Apologies for non-science thread.

In both of these want best weed control and maximum durability. Not wanting increased soil fertility.

1. Best bulk weed control surface layer (mulch or pebbles)? Which are worst? Best depth? This is to go over the top of weedmat, so could be thinner than mulch alone.

Nearest landscaper offers a choice of dozens –

Softfall mulch (Intended for playgrounds) Blackwood Mulch Pinebark Mulch Redwood Mulch Terra Cotta Chips Redgum Chips Euca Mulch 2-5 mm grit 7 mm Multi-pebbles 10 mm Causeway Pebbles 14 mm Quartz 10-14 mm Ice (Limestone pebbles) 20 mm Natural Charm Pebbles

Or better to mix them – eg. pebbles near trees to stop rot and mulch further away?

2. Best garden edging? Have seen failures of many types of garden edging, want long-lasting. How to fix so that they never topple over?

Brick – double thickness?
Sleepers – treated pine, redgum or railway? 50 mm thick?
Concrete slabs (have some at the moment – keep breaking and toppling over.)

mollwollfumble said:

Apologies for non-science thread.

In both of these want best weed control and maximum durability. Not wanting increased soil fertility.

1. Best bulk weed control surface layer (mulch or pebbles)? Which are worst? Best depth? This is to go over the top of weedmat, so could be thinner than mulch alone.

Nearest landscaper offers a choice of dozens –

Softfall mulch (Intended for playgrounds) Blackwood Mulch Pinebark Mulch Redwood Mulch Terra Cotta Chips Redgum Chips Euca Mulch 2-5 mm grit 7 mm Multi-pebbles 10 mm Causeway Pebbles 14 mm Quartz 10-14 mm Ice (Limestone pebbles) 20 mm Natural Charm Pebbles

Or better to mix them – eg. pebbles near trees to stop rot and mulch further away?

2. Best garden edging? Have seen failures of many types of garden edging, want long-lasting. How to fix so that they never topple over?

Brick – double thickness?
Sleepers – treated pine, redgum or railway? 50 mm thick?
Concrete slabs (have some at the moment – keep breaking and toppling over.)

I like to use sugar cane mulch. cheap , works well but you do need to top up from time to time. I mean years later to top up btw.

The biggest thing with mulching is fix the weed issue and then mulch if you have an ongoing issues with significant weeds. Some people do not like round up but you can spray round up wait the recommended period of time and put the mulch on and start afresh that way. Quicker , less labour intensive and should work.

Some things to consider when putting in borders, is to understand the slopes of your yards. You could potentially create a dam and a flooding issue if storm water cannot flow away from the property.

Treated H4 and similar timber won’t be affected by termites and borers but some of the chemicals will leach into the soils over periods of time. If you have an edible garden in the future works, this may be a risk to consider pre-empting.

Using just sleepers can lead to termite issues because , water , timber and soil contact is what can encourage this type of infestation easily.

concrete is good but if you have a lot of land movement the concrete can lift and separate.

Brick could be decorative too. If there is a lot of water flow thought it might be worthwhile putting in gravel and ag pipe to ensure water doesn’t push over the bricks later.

I think with borders the depth makes a difference as grasses can grow under the borders.

HTH.

Goodness. How big an area are you mulching? I mulch with my own chips from my prunings. So mine is a mix of euc and exotics. And it’s small. All organic mulches turn to soil over time, so you will have to top up. Pebbles, on the other hand, only degrade on a geological time scale. In terms of heat retention though, I’d not use rock as it will be hotter in the Summer. But then I’ve got lots of rock and gravel naturally here, so I’d not be adding more. Weed seeds will germinate amongst it, whatever you use. However, I’d think pine might be the best for reducing this. I have used a pine needle mulch around strawberries at times. Not much grows under pine trees, a combination of the roots, but also the thick layer of needles. They also break down.

I can’t help much with the borders. Around here you collect rocks, up to as big as you can handle, from some-ones paddock and use them for a natural border. I also use bricks as I’ve had a couple of chimneys dismantled and have a lot of them. They look quite effective set up at a 45 degree angle.

(Internet photo. I haven’t got any done that way at the moment)

I like railway sleepers becaue I can stil get them and pick them up and put them in place. I’d wager that the next time these need replacing in 30 or 40 years, it will have to be someone else that does all that.
I like rocks for crazy paving or bricks if you want to be more neat. Best mulch ever is grape marc if you can get it. It controls weeds and feeds the soiil, holds water and takes forever to break down.

