Hi,
please see a picture of my garden bed (lawn on the right side, garden bed above the rocks): https://i.imgur.com/tD7ymtM.jpg
This is not my house just a rental so I can’t go through major changes/investments.
Please how to keep the garden bed free from grass/lawn/weed (grass it’s also growing between the rocks.. very annoying!)
I usually just pull them.. some of them are difficult to get them by the roots this one in particular: https://i.imgur.com/hrYsfzB.jpg
Can I spray something, any better system or idea? Thanks :)
I never sprayed anything because on the right side there’s a regular lawn, and I also have pets roaming in the garden.

PS
I’m based in the South West

ApolloBigTree said:

Hi,
please see a picture of my garden bed (lawn on the right side, garden bed above the rocks): https://i.imgur.com/tD7ymtM.jpg
This is not my house just a rental so I can’t go through major changes/investments.
Please how to keep the garden bed free from grass/lawn/weed (grass it’s also growing between the rocks.. very annoying!)
I usually just pull them.. some of them are difficult to get them by the roots this one in particular: https://i.imgur.com/hrYsfzB.jpg
Can I spray something, any better system or idea? Thanks :)
I never sprayed anything because on the right side there’s a regular lawn, and I also have pets roaming in the garden.

PS
I’m based in the South West

There is a commercial formula salt and vinegar spray that RichGro put out, seems to work ok, may need second application, may not.
https://www.richgro.com.au/products/fruits-and-citrus-organic-gardening/beat-a-weed-1l/
This may be easier than attempting manual weed removal, although once the main weeds are gone, manual removal as soon as you see any come back is possible, or re-spray. Guard any trees or shrubs nearby from spray drift.
There are those Two pronged tools that are good at getting into nooks and crannies, but maybe a spray first is better.

Many people control kikuyu with glyphosate though I don’t recommend this practice. By spraying glyphosate, some always lands on the soil or teh mulch. As glyphosate is systemic and needs to travel through a plants vascular system to biodegrade, any sprayed on soil or dead matter becomes a residual concentrate which can be damaging to health of all plants humans and soil life plus runoff into streams is also problematic. My solution is not to use kikuyu though on a rental property this cannot be done wthout specific permission of the land owner. My mother’s yard was completely taken over by kikuyu from the next door neighbours. I covered it all with sheets of newspaper and covered that with a thick layer of grape marc. Only ever saw a few bits of kike around the edges of the covered areas, which once removed were the last of it.

If using glyphosate use a wand and wipe it on.
Kerosene kills the grass in carrot seeding beds but I wouldn’t advise this for situations including plants other than carrots if you want to keep those plants.
There are products that only kill monocots; https://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2002/sp0208.pdf

kerosene might be too unstable for the environment, it might sit on the water table, kill stuff

trichome said:

kerosene might be too unstable for the environment, it might sit on the water table, kill stuff

Yes but since it was first discovered it had been the mainstay of carrot production from the 1940’s to the 1970’s when cheaper, more convenient herbicides such as linuron replaced kerosene.

I’m reasonably sure that virtually all of our efforts to bend nature to our will are wreaking havoc with all aspects of the ecosystem.

roughbarked said:

trichome said:

kerosene might be too unstable for the environment, it might sit on the water table, kill stuff

Yes but since it was first discovered it had been the mainstay of carrot production from the 1940’s to the 1970’s when cheaper, more convenient herbicides such as linuron replaced kerosene.

I’m reasonably sure that virtually all of our efforts to bend nature to our will are wreaking havoc with all aspects of the ecosystem.

Wreaking havoc, And apparently so to with Neem, some say that is not good for the environment too. not enough information.
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35751

trichome said:

roughbarked said:

trichome said:

kerosene might be too unstable for the environment, it might sit on the water table, kill stuff

Yes but since it was first discovered it had been the mainstay of carrot production from the 1940’s to the 1970’s when cheaper, more convenient herbicides such as linuron replaced kerosene.

I’m reasonably sure that virtually all of our efforts to bend nature to our will are wreaking havoc with all aspects of the ecosystem.

Wreaking havoc, And apparently so to with Neem, some say that is not good for the environment too. not enough information.
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35751

Simply being oily is always a problem with concentration.

Anyway one looks at it, lawns and garden beds simply don’t mix well and need to be kept separate. One of the easiest methods is to not plant lawns. Secondly would be to choose your grasses well.
There is no easy way to manage such situations on rental properties without discussing the situation with the owner and reaching an agreement on the land management.
http://www.coastallandscape.com.au/_literature_76462/Five_Ways_To_Stop_Grass

seems that page is gone

scratch that, it is a pdf :)