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Killing weeds while growing juniper

18 years ago

Hi

I am a yard rookie. Learning a lot here on these forums. I have a 6 years old home in Canton north of Atlanta, GA.

My front yard is small 20 x 20 but very downhill and up to 2 years ago invaded by weeds. It is so downhill that I can't bring the lawn mower so I would weed wack the weeds.

2 years ago I got tired of it and spend 2 days pulling all the weeds by hand, and moving the soil, it was bare by day's end. Then I planted 18 small Junipers purchased at home depot and mulched with pine needles.

I never took care of that front yard the following year and it of course became a mess again quickly, I thought the Junipers were going to take off on their own, they didn't.

6 weeks ago (january) I was on vacation and decided to tackle the problem early this season while weeds were dormant, so back to home depot and I placed more pine needle on the dead/sleeping weeds, the juniper looked fine but not growing much.

Today I went to home depot and bought more pine needle, my front yard is already littered by weeds even small, so I sprayed Ortho weed and grass killer on the weeds, pulled some, and mulched again with the pine needle, the good news some Junipers show good growth.

I have a feeling it's not going to be enough, too many weeds already.

Now the questions:

1) What would you do? (No hire a pro answer plz.)

2) Shall I use roundup weed killer opposed to Ortho, can the weed killer damage the junipers?

3) I have never fertilized the junipers, what shall I use to help them grow but not the weeds?

4) I just read the newspaper trick, to control weeds, shall I try it?

My goal is to have the junipers take over the front yard and choke the weeds (I know easy to say, hard to do).

I know weeds will always be there but if I could reduce their amount by 80% in that spot that would be great.

Thanks a lot

Patrick

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Comments (4)

hbwright
18 years ago
Patrick, I'm in the same situation and so interested to hear about the responses. Some of my junipers actually didn't survive. My problem is bermuda grass. We tilled up and pulled up but couldn't get down far enough for the long roots of the bermuda or we would be digging earth out from underneath our fence. I think we are somehow going to need a bobcat to completely renovate but limited expenses won't allow this. I'm overwhelmed and just want the land to go away in that area.
vaindioux
Original Author
18 years ago
hbwright

I am going to try the newspaper trick in the worse areas. It's
under control right now, but I am sure not for long.

Good luck

Patrick
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
18 years ago
Must not use Roundup or similar herbicide as it will kill your plants. RoundUp is a systemic, non-selective herbicide.
vaindioux
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Rhizo I will try to pull by hand and apply newspaper.

Patrick

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