I avoid planting runner type lawns as these know no borders. So no kikuyu, couch etc. One thing I note about kikuyu lawns is that they have nothing that grows in them. ie: the lawn takes over the whole yard.

roughbarked said:

I avoid planting runner type lawns as these know no borders. So no kikuyu, couch etc. One thing I note about kikuyu lawns is that they have nothing that grows in them. ie: the lawn takes over the whole yard.

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

I avoid planting runner type lawns as these know no borders. So no kikuyu, couch etc. One thing I note about kikuyu lawns is that they have nothing that grows in them. ie: the lawn takes over the whole yard.

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

Half my back lawn is looking good.. currently removing all the twitch from it, but the couch is looking healthy..
The other half is killed off so I can reseed new lawn in autumn next year

Stumpy_seahorse said:

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

I avoid planting runner type lawns as these know no borders. So no kikuyu, couch etc. One thing I note about kikuyu lawns is that they have nothing that grows in them. ie: the lawn takes over the whole yard.

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

Half my back lawn is looking good.. currently removing all the twitch from it, but the couch is looking healthy..
The other half is killed off so I can reseed new lawn in autumn next year

The Wet season (if it ever arrives) should get the lawn back to normal.

Tamb said:

Stumpy_seahorse said:

Tamb said:

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

Half my back lawn is looking good.. currently removing all the twitch from it, but the couch is looking healthy..
The other half is killed off so I can reseed new lawn in autumn next year

The Wet season (if it ever arrives) should get the lawn back to normal.

you can see in this video of the rain yesterday, the left side is very healthy, the right side gets a dose of poison every fortnight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmN7XNQ7jwc

Stumpy_seahorse said:

Tamb said:

Stumpy_seahorse said:

Half my back lawn is looking good.. currently removing all the twitch from it, but the couch is looking healthy..
The other half is killed off so I can reseed new lawn in autumn next year

The Wet season (if it ever arrives) should get the lawn back to normal.

you can see in this video of the rain yesterday, the left side is very healthy, the right side gets a dose of poison every fortnight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmN7XNQ7jwc

What’s the poison for ss?

Tamb said:

Stumpy_seahorse said:

Tamb said:

The Wet season (if it ever arrives) should get the lawn back to normal.

you can see in this video of the rain yesterday, the left side is very healthy, the right side gets a dose of poison every fortnight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmN7XNQ7jwc

What’s the poison for ss?

kill off everything, the twitch, caltrop and other weeds are right through it, so we turn the soil and repoison it regularly, so when nothing grows anymore, we can just put the grass seed down.

doing similar in the back paddock, but it’s too big to turn the soul, so when we want to seed that lawn, we’ll get 25 metres of topsoil to spread

I agree with ms about the railway sleepers. I used them in the old place and ended up with a massive termite problem that also destroyed the kids cubby house.. Never again.

I don’t have garden borders anymore.. just edge the lawn and remove any shoots is pretty easy.

For mulch I use pine bark, but I only have a smallish garden and I do it once every two years..

> How big an area are you mulching? I mulch with my own chips from my prunings. So mine is a mix of euc and exotics. And it’s small.

Entire front, side and back yard, well over 100 square metres. There’s no grass anywhere in this place, except the grass that grew by itself over the past 2.5 years that I am feverishly trying to get rid of. Too big an area for pebbles I think, smaller mulch chips would pack together better so wouldn’t have to be quite as thick.

As for grass with runners, it happily grows under six inches of concrete, and its roots happily penetrate through bulk concrete between layers of the concrete pour.

I really want something that will last 20 years before top-up. And garden edging that is similarly durable.

Slope is going to be a huge problem. Nothing is quite flat anywhere. It’s not a huge slope, but enough to play havoc with water run-off, and enough to look wrong with sloping garden edging.

mollwollfumble said:

> How big an area are you mulching? I mulch with my own chips from my prunings. So mine is a mix of euc and exotics. And it’s small.

Entire front, side and back yard, well over 100 square metres. There’s no grass anywhere in this place, except the grass that grew by itself over the past 2.5 years that I am feverishly trying to get rid of. Too big an area for pebbles I think, smaller mulch chips would pack together better so wouldn’t have to be quite as thick.

As for grass with runners, it happily grows under six inches of concrete, and its roots happily penetrate through bulk concrete between layers of the concrete pour.

I really want something that will last 20 years before top-up. And garden edging that is similarly durable.

Slope is going to be a huge problem. Nothing is quite flat anywhere. It’s not a huge slope, but enough to play havoc with water run-off, and enough to look wrong with sloping garden edging.

