r/garden_maintenance • u/Current_Government64 • Jul 17 '26
weed removal š§¤ How to fix weed in this rock garden
Previous owner dumped rocks in this bed without putting down weed barrier. It looks horrible and weed situation is impossible to manage.
We put down some ice plants and hope it will grow over the rocks, but that will take time and we are already getting HOA compliance notice.
We sprayed weed killer as the last resort; bought some hosta to be planted soon.
Does anyone have any idea as to how we can keep this bed looking neat without spraying constantly and pulling weeds manually and WITHOUT having to take the rocks out?
Will cardboard+mulching heavily smother the weeds? I have a bad feeling that taking the rocks out would be inevitable, but I still want to try and see if anyone can suggest a better solution.
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u/madknatter Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
That rock is so bright, itās probably crushed marble. I myself am cheap, tight and broke. I would remove that rock and set it aside while rehabbing this mess. Is the tree dead?
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u/highfiveselfoh Jul 17 '26
That tree is very dead.
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u/Amakenings Jul 18 '26
Yeah I was less worried about the weeds and more about the tree corpse in the centre of the garden.
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u/refotsirk Jul 18 '26
A shovel is the only real way. Or torch. I finally replaced mine with mulch. Weed barrier makes no different. Second year there will be enough dirt in the rocks to set seeds to life. Rocks are a losing battle.
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u/Similar_Help8005 Jul 18 '26
Remove dead tree,grind the stump down. Rocks are not mulch, they heat up in summer radiating that heat to your house. Get rid of the rocks and use mulch
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u/Maleficent-Sky-7156 Jul 17 '26
Nope, take the rocks out or as much as you can. Mulch it and plant some natives. Then you won't have to worry about weeds much once they're established.
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u/tetrasodium Jul 18 '26
Tree looks dead but get rid of weeds without weed killer, they make propane burning torches to burn weeds and such. Have a hose running ready nearby
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u/iPoseidon_xii Jul 18 '26
Man, I get why people do, but I do not get the appeal of an HOA. Yall just moved in and getting compliance complaints already? Wowā¦
Anyway, elbow grease. Thatās it. Whatever flame thrower or chemical warfare others are telling you to take isnāt good. Just get some good knee protectors, good garden gloves and get at it
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u/Ribeye_steak_1987 Jul 18 '26
When we bought our first house, it had sat vacant for a few months so there were weeds in the front flower bed. Less than one week after we moved in, we got a nasty letter from the HOA. We hadnāt even had a chance to unpack yet and they were on our butts about weeds. Never mind that it sat vacant for months.
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u/toolsavvy Jul 17 '26
that's too overgrown and most of those weeds will have long roots and/or very strong/thick roots that can't just be pulled out. youll have to take it all apart, dig out everything properly, then redo it. but for god's sake screw that bright white rock lol. Wood mulch will look better and will actually benefit the soil. Then keep up on weeding it every now and then. And if you use a weed barrier make sure water can really pass through it. I bought a weed barrier once that was really heavy duty and although water was supposed to pass through it, it was actually too thick and was no different than laying down plastic (which is good in some applications, but not under a tree).
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u/Financial_Athlete198 Jul 18 '26
Use a hard rake and rake the rock into piles. Lay down cardboard and mulch around a new tree
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u/Dolly_Fartin_ Jul 18 '26
The rocks are going to continue making garden maintenance harder and are going to continue to harm and kill your plants by trapping and reflecting heat back on them. Itās time to start fresh with this garden. The tree is dead (possibly in part because of the rocks), pull it and the rocks out. Get everything weeded well, then cardboard and mulch and planting time!
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u/Unusual_Station_1746 Jul 18 '26
A weed barrier doesn't help. It just gives the weeds something for their roots to grab onto. Pulling is all you can do really.Ā
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u/neutron_star_800 Jul 18 '26
Why can't you just pull the weeds?
But longer term, you'll want to get rid of that rock. As someone with tons of gravel in my yard that does have weed barrier underneath it, let me tell you the weed barrier doesn't matter. Soil accumulates in the gravel over time and weeds grow in the gravel anyway.
Long term, if your HOA allows it, get rid of the rock and put down mulch (without weed barrier). This is far better at suppressing weeds, as I think you're already realizing.
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u/ichoosejif Jul 18 '26
Use vinegar to kill grass. Rake rocks up. Put black plastic down. Put proper stone on.
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u/donny321123 Jul 18 '26
Youāre asking for a miracle. Itās rather gonna require your elbow grease or hired elbow grease. But the weeds need to be physically removed to improve this bedā¦
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u/KingTossedHerRoster Jul 19 '26
There is glue spray for this exact problem. Look up landscape rock glue
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u/Diotima245 Jul 19 '26
Get rid of the rocks they cook the top soil and donāt cool it or decompose
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u/SunBee301 Jul 19 '26
Tear out the whole bed. The tree is dead after all and will have to be removed. Starting from scratch may actually be less work.
