Weed control, maybe I win this one

[Kingcreek]

My wife and I have very different viewpoints.
She established very nice flower beds and landscaping over the last 25 years but she will be 70 years old tomorrow.
She is a certified landscape design architect so I dont have a lot of leverage. I’m just an old farm boy.
She had total knee replacement 1.5 years ago with complications so she hasn’t been able to do what she normally would. She does not not like chemical.
She might have admitted that I was right.
She does the flower beds with special or valuable plants in front of the house. Behind the house is a dry stream bed that weeded up. It is stone and rock with a perf tile under it.
Against her wishes I spent 15 minutes spraying it with glysophate. 5 days later I attack it with dragon breath ie the old propane stump burner. My time 30 minutes total.
She might have admitted that it worked better than her spending 4 hours manually pulling weeds.

[Ben]

Yeah, I'm not a big chemical fan either, but once you're talking larger areas, it just ends up being your best option. For my weeds in the pastures and natural areas, I use some combo of brush hogging, chemicals, and burning.

When my dad passed away a few years ago, it was right during the main Spring weed season, and the noxious Canadian thistle got away from me in my one alfalfa and grass mix pasture while I was back and forth to CA. I was backpack spraying it with 2,4D and cutting the bigger ones down, but the next year they came back as big as ever (they have a ridiculously large root system). That's when the county weed guys here turned me onto Milestone. Expensive, but it destroys the entire root system. I put it in the backpack sprayer and did miles and miles of walking to spot spray every single one that I saw over a couple of months.

This year I had less than 25% of what there was last year, and much of that is likely just plants that I missed. I spot sprayed all those, and fingers crossed, they'll be pretty wiped out next year.

The key to chemicals is using the right stuff at the right time, which is still a big learning process for me.

[zxcvbob]

Yeah, I'm not a big chemical fan either, but once you're talking larger areas, it just ends up being your best option. For my weeds in the pastures and natural areas, I use some combo of brush hogging, chemicals, and burning.

When my dad passed away a few years ago, it was right during the main Spring weed season, and the noxious Canadian thistle got away from me in my one alfalfa and grass mix pasture while I was back and forth to CA. I was backpack spraying it with 2,4D and cutting the bigger ones down, but the next year they came back as big as ever (they have a ridiculously large root system). That's when the county weed guys here turned me onto Milestone. Expensive, but it destroys the entire root system. I put it in the backpack sprayer and did miles and miles of walking to spot spray every single one that I saw over a couple of months.

This year I had less than 25% of what there was last year, and much of that is likely just plants that I missed. I spot sprayed all those, and fingers crossed, they'll be pretty wiped out next year.

The key to chemicals is using the right stuff at the right time, which is still a big learning process for me.

Have you tried Garlon (triclopyr)?  It's in the same herbicide family as Milestone but it's not nearly as persistent.

[Kingcreek]

I’m not familiar with that one. I just go to the selection at the farm supply store.

[Ben]

Also not familiar. I'll have to gazoogle it.

[K Frame]

My friend Dave was telling me yesterday about trying to remove the pine needles from the dry stream bed rock feature in his yard.

He put it in earlier this year right after they moved in and didn't take into account how many needles would drop onto it and amongst the rocks from the big pines in his yard. Apparently they're a variety that tends to drop LOTS of pine needles twice a year or some such.

He tried removing them with his leaf blower. No joy. He tried using the shop vac. No joy.

He said he thought about getting a propane torch like the one you're talking about but was afraid that things might get out of control and light off one of the pine trees or that the rocks would get all sooty and black from the resin in the needles. He was also worried that he might melt the plastic underlayment and end up with weeds.

So, he hauled ass to Harbor Freight and got himself one of the 2 HP dust collection systems and a hose.

Apparently that is working, but it's a slow process.

[Kingcreek]

My death by fire method is safe enough because there is nothing around it but lawn grass.
I did have to sluice a bucket of water on an old wooden beam that she incorporated into her design when I tore down a late 1800s corn crib. It is notched for joists and she planted something in each notch but it’s pretty rotted now anyway. Got a little to much dragons breath on the end of it.

[Brad Johnson]

Weed control, maybe I win this one
...
She might have admitted that it worked better than her spending 4 hours manually pulling weeds.

You didn't win. It's a ruse lulling you into a false sense of security.

Brad

[K Frame]

"My death by fire method is safe enough because there is nothing around it but lawn grass."

I'm personally of the opinion that fire solves almost every problem, but I had to agree with him that it might not be great because if one of the 30 foot pine trees goes up, it's likely all 7 of them would go up.

And that might affect his homeowner's insurance.

[JTHunter]

Weather permitting, I try to spray in mid- and late spring but the past 3 years have either been too rainy or too windy to use my hose-end sprayer.  I have to spray over 2K feet in the back yard that is covered in rock for a "parking area" as the previous owner ran a landscaping business here.
When I DO get to spray, I alternate with glyphosate then about 2-3 weeks later, I use (IIRC) a "diquat" compound.  Both are "total vegetation killers" but even alternating, the results don't last the season.