Terracing helps. Railway sleepers will easily do 20 years.

Thanks all.

Organic Gardening: How to use Black Plastic to Kill Weeds
https://lovelygreens.com/2017/01/using-black-plastic-kill-weeds.html

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

I avoid planting runner type lawns as these know no borders. So no kikuyu, couch etc. One thing I note about kikuyu lawns is that they have nothing that grows in them. ie: the lawn takes over the whole yard.

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

roughbarked said:

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

I avoid planting runner type lawns as these know no borders. So no kikuyu, couch etc. One thing I note about kikuyu lawns is that they have nothing that grows in them. ie: the lawn takes over the whole yard.

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

Tamb said:

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

Where is your lemon tree?

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

Where is your lemon tree?

which one?

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

Where is your lemon tree?

which one?

in the kike, was what I meant.

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

Where is your lemon tree?

which one?

in the kike, was what I meant.

Seems like you are attempting to hinge on an argument relating to two words.. nothing grows.. I could put in there another word: useful.

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

Tamb said:

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

which one?

in the kike, was what I meant.

Seems like you are attempting to hinge on an argument relating to two words.. nothing grows.. I could put in there another word: useful.

one lemon tree is in kike, though it is pretty old and at some time in the future will be removed. the other is in the “orchard” part of the garden and there is no grass there.

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

Tamb said:

I had to renew the septic trench recently so my back lawn looks like a WWI battlefield.

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

I had a kikuyu lawn in Armidale. It was a beautiful soft lawn. Lots of weeds grew in it, too. Bindii was the worst, but we were able weed it out eventually. We didn’t have capeweed. But compass weed, dockweed, evening primrose, clover, dandelion etc all grew in it.

Michael V said:

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

I can actually count on my fingers, the number of times I’ve done this. I’m actually getting to be a master of small spaces that have by nature to fit back into the whole environment.

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

That’s why you can buy a product known as weed and feed. It is all about a monoculture but I was referriing to useful usage of space. There has been no kike in my life other than what came in through the neighbour’s fence. It entirely wanted my parent’s yard and did indeed take it wherever I didn’t remove it from. An early memory from moving back home after my siblings moved out and mum needed someone. I was sick of trying to live with other people and actually needed the gardening space for my peace of sanity. I had to rescue the lemon tree from the strangulation episode of the kike scenario.

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

in the kike, was what I meant.

Seems like you are attempting to hinge on an argument relating to two words.. nothing grows.. I could put in there another word: useful.

one lemon tree is in kike, though it is pretty old and at some time in the future will be removed. the other is in the “orchard” part of the garden and there is no grass there.

My point is that old or not. The kike is why it seems to be.

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

ChrispenEvan said:

I have a kike lawn. lots of stuff grows in them. clover, plantain, dandelion, capeweed. and other things i don’t know the names of.

That’s why you can buy a product known as weed and feed. It is all about a monoculture but I was referriing to useful usage of space. There has been no kike in my life other than what came in through the neighbour’s fence. It entirely wanted my parent’s yard and did indeed take it wherever I didn’t remove it from. An early memory from moving back home after my siblings moved out and mum needed someone. I was sick of trying to live with other people and actually needed the gardening space for my peace of sanity. I had to rescue the lemon tree from the strangulation episode of the kike scenario.

I don’t use poisons in my garden. I didn’t use fertiliser in Armidale. (Apart from home chook-shitted-on chook-yard compost.) The lawn never had fertiliser. Not in 35-odd years.

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

Seems like you are attempting to hinge on an argument relating to two words.. nothing grows.. I could put in there another word: useful.

one lemon tree is in kike, though it is pretty old and at some time in the future will be removed. the other is in the “orchard” part of the garden and there is no grass there.

My point is that old or not. The kike is why it seems to be.

No.

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

That’s why you can buy a product known as weed and feed. It is all about a monoculture but I was referriing to useful usage of space. There has been no kike in my life other than what came in through the neighbour’s fence. It entirely wanted my parent’s yard and did indeed take it wherever I didn’t remove it from. An early memory from moving back home after my siblings moved out and mum needed someone. I was sick of trying to live with other people and actually needed the gardening space for my peace of sanity. I had to rescue the lemon tree from the strangulation episode of the kike scenario.

I don’t use poisons in my garden. I didn’t use fertiliser in Armidale. (Apart from home chook-shitted-on chook-yard compost.) The lawn never had fertiliser. Not in 35-odd years.

don’t fert the lawn. only product i use is glyphosate. do all the edges to keep the kike from going where i don’t want it to.