1) landladies like that don't deserve to own property in the first place... thank you for reminding me why I've always spent more time checking out my landlords than they spend checking out their tenants ;)

basically- she's either never picked up a shovel in her life and has no idea what she's talking about- or she's got rocks in her head.

and I hate to inform you that there is no good answer. a flame weeder is the only thing that I can think of that might get the grass and not kill everything else in the yard- and once a rock bed is infested with lawn grass, nothing but pulling out the whole bed and starting over will work.

thymes and sedums WILL grow 'amongst' the gravel...but will still be competing with the grass.

I'm annoyed enough at the idea of all that work that I can't even think of a 'gentle, loving' way to explain to her that you are her tenant, not her full time gardener.

Chinacat,

I TOTALLY AGREE with you, and have tried to lovingly, and gently express my concerns, and suggestions.

Her response was it's never been this bad before - What did she think I planted more grass seed?

We even offered to pay for the seed and do the rototilling, if she'd just have someone come and take care of the rocks. She hasn't totally ruled it out, but it isn't high on her priority list at the moment.

Also, according to the lease, it's our responsibility to yard maintanence, IE: cut the grass, weed.

Hi Grasshopper,

Do you want to get rid of the rock? Are you familiar with FreeCycle? It's a site where you can offer things free for people to come pick up. The idea is to keep people from throwing so much stuff in the trash! There's quite a large group in Longmont, and if you post that you have rock to get rid of, you'll probably get several people who are willing to come and scoop it up for you. You could decide just how much you want to get rid of. Just be sure you let them know it's in the backyard and not all in a pile in front of the garage or somewhere, and that they'll need to bring a wheelbarrow or something along to transport it to their vehicle. It's amazing what people will do to get something free. Here's a link to the Longmont group if you want to check it out.

Just think how many great perennials, grasses, roses, etc., you could put in if you got rid of some of it!

Good luck and happy gardening,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Longmont CO FreeCycle

I forgot to say........

Be sure you don't plant anymore grass seed in the meantime!!!

LOL, Skybird

i love freecycle.com

of course it was never this bad before- I'll bet that the previous owners did it just before putting it on the market ;)

the problem is this- stuff gets under the rocks. dirt, and weed seeds. so, even if you put down that nasty landscaping barrier, you get things growing on TOP of it in about three years. and oh- round about then, the fabric starts decaying, and you get stuff growing up and through it all over again- but now that you have the rocks down, you can't get at the roots of the weeds!

hence my suggestion of a flame weeder which is basically a torch on a stick ;) Lee Valley hardware sells two models- one uses the old-school burnzomatic tanks (not even as big as a soda bottle) the other hooks up to a propane take like you'd use for a gas grill.

you don't have to burn the weeds- just shrivel them. and after two or three rounds of the roots having to use stored energy to replace the foliage, they give up.

Freecycle is good for finding a home for the rocks. craigslist is good as well.

the folks two doors down laid 6 bags of marble chips down last summer...and then lost their lease, and the owner sold the house to a young couple. this spring- up those rocks came, with a little help from us- the lady between us took some to edge her foundation with, and I took some to fill in the drainage ditches around my place- and we got most of the rocks up without having to 'trash' them :)