I inherited a neglected garden that had a great beginning. I've spent many hours in the last year trying to eradicate seriously mature weeds. Using chemicals would have been both costly and too chemically because of the large area I had to weed. I finally laid down tarp over most of the garden in June, working around established perennials, to see if that would kill the weeds. The tarp will stay on until I think the weeds are dead, maybe next summer...but maybe not until the summer after! I have tried Round-up on weeds that are growing up through established plants, but have found it stressful (don't get it on the good plant!) and often too ineffective on some real hardy weeds.

Somebody said I can bareroot a plant to unwrap the weed roots from around the root of the good plant. How do I do that? Also, is it too late too bareroot a Shasta Daisy since I live on the border of zones 4/5? When should I bareroot?

I dug up some irises earlier, and did some serious untwining of weed roots. I was amazed, and also thrilled to see those weeds GO!

Here's the shasta daisy I need to weed. It has the worst problem of all the perenials with the normal root system.

{{gwi:1352575}}

Thank you!