WASH the ROCKS FIRST!!! I do not use rocks as a mulch, but I do have a dry stream bed and another area with decorative rocks. I use a heavy amount of newspaper and then a double-layer of the good weed barrier. My stream bed is made up of all pebbles that I have dug up during gardening (I live on Long Island - a "boulder" here is anything bigger than a foot; a "rock" is anything the size of a fist; we mostly have beach pebbles). I literally wash all the dirt off my rocks before putting them in the stream. The rocks you buy in bags MUST BE WASHED as well!!! I bought some pretty rocks for a walk-about around a planter, and I realized that there was so much rock dust in the bag that weeds were bound to grow in it, so they had to be washed first. Here's my rock-washing technique (using pots with holes doesn't work - all the dirt collects in the bottom): I have a 2ftx4ft garden cart that is made of a steel mesh, so it drains. I cut a piece of window screen to fit it, then dump a layer of rocks on top and use a sprayer hose to power wash them. Note: Eventually weeds will grow down into both newspaper and weed barrier. Heavy newspaper will last a few years though. Weeds grow in cedar mulch as well, but they are easy to pull. Be careful with newspaper/ weed barrier if you have groundcover bulbs - they will eventually push their way up and it looks really bad. Also, if you have shrubs, do not put the newspaper too close - the newspaper will block any fertilizer you apply. DO NOT use impermeable plastics as a weed barrier - you will kill your plants, create puddles, and DESTROY the beneficial soil microorganisms. Plus, when you lift up the plastic (even after a few weeks) it will REEK like a landfill (due to anaerobic decomposition). Newspaper smothers weeds below ground, but I have just discovered that even doubled-up weed barrier does not stop small weeds from rooting into the ground. I have a small berm that I am trying to create a moss garden on with chunks of recycled concrete, and my moss keeps being invaded by grass, so I laid down a thick layer of weed barrier on the berm last year, then put in the concrete chunks, hoping that would stop weeds. Well, this spring I found a baby Maple seedling that rooted itself through 2-3 layers of weed barrier into the soil beneath. Now I have to remove all the concrete and smother the area with newspaper, then weed barier (seems to be ok for grass weeds), and then I'll probably put down a layer of sand-clay mixture that will harden into cement before the concrete chunks are put back. There is nothing worse than removing weeds from moss - the moss gets pulled up with the weeds. Even though I washed the rocks for my stream, I cannot keep all the dirt out because leaves fall from the trees and then decompose into dirt. So, if I start getting weeds there I will try either the vinegar or salt-solution remedy (my mother sprays ammonia on weeds that pop up between the bricks along the driveway). All the plants along my stream are at least one foot away from the edge, so hopefully I won't kill them.

A landscaper used the weed cloth in my father-in-law's shrubbery beds and it was a nightmare! the weeds just germinated in the mulch on top of the cloth and sent tiny roots through the cloth into the soil. they were impossible to pull. I will never use the stuff. I just put down 10 to 15 layers of newspaper covered with wood chips. Those will work in vegetable or perennial beds and will smother the existing weed seeds. Every year, I add another layer of wood chips as the newspaper and older chips break down and enrich the soil. If weeds to appear, they're easy to pull. The man who cut down some trees for us has a good chipper and will deliver chips by the dump truck load for free because it saves him a trip to the landfill and a tipping fee. A lot of people won't use wood chips because they use up nitrogen as they decay, but if you let them sit for a couple of months before you spread them it's not a problem. I sometimes don't even do that and have not noticed that the plants have suffered from it. Also consider using a preemergent herbicide to keep the weed seeds from germinating. Preen is the easiest to find, but the garden stores may have others.

"So are you volunteering to pull weeds?" Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. Willing to help you examine the situation and devise a plan though, more than. If you are serious about doing anything but spraying, I'll be happy to take time to discuss it. We're so close! No single approach will keep any location weed free, and I think we're all smarter than a bunch'o'weeds. Let's sort this out. "Prevent them from going to seed in your yard ... the first couple of years you really have to keep up with the weeds, then it tapers off. " Absolutely! If one has annuals that can be kept from making new seeds, that should reduce next years' invasion drastically. Especially in a new bed, a crop of something unexpected can come up much too numerously for many people to have time to pull individuals. That's not even necessary if the plant can be prevented from making seeds by other means, like weed-trimming during flower formation time, smothering, hoeing, depends on what it is, where it is, but doing something that prevents new seeds from forming is necessary to prevent a repeat. When starting a new bed, I try to keep the planting sparse, so I can see well what is sprouting. Not starting more new bed area than one has time to monitor is helpful. Taking the time to use a degradable smother like newspaper or cardboard is worth it in time saved dealing with weeds later. And get the weeds when they are small sprouts ... " Yes, still on the same page. These are easy to pull, disturb the soil surface so they die, smother, step on them, depends on the particular weed and bed type. "a couple of rounds of spray early in the season does more than fighting mature ones all summer." Oops, we've diverged. When I first saw unwanted sprouts, out they came, while small and it only took seconds. If you're "fighting" weeds with chemicals "all summer," and I'm weed free after pulling/hoeing/smothering those little sprouts from a single effort, who's working harder? IDK but it sounds like I've spent less time and effort. It's too hot to battle weeds in the summer here, and you probably feel the same way about where you live. I'm not trying to chide you, just help you ask yourself some questions, and hopefully spend less time, effort, $, and get better results. What are the weeds? If spraying kills them, why are they there? What you do is up to you, but be honest about the results you're getting from your efforts. Been reading it for so many years, those who keep using RU are the ones who keep 'battling weeds.' Anyone who is spraying anything a 2nd time is working harder than I do, simply by stepping outside the 2nd time. Never been there, but in the baking desert of AZ, how much unwanted growth can there be? I manage w/o chemicals in AL, near FL border, living next to the pic below for years. (The bare spot is from where the abandoned house was finally torn down the day I was taking these pics.) ...

I have a wonderful way of getting rid of weeds and sterilizing the soil all at once. I took this from a library book years ago and it works wonders. Also great as a weed barrier. If you have patience, it takes a year for the process to work by itself...but here goes. Take a heavy sheet of plastic (I used an old pool tarp that was going to go in the garbage anyway, but the heavy black plastic weed barrier product will work fine too), lay it all over the area that needs to be de-weeded, lay something really heavy all around the perimeter and in the center to keep the plastic from coming up, and let it go for one year. Everything will have smothered down and all you're left with is soil. You know it's ready because after a year you'll see that there's nothing but dirt and then you know it's ready. After that for our patio, we graded properly, laid new plastic down, set the stones over top and the weeds are extremely minimal. Should have done that 25 years ago but didn't know.