@MikeC They would hate looking at cardboard or newspaper.
Cardboard and mulch a strip until the grass is dead, cardboard a new adjacent strip, move the mulch over, test plant your new groundcover in the old strip, repeat?
in my steep ditch i sprayed round up in early fall then again in early spring just as the new shoots came up. waited a few days and seeded the ditch with a perennial mix and lupines. bought the mix on sale in the fall and stored in the freezer all winter. the dead grass holds water and protects seeds until they grow out then rots to feed them. i havent touched/ mowed mine other than a little 10-10-10 every few years. every once in awhile if i see discount wildflower seed ,i buy it and spread some more seed in the thinner spots. last year i got some orange candula packets for .25 on sale. now i have about 30 growing out in there. the flowers last into nov. there is still some natives like yarrow and goldenrod that persists but flower competition in there keeps it controlled. also threw a few packets of Japanese red sorba buckwheat seed on the other side of the driveway. they have spread and about 1/3rd that ditch is now mostly buckwheat. my neighbors walking by complement me on it.
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Yes, can hurt trees. But, applications at ground level do not typically have adverse systemic affect on trees of any size using Roundup or similar productā¦so long as you keep it from dampening green leaves on the tree. (And even then, if you accidently spray a treeā¦hose it off real quick!_)
Iāve killed poison ivy under large treesā¦even climbing up the trunkā¦using things like 2-4d and other over the counter products. And didnāt hurt the big tree.
But, Iām conscious not to over-do and saturate the soil in such cases unless I desire to kill the tree.
Those that donāt like herbicides could spread a very light amount of soil, plant the seeds they like, then cover in straw. Should get a decent stand if the right seeds are used. This assumes the grass is a short type and not KY 31 fescue, etc.
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We are fruit growers so its also important to know that Roundup sometimes causes serious injuries when it inadvertently lands on green bark of young trees. Where there is green there is photosynthesis and where there is PS there is the potential for Roundup injury. It happens when trees are feeding their roots.
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So true.
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