One thing drip irrigation is good for is it can limit water to the rose or good plants only and not water the weeds. In your area if rain is more common I can see where the weeds go wild. I plan to weed, then put on my manure, organic fertilizer, compost etc then top with mulch. I'm hoping this will allow the "good plants" to stay ahead of the weeds like on your fence line. It seems to be a constant struggle. I have a "wooly tarweed" that seeded all over, and I thought it was pretty but now it has gone too far. So basically I'm right there too with you. The weeds love your open beds. Sorry I'm no help.

I live in the hills in the countryside, and have undeveloped areas directly in back of our house and across the street. These areas contain lots of weeds. I keep my beds pretty much weed free by pulling anything that dares to show its face in winter-early spring when things have barely started to warm up. From then on, I have the upper hand. My beds are full of perennials and other plants besides roses, and I think it's difficult for weeds to find a good spot to germinate because of this. It occurred to me that the aged compost made from your horse manure may not have been heated enough to kill weed seeds it probably contained. I have had this problem in the past with horse manure compost given to me by a friend. I hope you find a solution to your weed problem. Diane

Don't use Roundup, or any kind of weed-killer; these are poisonous and completely unecessary. What I would do is weed the bed thoroughly by hand, then cover the bed with cardboard, and then cover the cardboard with a thick layer of mulch. If rain is scarce,you might want to water the bed thoroughly beforehand. Ideally you'd then wait a year or so before planting out roses again, but I don't know that I'd have that kind of patience! Then keep the bed carefully mulched. I myself someday hope to get to the point that my own garden will be like Diane's: "My beds are full of perennials and other plants besides roses, and I
think it's difficult for weeds to find a good spot to germinate because
of this." But in the meantime, cardboard with mulch on top is the way to go. The cardboard, as it decays, is good for the soil, and I have seen that earthworms absolutely LOVE the interface between it and the soil surface,which is a BIG plus!

You may want to put mulch on top of the composted manure, that can help suppress weeds. Or the weeds could be coming from the compost.

You have to determine exactly what weeds you are dealing with. Are they perennial or annual weeds? Are they grasses or broadleaf weeds? Knowing the exact weeds names and understanding their attributes will go a long way to helping you control them.

For example: If you are plagued with the perennial grass, Couch Grass, aka. "Quack Grass," aka. "Witchgrass," (Elymus repens), one of the most persistent, rampant weeds in existence, you can get it under control better knowing it grows poorly in shade and prefers dry soil conditions. Keeping the bed heavily planted with roses, providing plenty of shade at ground level, and keeping the beds well mulched and watered will greatly inhibit Couch Grass. This goes for most weeds, too.

You may be continually reinfesting your beds with fresh, viable weed seeds from your horse manure. By no means discontinue using your manure! Just determine if it is part of the problem and perhaps applying a more aged manure that has heat killed the weed seeds is part of your solution.

I use pigeon manure from my loft. It is put down once a year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, taken from a continually growing supply, added to all year until now. Some of the manure is almost a year old up to the manure that was made just the other day. It goes down relatively hot, but decomposes nicely by spring. I work it into the mulch at this time, disturbing the soil beneath as little as possible.

There are viable safflower, corn, pea, wheat, oat, buckwheat, etc. seeds mixed in with the manure, not many, but they are there. They germinate in the spring and are easily twisted to death, not dug up, with the flick of my wrist using of my 4' long handled, fork tongued dandelion weeder. It is a most invaluable tool to me, indispensable in weeding my very wide (3 bush deep) rose bed, without having to step into it too much. I avoid getting annihilated by rose thorns, and don't even have to bend down much.

A good quality mulch applied generously (>2",<3"), will go a long way to minimizing weed problems. Mulch performs so many other good functions, too. It keeps the soil moister, cooler, and more consistently temperature regulated; reduces weed growth (of course); keeps the soil from crusting; reduces soil compaction beneath the mulch by spreading out your body weight when you walk on it; keeps mud from splashing up onto the foliage when it rains; and it looks attractive...shows off the roses better, like a beautiful picture in a beautiful frame.

