WEEDS!!! My yard used to be all rock, but when I moved in, i insisted that i have a grass in the front yard.

Question

Long story short, 2 years later I haven't removed quite all the rock yet and my "beautiful" grass lawn is really nothing more than some unlevel dirt, rocks, and a lot of weeds. Round up just isn't cutting it and is getting really expensive. I've read that you can smother the weeds with newspaper covered with dirt or suffocate them with a thick clear plastic. Has anybody tried these methods or knows any inexpensive ways to get rid of weeds safely so i will still be able to plant grass in a few months?

Answer 1

Pulling weeds is an effective and organic way to get rid of weeds, but it is also the most time-consuming process for killing off garden plant pests.

The good thing about pulling weeds by hand is that you know when you have pulled the weed out roots and all, it won’t be coming back

Other Organic Methods

If you don’t feel like pulling weeds but don’t want to use a lot of chemicals on your garden, there are some other organic options:

Boiling water: pouring boiling water on weeds will kill the weeds as well as the seeds. Just be careful not to get any on you, or on the plants that you want to keep!

Mulch: Not only can mulch help prevent weeds from growing in the first place, mulching can smother and kill existing weeds. Two or three inches of mulch will eliminate weeds and help hold water in your garden's soil.

Soapy water: Another method is adding about five tablespoons of liquid dish soap to four cups of water. Mix it up, put it in a spray bottle and spray on the weeds, preferably on hot days.

Alcohol spray: You can do the exact same thing with four cups of water and between one and five tablespoons of alcohol, depending on the stubbornness of the weeds.

Vinegar: Undiluted vinegar is a great choice for killing weeds. Put it in a spray bottle and use on weeds, being careful not to spray your plants, because it can kill them, too.

If you’re looking for how to kill weeds before they sprout, try cornmeal gluten. It’s a great pre-emergent herbicide that also adds nitrogen to the soil. This is a particularly good choice for lawns because it won’t hurt the existing grass.

Answer 2

Sounds like you need to spend some time and elbow grease raking up the rocks to start with. Try to break the soil up if is really hard. If it is not too big an area you could dig the soil up and bury the rocks underneath that will mean some real work but you will get the benefit of it later.

Don't put plastic or anything that is water proof down as your dirt needs to breath if it is going to support grass.

News paper is good, just normal news print not the glossy stuff, as it will eventualy mulch down and improve the soil but don't put it down too thick and if you have termites in your part of the world don't put the paper up against the side of your building. The termites love newspaper and will follow it right into your house. Keep the paper back about a yard or a meter and that will give you a reasonable path along the side of your house.

Once you put the paper down you need to cover it with about 2" of soil or you can put turf on top of it directly if you are ready to do that, but it sounds like you just want to be rid of the weads and get your ground ready so you have to cover the paper with some dirt. This is where the soil I suggested you dig up to bury the rocks would come in handy and only cost you a few blisters.

When you have all of this done give it a water so it will settle in and get your beautiful lawn started. I don't know what sort of lawn you want but most of them grow from cuttings so if you know someone with a nice lawn grass ask then if you can take their clippings and spread them onto the dirt, again not too thick as this will stop the water getting into the dirt as well.

If you live near a golf course ask the greens guy what he does with his "Corings" from the greens, he will know what you mean and that is brilliant to start a lawn with.

Good luck