

 

Thank you so much everyone again. Joy x

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Sorry to hear that Joy, and lets wish you well on that score. Under these circumstances paving would be your best option, and as already been said, any good covering that cuts out the light will solve the problem. Go easy on the weed killer. Enough chemicals working their way through the system already, and better alternatives can normally be found. x
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One thing to watch - use washed gravel/stones/shingle otherwise weeds will grow on top of the black stuff and overlap panels by at least 4 inches.

 

You're just wasting your money putting more weedkiller on, PathClear will kill the grass eventually and as a previous contributor says the black stuff will prevent it from growing anyway.

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Disagree parkmoy. We have used heavy duty Teram as a ground cover this year and the area was sprayed before covering. In my usual rush to do things didn't wait for grass to fully die off and have the stuff growing back in parts.

Carol

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We have used heavy duty Teram as a ground cover this year and the area was sprayed before covering. In my usual rush to do things didn't wait for grass to fully die off and have the stuff growing back in parts.

 

Not familiar with 'teram' but I have used the black stabilising fabric on lots of paths and a large gravelled area with no problems. Also on flower beds, planted through and covered with wood chips. Nothing has grown through it in 10yrs. It does need a good covering of gravel/wood chips etc.though but if you exclude the light nothing will come through.

 

Don't forget that the soil is full of ungerminated weed/grass seeds anyway which can remain dormant for years and won't be touched by weedkiller. Give them a bit of light and up they come

 

If you get soil/dirt in your gravel or whatever then you will have problems as I said in my earlier post. :-(

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