Smother it.

mow the area very short.

cover the areas with thick layer of newspaper.

wet the newspaper down well.

cover the newspaper with 3" thick wood chip mulch.

push mulch aside, cut whole in paper, insert plant, press dirt arond plant, water... push mulch back around plant.

Thnx joepyeweed - will try it this weekend.

priya, cardboard does the same job and is a little easier to work with. Go by a store that sells large things (appliances, for instance) and pick up some big boxes. Then do as joepyeweed says, using the cardboard.

I hate to rain on the parade, but we did that last year to try and get rid of a large patch of grass and weeds. This year the weeds came back with a vengeance. I'm resorting to Round-up this year.

That is really odd rcr3w. I have had just the opposite experience. The garden beds that I created with roundup have a continual weed problem, where the garden beds that I created with smothering have less weeds.

Round up only kills the weeds that are actively growing at the time you spray the product. Where a very thick smother layer can be effective all season long.

Leslies is right, that cardboard works better. But I usually use newspaper because that is what I have readily available. YOu do have to use very thick layer of newspaper.

Weed control is a continual process - it is never a once and done. so no matter what you use to start a bed, round up or smothering or tilling - there will always be weeds.

I tried smothering out some spiderwort with old tar shingle's,Plastic,and mulch. They still came up and multiplied I think I'll try round up. Tree

Sprayed Weed B Gone Max and then pulled out the weeds. We have not had new weeds pop up the past 2 weeks, its still early to tell though.