Re: Trying to keep mulch beds clean

[Swyck]

Hi,

> >I'm a novice who prefers doing almost anything besides pulling weeds and >grass out of my mulch beds. The weeds aren't so bad since they are sporatic >and I can easily pull them. At this point I'm more worried about the grass >that keeps encroaching into the mulch beds. > >I've been in this house for about a year. I added about 3 inches of hardwood >mulch in the spring and plan to do this every year. It looked OK until about >a month ago. In various places the grass is now getting into it. I don't >have any sort of border between the mulch and grass. Should I be adding more >mulch over the course of the year? If I bury the grass with more mulch will >that kill it? As you know grass is very hard to pull since the roots are so >thick. > >Walking thourgh my neighborhood I see some houses that look better than mine >and some worse. Some of the mulch beds have a channel cut on the border, >about 3 inches wide and 3 inches deep. This seems to stay clean. Any idea on >how they do that? What are some other ways? Chemicals? Any advice is greatly >appreciated by myself and my aching back. > >Rick

Yeah, I'm in pretty much the same boat. I'm biting the bullet and edging the borders using an edger, and then making a v shaped trench about 3" across. Not sure if I'm going to install an edging material yet. I'm dropping newspaper and then mulch on existing grass.

Swyck

[B & J]

I have four inch steel edging around all my beds, but I also have a bermuda lawn, which find that edging height a minimal challenge. Every three to four weeks I mix up a sprayer full of RoundUp, which I use to beat back the invading grass. Occasionally a stray weed comes up through the mulch, but I pull them or spray them with RoundUp if I happen to be edging the bermuda at the time. This is effective when I am diligent about staying ahead of the invading grass or weeds.

John

[Rick]

Hello again and thanks to all who have responded. The consensus seems to be that a trench should be dug to separate the mulch from the lawn. The lawn should then be edged to keep the trench clean. This should be do-able for me. I can start small with a couple of the worst mulch beds. I have quite a few some don't seem to have the problem.

I've seen the Black and Decker LE750 hog edger. This is an electric edger that can supposedly dig trenches as well. It seems to go for around $89. Has anyone used this thing and can I cut the trenches with it or should I get a professional to do that? Maybe I'll start a new thread asking about this.

A few people mentioned using newspaper to smother the grass and then mulch. I'll try this as well since digging the grass out is very difficult.

Thanks again for all responses.

Rick