Return to the Gardening with Kids Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
backyard playground weed & grass preventioon
| | |
Posted by jmoga z4 WI (My Page) on Fri, Jul 9, 04 at 0:35
| Not sure if this forum is the perfect place for my question. I have a backyard swingset on top of a layer of shredded hardwood mulch and also chipped wood pieces, laying over landscape fabric, which I laid directly over a section of healthy grass (and weeds) without using any chemicals. That was about a month ago. So far, it's sort of working, but just started seeing a couple blades of grass here and there, probably somehow making it's way through the fabric and mulch, and also some little weeds possibly germinating in the mulch. There are so few of these now that it's no big deal, but I fear a few more months, or years, and I could have one ugly weedy playground. Should I spray some sort of total vegatation killer on the mulch? Add more mulch? I know I was dumb to not do something to kill or remove the grass first if I wanted a grass free play area, but there's no going back now - probably a couple tons of wood play set and mulch on the spot. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: backyard playground weed & grass preventioon
| | |
| Could you be diligent about pulling up the grass that is popping up? I've poured boiling water on weeds too. Or add more mulch on top of the places where grass is popping up? It makes me uncomfortable to spray vegetation killer where kids play. |
RE: backyard playground weed & grass preventioon
| | |
| Don't spray it with chemicals. You may have to add mulch periodically since it does decay and kids naturally kick it out of place. Keep it pretty thick (4 or 5 inches). Pulling weeds is not that bad if you just keep an eye on it and develop a habit of plucking them out as soon as you notice them. Show them to your kids and explain what you are doing - they can and will help. (Payment of a penny per weed helps.) Boiling water really does work well. Just out of curiosity - did you choose mulch instead of grass to avoid mowing? |
RE: backyard playground weed & grass preventioon
| | |
| I would suggest using plain old Roundup. It is one of the safest chemicals available (if anyone disagrees, do the research like I did) becuse it degrades naturally after exposure to sunlight or after a very short time period. |
RE: backyard playground weed & grass preventioon
| | |
| I second the Roundup if you have an abundance of weeds. You can always time your applications for say, the night before a rainy day, so that the residue would be washed away before being played on again. Good luck =) |
|
|
|
|
