Well, if you want to kill all plant life in the area, you can mow (if needed) till, then water and cover with black plastic. Most seeds under the black plastic will germinate, then die. I have done this and it works well. It takes maybe 2 weeks. Earthworms and bugs are not harmed at all, at least for me in my climate. I did this in spring, so it wasn't that hot. Solarizing with clear plastic is something that people do on lawns, and I believe it works, but I have never tried it. (I kill all my lawns by forgetting to water them). But anyway, to solarize a lawn, you water like crazy, then cover with clear plastic in the middle of summer for several weeks. The heat kills plants and most pathogens, too, supposedly. I don't think it would hurt mobile organisms like bugs and earthworms (I assume they would go deep during the day, and come up at night). In any case, the plastic needs to be close to the ground for this to work. It isn't going to work if you have shrubs sticking up everywhere. Black plastic works by totally excluding light, and maintaining favorable conditions for germination underneath. Black plastic will eventually kill any plant that needs light to survive, but for healthy shrubs, this may take much too long to be practical. Oh, and the coverage must be fairly complete. If light leaks in, the process will take longer or not work. Also, I don't think black plastic it will stop rhizomes or ground-creeping vines from snaking through the area. Clear plastic works by raising the soil temperature extremely high so that most living organisms die. The high moisture is needed to let the heat permeate as deep as possible. There may be heat-loving decomposer type organisms at work in solarization, too. I don't know. If so, the moisture may help keep them alive. I have seen reports that it works even on Bermuda grass, so I assume it can kill rhizomes and vines. Of course the bermuda may start to spread back in once the plastic is removed. --McKenzie

One thing that might do it is solarizing the soil right next to the fence on both sides. You could leave the plastic there all summer, and there's still time to set it up. It works best in the summer heat. The link recommends removing the sod and weeds first, but if the growth is trimmed short, you can place the plastic on top of it and let it cook! Since the best solarization plastic is only 1 mil thick, it does deteriorate very quickly in the sun. No matter what you do (vinegar, herbicide, etc.), you'll probably have to repeat it next year unless you can cover the newly-bare earth with something permanent that won't permit grass or weeds to grow there again. THAT's what I'd put on my thinking cap about.

a weed in my garden ... its the whitish center.. that forces me to remember to kill it... ken

Such innocents we all were! Love these--hope more people share. When I was 5 or so we moved in next to an old lady who had a garden in her backyard. I don't remember anything about that garden except what I was sure was a single bright red rose bloom that appeared right near the short wire fence between our properties. One day, outside without my sister, I had to get closer to the flower. I don't know whether I actually wanted to pick it or not, but I had to really see it. I found myself at the fence, where I leaned over and reached out carefully--not realizing the flower didn't seem so special for no reason--only to snatch my hand back when the old lady appeared at her back screen door to yell at me to stay out of her garden. It was the only time I can remember seeing that lady, and the only time I can remember seeing that rose. We didn't live there long, though. Later on I learned the story of Beauty and the Beast. Guess who the beauty and beast were in my young memory? In all fairness, she was just trying to save her only rose from the threat of certain destruction I posed... This post was edited by lovesblooms on Mon, Mar 3, 14 at 18:26