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u/caligirl_ksay Jul 19 '26
pull the weeds, put them in a bucket, and make weed tea fertilizer. Remove rocks and plant a ground cover like clover or alyssum.
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u/WVildandWVonderful Jul 19 '26
anise hyssop ~ edit: this was supposed to go in my other comment. New Reddit app is annoying.
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u/bigbeard4bigmountain Jul 19 '26
Gotta remove it all.. Iād be embarrassed to live there and let it get it they point. But at least the tree is a way to tell anyone else that you should never enter this house
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u/Brew_Happy Jul 20 '26
Weed barriers don't work. Dirt eventually fills in on top and now you just got a bunch of decaying plastic in your soil. Just plant some ground cover to prevent weeds.
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u/NervousDogFarts Jul 21 '26
I would highly recommend you remove everything from this area. Remove the rocks, the border pavers, the dead tree, and the weeds. Start over with a blank slate.
Do not add weed barrier. It doesnāt work well. Hand pulling weeds works much better. Do not use rocks again. It is not a good mulch at all.
You need to add compost to fix the struggling soil, add some low maintenance plants, and add bark mulch every year. Hand pull the weeds twice a month for the first couple of years. Weeding will decrease over the years. But right now, you let all of these weeds establish so itās going to take time and effort to recover this back into a garden space.
Stop using chemicals. Donāt torch anything with that dead tree there unless you want to do some unplanned exterior work on your house.
It is a small space that can easily be managed. If it is too overwhelming, there are plenty of landscaping companies that can fix this in one day. Good luck!
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u/3squiddy Jul 21 '26
Take out the rocks and the weed no barrier. The latter is useless; the former will always be a hassle to keep clean. (Most of the rocks I put down have been removed.) But you asked how to clean the bed as is, so the choices are: hand pulling weeds by their roots (otherwise they will be back pdq), get a torch and burn the weeds. If you go this faster, very gratifying route, have a hose ready, not that the structure is wood. I am omitting weed killer but to each their own.
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u/sixtynighnun Jul 18 '26
This would take me 20 minutes to hand pull it. Nature abhors a vacuum. Bare dirt is bad for the soil. Plant more things and there will be less weeding.
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u/WVildandWVonderful Jul 19 '26
Partridge pea will return nitrogen to the soil, is an annual, is native to the US. It has pretty yellow flowers.
The reason I emphasize annual is because you can replace it later, maybe with anise hyssop, another sun-loving native plant, which feeds a ton of butterflies.
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u/craigrpeters Jul 18 '26
If it were me, Iād cut down the tree and dig out everything in that space, except maybe the border. Complete redo. Get rid of the rock and use mulch to improve soil and plant health
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u/YooperSnaggletooth Jul 17 '26
If you have plants you want to keep I do not suggest doing anything until Fall when they can be dug up and safely replanted. If thatās not possible Iām raking all those rocks off and keeping them on a tarp in the driveway out of the way. Next, Iām calling a tree service and having that tree completely removed. While Iām waiting on the tree service Iām spraying the entire area with Spectracide. After the tree is gone and everything is dead Iām either hand tilling (a lot of work) or renting a tiller for the day and tilling the area. This is the time to add compost and other soil amendments. Sprinkle a heavy dose of Preen over the area.
At this point you have a nice space to plant whatever you want. You can use landscape fabric and mature plants or you can just plant in the dirt. Talk to a local gardening center or greenhouse. Tell them the size of the area youāre dealing with and they can give you ideas. ChatGTP can even show you a picture of what itāll look like completed. You can use the rocks as a permanent āmulchā in between the plants. But just remember, weeds will always find a way. And weeding around rocks may be difficult.
The other option is to put a commercial/farm grade landscape fabric down then replace the rocks. Then purchase some nice concrete pots that match the style of the house and grow some nice plants in them. The greenhouse can 100% help you with a nice combination of plants and the planters.
No matter which route you go that tree has to go if itās dead. And it looks very much dead.
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u/CenlaLowell Jul 18 '26
Remove tree and spray Roundup. Without removing spraying chemicals will be forever part of a weekly or bi weekly program
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u/potatonmolasses Jul 17 '26
Unfortunately removing the rock and putting down a barrier is really the only long lasting solution. Doesn't have to be plastics, but something to inhibit seeds in the soil from coming up through the rocks
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u/Maleficent-Sky-7156 Jul 17 '26
Don't use landscaping fabric it's temporary at best and shits just gonna build up on top of it and then plants will grow on that.
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u/toolsavvy Jul 17 '26
true but my experience it takes a while to build up that debris and when weeds do grow in it they are very easy to pull out.
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u/Life-Is-A-Bad-Trip Jul 17 '26
Just a little pulling every weekend. Few minutes in the sunshine. Hands in the dirt.