Thanks for all the input! Unfortunately, the source of the seeds probably come by the birds and groundsquirrels which are everywhere, and just behind where I stood to take that picture is the woods we live on the edge of...where I'm sure lots of seeds stray from. I'm not at all opposed to using round up! If I use the stuff, how soon after can I try to plant something within the cracks? I found some creeping phlox on sale and bought some. I love it...cascading down other peoples' walls...may take awhile, but I'd love to have that effect myself. I am not sure if the ground squirrels will mess with any plantings....our yard is overrun with them (rock walls especially), but I'd like to try. Thank you for all the suggestions! I am going to read them all more thoroughly and take some notes. I saw a rock wall belonging to a neighbor of a friend of mine on Thursday. They have phlox on the top of theirs...it actually grows into my neighbors yard. Perhaps that might even keep the weeds off the top of the rock walls as well? To the person who suggested inserting smaller rocks in the larger spaces...I've actually started doing that, on another wall, the largest on our property. If interested, I have a photo album that contains pictures of most of our yard...and I believe all but one of the rock walls... you can see them on the link below. yes, I know my whole yard needs a lot of work. Some of you have seen some of these photos before. Here is a link that might be useful: yard album

Folks, don't worry about the colored ink in newspapers! The inks used in newspapers now are soy-based so they can be recycled, de-inked easily and mixed together. Black ink is produced using inorganic carbon blackss. The colors are made from organic pigments mixed with a solution of resins in mineral or vegetable oils. The total concentration of toxic heavy-metal compounds (lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium) must be used in less than 100 ppm. Copper (for blues) are in a form that has no effect on the environment. Small quantities of molybdenum and tungsten compounds may be used, but due to the very small amounts used, they do not pose a threat to the environment. They used to wrap fish and chips in England in newspaper, when it was more dangerous. Now, when it's safe, they don't do it anymore. By 2004, 95% of the newspapers in America were printing with organic inks. If you have doubts about yours, just call your newspaper and ASK! I have found that the amount of breakdown of newspaper and cardboard depends on how much good contact with the soil is involved. Paper/cardboard that just sits on the surface with a lot of exposure to drying air seems to last a longer time. Where I've had a good mulch or a brick holding down a corner, it disappears far more quickly. Sue

The reason that no one has responded to your thread is that no one wants to be responsible for damage to your Blue Rugs. There are several products on the market that claim to control grassy weeds "over the top" of ornamental plants, Fertilome Ornamec being one of them. The problem is that often there is some damage to the good plant that you don't want to harm. If you can, using rubber gloves and glyphosate (Roundup) "wick" the grassy weeds by mixing a strong solution of glyphosate and using a rag, wipe and smear the product on the grassy weeds by hand without dampening the juniper. May want to put newspaper over the juniper and lay the grassy weeds on top until the glyphosate dries. This is best done when the juniper is no longer producing new growth, say in the heat of summer. Make sure that the bed has previously been watered heavily to promote growth in the grassy weeds. Hope this isn't too much work, but by golly, may be the only way to do it without damage to the Blue Rugs. Hortster

I have lemon balm and a few sites state that lemon balm tea works better than any sleeping pill. I agree, Lemon Balm tea is very delicious (10 times better than mint tea) and it calms and wipes away any worries plus makes me fall asleep immediately. However it gets invasive now since we have tons of rain this year. The plus is the roots are shallow, I can kill a big clump of Lemon Balm in less than 10 min. The hardest weed to kill is Canadian thistle, the roots are very deep, reaching down to sub-clay layer. Here's a excerpt from below link: "Weeds tells a story. Cockle Burr grows in the deficiency of the availability of the mineral silver. Bull Thistle grows in the deficiency of available zinc. Musk or Canada Thistles grow in the deficiency of available phosphorus, and Leafy Spurge grows in the deficiency of the available nickel. Every mineral has a job. Without the proper level of available Calcium, these other trace minerals will not be available to the plant. It is easy to react to symptoms (like weeds) instead of dealing with the problems causing the symptoms." https://www.ag-usa.net/Calcium%20-%20%20Is%20your%20soil%20trying%20to%20tell%20you%20something.htm From Straw: Shamrock (yellow Wood Sorrel) gets very invasive after 2 decades of high-rain. When I first moved here in 2001, the new topsoil was very alkaline at pH 8 and there's no shamrock. But as we get lots of rain, the top soil becomes more acidic and there's an explosion of Shamrock. As I dig holes for roses, I take the bottom soil (very alkaline at below 2 feet) and throw on top where I want to suppress the weeds. Yellow Wood Sorrel is indicative of high magnesium and low calcium, which corresponds to my soil test.