Question
QUESTION: I have a troublesome berm. I want it to be vibrant with colorful plants, either
perennials or annuals or both. It is about 80' long. The berm is at a 45
degree slope and about 12'. It divides my property and a city walkway. What
ever I do the weeds are abundant. I have tried tilling, roundup (a lot of),
pulling weeds even total vegetation kill, which killed some of my plants. All
to no avail. I have heard of using cardboard or newspaper then a thick base
of shredded bark. This area gets plenty of water from my sprinkler system.
Fabric is to much of a problem. What do I do to keep the weeds from
growing? I live in michigan and I am getting ready to attack this.

ANSWER: Hello,

A low growing ground cover may provide some control and mulch is a good weed control measure. You might also want to consider using an inorganic mulch like pea gravel. Good luck. Write back if you have further questions.

Mark Harshman
http://www.harshmandrafting.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I need a little bit more advice. I want to plant colorful flowers or plants not
myrtle. the slope is at a 45 degree angle so pea stone won't work. And what to
do about the weeds that keep growing back?

Answer
Hello,

As I mentioned before,consider using a low growing ground cover and use mulch.  There is no way to avoid all weeds and so you will have to do some weeding by hand. The best alternative is to weed by hand and try to make the weeds work for you by using them for compost and then use the compost as a mulch to prevent more weeds.  This is sometimes a more attractive alternative than using the various conventional control measures,which often turn out to be a waste of money and labor.

Another alternative is to eliminate the plants altogether and use some type of dry landscape or other structure.

You also might want to give solarization a try. This involves using heat trapped inside clear plastic to kill the weeds. Follow these guidelines:

Mow all existing weeds down to ground level.

Uproot the weeds with a tiller or hoe,to a depth of 1 foot.

Remove the uprooted weeds with a rake,then rake the soil again to smooth it. Wet the soil. Wet soil conducts heat better.

Cover the area with clear plastic sheeting of 1 milimeter to 6 milimeters thick. Hold down the sheeting with rocks,etc.. and make sure no gaps exist in the edges of the sheeting. Leave the area covered for 4 to 6 weeks. Some experiments have shown plastic bubble wrap and double plastic sheeting to be more effective.

The best time for solarization is june through july because thats when the sun is hottest,but solarization can be done all year. However,solarization done outside the june to july range will take longer. Leave plastic in place for 8 to 10 weeks in cool weather.

The soil will heat up to about 125F and this method will kill most weeds,but not all. It will also kill certain harmful soil pathogens and certain insects. Various extension agencies have studied this method and it has been proven to be as effective or nearly as effective as herbicides. I personally used it on a container of about 2 feet in diameter and it did a very thorough job of killing the weeds. A few weeds survived,but this process killed 99.9 percent of the weeds in my container.  Good luck. Let me know if I can be of further help.

Mark  Harshman
http://www.mahdrafting.com
Email: [email protected]

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