Question
Ms. Charlotte:  I was in charge of landscaping our Sunday School.  I thought I did everything right: I weed eated down to nearly bare Arizona earth, we sprayed Roundup and Ortho's version of weed control on the grass, covered it with a plastic type weed barrier in the front yard, a cloth type in the back yard and covered it with rock in the front and rock and rubberized mulch in the back. Just as sure as you please, we had weeds and grass come up through our new landscaping.  We have worked for nearly a month and the grass and weeds are overtaking us!  Granted, we have had more rain this year than usual, however, as a Sunday School Superintendent, I'm not entirely sure I should be muttering oaths under my breath.  I recently heard vinegar works.  Do you have any suggestions to help with my weed problem?  Thanks!

Answer
Hi Janelle;
I have the perfect solution, especially for a school ground, with little children running all over it.
ORGANISC!!!!!
See, weeds hate rich soil and will not thrive in it.
Weeds like crabgrass, dandelions, etc will not thrive in rich soil, so make rich soil, and the weeds will die out.
Fertilizers DO NOT enrich the soil. They feed the vegetation growing there, including the weeds.
So if you want a nice grassy lawn, and no weeds, switch to organics.
If you want NO VEGETAYION at all, vinegar will do it.
Try to find 14% vinegar.
The vinegars you get in the grocery stores are usually 4% or 5% acidity. Pickling vinegr is higher.
The higher the acid the faster and better it wiorks, but on a hot day, a good dousing with straight vinegar, even the 5%, will kill the weeds. The hotter the day, the better.
The problem with the landscape covers is, dirt blows on yop of them, and that builds up enough soil to start the grass and weeds, so if you have covered with a landscaper's cloth ( plastic will make a foul and stinking soured soil underneath the cover)with 3 to 4 inches of a mulch, and after a time grass and weeds start, they are probably growing in the dirt that has blown onto the covering.
If you put less than 3 inches of mulch, the sunkight can get through to the soil, and up comes the pesky stuff.
I don't know what idiot came up with it, but we cannot have any grass on playgrounds, or any grounds at a school, of any kind, where the children walk or play. I live in Texas.
I guess they think mud is better when it is rainy.
Anyway. Spraying to saturate it well with vinegar should do it.
That roundup is the biggest, joke, to me.
I kills wjat it is sprayed or poured on. It doesn't permanetly kill. It just kills the roots of what it hits, and the Ortho weed killer is not much better.
AND,,,,, they are both POISON!!!
Vinegar will do it too, just as well, and it is perfectly harmless to the kiddies, and any animals that walk across it.
You may have to spray it every few months, but it will be a lot cheaper than those poisonous weed killers, and far less harmful.
Sunday school superintendents can have ugly thoughts too.LOl
Get a garden sprayer, fill it with somne nice potent vinegar, in the hottest part of the day, and spray, muttering, " Be GONE you menions of Satan!!.
One of my ministers, quite a few yeras ago, tole me he liked to weed the gardens around the church and his home.
He felt like every time he pulled or dug out a weed, he felt like he was killing a sin.LOl
If you get the 14% vinegar, the authority i read says to mix it with water, but I like to spray it on straight. I have a hard time finding pickling vinegar any time except the early spring.
I just use white vinegar, Heinze, because it is 5% and the other brands are 4%, and pour it on straight, on the grass growing in cracks in the driveway etc. I pour on enough to wet the baldes of grass, and enough to go into the soil, to get the root. I do it on a hot day, and the grass is gone from those cracks for the whole summer. I see them to next spring, but Texas heats up soon enough to kill them out early, and have neat looking walks and drives.
Charlotte