Just covering with landscape fabric will not kill the grass and weeds. If you are waiting until next year you can cover with black plastic and let the sun cook them

My solution---Spray with round-up. Round up is a systematic weed killer it goes through the leaves to the root. It does not harm soil or water because iy is neutralized when it hits the ground.

You can spray up to the plants but not in the plants, because round up will kill anything it lands on, including flowers. Get a couple of large pieces of cardboard, hold them in front of the plants and go in close and spray. You will have to pull by hand anything that is in among the flowers.

Spray when you are going to have 2 days of sunshine. Round up works slowly. In a couple of days you will see wilting and in about 2 weeks it will be dead. If you happen to get some on a plant a spray of water will wash it off

I don't know how many daylilies, rose bushes and irises you have, but I would dig them out if you want to save them, remove any grass roots and solarize the rest using black plastic. As for the area between the trees (I couldn't see it clearly so I don't know how many there are or if there are shrubs) perhaps you could plant some pachysandra or vinca? These could be planted after you have dealt with the weeds and grass. Marg

Do you suppose Veronica Whitley would be nice at the front of my mess? Is it fairly disease resistant? Would it go nicely with roses?

BTW How on earth do people get their pictures on the same page as their posting?

You have to know some HTML.

Put this into your message:

<img src="(full path)">

Replace (full path) with the full path of the image - the http:// part and everything else.

Did you get your pictures over to Photobucket? After that, it's just a cut and paste. You need to cut the HTML CODE and paste it in the Gardenweb message box, type in your message first. It took me a while to learn to. Marg

It's a lot easier to upload your pictures to Photobucket and just copy the, what is it, href code?, something like that, and paste it here. At one forum i go to, you can just copy the picture from PB and paste it in - even easier!

FYI, The species name is written after the genus and is never capitalized. Example: Rudbeckia hirta, Veronica whitleyi, just thought you would like to learn that too ;)

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Veronica whitleyi is a low growing species, this photo is from a couple of years ago so its much larger now. I have 3 patches of this plant in the rock garden. It just keeps spreading and spreading just like thyme and its very easy to divide. It's pretty low maintenance with no known diseases. I think it would look great in front rose border.

Sharon

Hmm, nice, Sharon. Does it root as it goes along, then? Kind of like a living mulch?

I think that Veronica would look great if some of it divided itself into my yard. LOL just kidding. ;0)

Yes Pudge, roots where ever it touches the ground, although I don't think I'd want to walk on it ;)

Gillian ;)

Sharon