The herbicides that you would MOST COMMONLY use work in such a way that they are absorbed through the live, green foliage of the plant and translocated internally throughout the plant tissues in order to kill it. It will not do any good for you to spray bark, dead tissues or soil around a plant. So at this time of year, the only thing you can do (and it will be worthwhile) is to manually cut and get rid of the plants that you don't want. In the spring, these plants will all put out a flush of growth that, at some point will slow down. Don't let any of them re-grow higher than your shoulders or they'll be too difficult to spray. Most weeds will be in the 2 to 4'-range when the flush of growth simmers down. This is when you should spray them with herbicide. The slowing growth is the clue that the above-ground foliage is in balance with the below-ground roots (growth energy.) There's sufficient foliage to absorb a lot of spray and do a lot of damage to the plant. After one week you can cut all the dead plants and remove them. You will see that many, or even most woody plants after a time (some weeks or a few months) will begin to re-grow new foliage. Again, let this foliage grow until there is enough of it to absorb a lot of spray. It's like the "spring flush of growth" but not as much. Then zap it again with the herbicide. Wait one week and cut and remove. There will probably be three of these "spray and cut" sessions during the first growing season. But you will see that by the end of summer you will be well on the way to controlling and eliminating all the undesired growth. There will be a few plants that will continue to battle you into the second growing season, but keep after them and you will win. When things begin to get under control, you can heavy mulch the ground to keep weed seeds from sprouting. The best source of free mulch (if you can get it) is tree trimming companies who need a place to dump shredded wood. To cut the unwanted, dead plants you'll need some stout loppers and a little folding pruning saw. Light duty loppers are worthless. Here, I'll go against the overwhelming preponderance of advice in print as I've used these tools for decades for my personal pleasure and professionally for many years and purchased them for maintenance crews. When I say I FAR PREFER I don't mean a little, but A LOT, the ANVIL type cutting heads (on the loppers and hand pruners) as opposed to the "bypass" type. Everything you read will say the opposite, but I can't believe these people are really using these tools all that much. Why? After a few cuts with the "bypass" type cutters, they begin to dull a little. As soon as this happens, the wood of the plant being cut has a tendency to pry and spread the cutting blades apart from each other. The wood (that's half cut) then jams and sticks tight in between the two blades. You have to stop working and clean out the wood. But it will happen on many of the following cuts, too. This can happen with a new tool in heavy use in less than a day. The ANVIL type just don't have this tendency. They cut and keep on cutting. They can be taken apart and the blades can be sharpened, too. It's easier as they're more or less straight. The "bypass" type are curved and more difficult to sharpen. However, the "bypass" type will be really great the day they're brand spanking new! I would suggest that if you don't already have a 4-gallon back-pack type sprayer, that you get one. The sprayers that you hold in your hand will rip your arm out of your shoulder socket before you get much work done. The back-packs can go all day... as long as YOUR back will hold up. People have the mistaken idea that Round-up kills everything. It doesn't. The most effective, readily available and cost effective weed killer is a combination of Glysophate (commonly sold as Round-up)... and one of the 2,4-d products (commonly sold as Weed-b-gone.) Either of these chemicals can be sold under various non-brand trade names and are usually cheaper that way. Mixed together at their full, regular strength, they will work well for general killing of most weeds. I use them in combo because otherwise, you find that you have to go back and spray a lot of things over when one herbicide didn't kill or maim it well enough. So it saves much time and effort. A few tips... don't spray when it's windy, but there will almost always be some slow breeze. Spray a swath while you walk backwards so that you're not walking in the spray and it's not blowing back on you. You can spray anything up to about the height of your shoulders (keep the pressure low when doing so) but not higher or you will eat it. So any weed or sapling that's higher must be cut down to that height or lower, first. In doing this type of work it's a good idea to know what poison ivy looks like. Even in the winter, ALL leafless parts of the plant are just as toxic as the leaves are in summer. (Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience having gotten a horrible case of it in the face in February once.) If you accidentally discover that you've run into it, there's no need to freak out. It takes some time for the offending oil to work its way into the skin. If you take a shower within a half-hour or so, you'll not suffer any ill effects. Of course, I can't say what the outer limit is on this window of time. Keep in mind that the toxic oil can spread from clothing to skin, so don't take a shower and then handle tainted clothing or tools.

Hi, I had the same question before we put in a 10' flagstone path last year. I decided to do the gravel and sand base. However I ended up removing the sand between the pavers in order to grow ground cover. I don't believe sand has any nutrients, it didn't seem to me that anything was going to be able to grow in it. If I had it to do over, I might have still done the gravel and sand base. (Maybe...just added a few additional stones to the ends and they seem quite stable dug into ground without the base.) I would definitely skip the sand between the stones. I would just put back well-amended soil. I don't think this would have caused any issues with the stones shifting because a) our underlying ground is compacted clay and b) it doesn't get *that* cold here in zone 7 northern VA. Plus with a good amount of space between paves, a little shifting isn't going to be the problem it is if the flagstones are abutted against each other. Re what to plant between the stones. Well, our path runs from full shade to full sun so finding one thing to work the whole way has been a challenge. Last year I planted Steppables--Scotch moss and a couple of others. I'm drawing a blank on what they were, sorry. Absolutely no sign of them this year at all. Not sure if they were a casualty of our hard winter or the rain water that runs through our deck onto the path. I just put in dwarf mondo grass a couple of weeks ago and so far it is doing well. Oh, and I discovered that our normally very pricey local nursery sells mondo grass by the flat (24 pots for $29) which was much more economical than the individual little Steppables. Let me know if anything above doesn't make sense. Deanna

You have a very nice natural looking area. Below is what I did with my steps, I had to go for something sturdy instead of keeping it more natural. I'm up there at least once a week including when steps are wet or frosted and feel no danger of slipping or falling. You may not be able to tell but there is 2 6x6x24 inch landscaping timbers per step. I figured 12x24 inches is big enough for anyones foot. Look near the top you can see 2 per step. I anchored each timber with 2 foot rebar on both ends. I used 4 8-foot timbers and sealed the ends of them with marine varnish once cut in 24 inch lengths.I put myoporum along the edges as I have it elsewhere also. The block retaining walls were already there but I have raised them. There used to be just 1 railroad tie per step but they started to rot away and too much erosion. I think your aussie will just wear away the flagstone and soil and any groundcover in between.

I've had Camano Island deer clip camellia leaves. If you try to grow diverse plants on property where deer are not excluded you always have the limitations they impose hanging over you, with the possibility of long-ignored specimens being browsed to the quick during a hard winter - on top of everything else. When I used to volunteer there during the early days of the Seattle Rhododendron Society taking over the Meerkerk garden on Whidbey Island I saw that the Meerkerks had non-rhododendrons planted in a fenced enclosure near the house, with most (but certainly not all) of the unprotected plantings being rhododendrons - that is how much selective pressure deer can exert.