I like pine bark mulch, (bigger chunks often called nuggets are best, IMHO), followed by cypress mulch. Hardwood mulch decomposes too quickly and looses its effectiveness, turning into compost, which is OK, but it no longer functions as a mulch and becomes part of the soil. This is good, but it is no longer serving as a mulch.

I find a well mulched rose bed is the primary line of defense in weed control.

Maybe a good ground cover plant? I don't have nearly the weeds in the Rose beds that are surrounded by ground cover plants. I have also noticed that when my grass gets too long and then gets edged with a weed eater, that the weed eater flings the grass seed heads around and they pop up in my beds. Lisa

I had the same weed situation as you do and removed my roses until i got control.

My solution was- First, dig out and sift out any roots, underground stems, etc. Then fix the soil so pulling any sprouting weeds is easier. Next, water to germinate any seed and kill those emerging by smothering with thick mulch or cardboard or both. When you don't have that much sprouting and none coming back from roots or stems, plant the roses and surround with cardboard topped by mulch.

If you have wind bringing in weed seed you will have to keep a thick layer of mulch on. If an mulch or manure you bring in has weed seed, you will be starting all over. I had a free mulch full of nutsedge and I had to redo ALL my beds. Everything I had was in pots and it looked like a grower's yard here for a long time. A hard lesson to learn.

Kitty and others, I think you are exactly right about hand weeding [going to be a big job!] and getting things under control first. I think it would be best for me to mark out one section at a time - do it totally right. I had forgotten about the cardboard - I had started that a while back and put composted manure on it, but didn't keep it up. If I just do one section at a time, it may not be so overwhelming. By using the weed eater on all of it....it will make it look neater while I work on one section. I have access to a great soil place that I can load my truck up and park right by the bed - can get soil, any kind of mulch. Might be easier than unloading bag after bag of mulch. I am not in a big hurry to replant the roses - I would rather get the beds fixed right first. And I guess I should really pile the mulch on. If weeds come up - I can yank them out. Any comments on whether I should put a circle of big rocks around each rose or just let them grow in the whole bed? Thank you for all the helpful comments! Guess I am not the only one with this problem - most of the photos I see of rose beds are pristine with no weeds.

Judith

I wonder if big rocks would absorb heat and make the area too hot. In a colder climate that might be more beneficial.

I do have a problem babe. We moved into this home a couple of years ago and there was so many things planted in this bed nothing taken care of so we pulled everything out and now it is a huge weed patch. I pulled everything out by hand and put down Preen and preen has workef sll summe in other areas maybe it doesn't work in the cooler weather I don't know. But all the weeds are back. My biggest problem in this new home somebody planted a bag of grape hyacinths and they are everywhere front yard backyard side yard. I have pulled out in 2 years probably 10 5 gallon buckets of bulbs and they are all back again it is so frustrating. Plus they thought planting Wisteria everywhere was a good idea so I'm also dealing with that yeah it's good to be me.

What is the preferred top dressing for your garden? Some of my roses have pine needles and that seems to work pretty well is that something preferable or is Bark a better choice?

I have two options. The first is landscaping fabric. That helps keeps the weeds down, but you'll have to mulch them. My gardener (aka the guy who mows my lawn) said that pebbles were the best thin to keep weeds down, but I'd worry they would heat the soil around the roots too much in my climate. Also, there are some weed suppressing agents you might want to try. I hear they work by not allowing seeds to germinate where its spread, but I'm not sure if they are bad for the environment or bad for the rose bushes. You'd have to do some research. I'm tempted to try it as well.

Oh, also, one of the best things to keep weeds away is to underplant with annuals and keep that bare soil covered by lovely, shallow-rooted plants like petunias. Someone mentioned that above and its worked for me.

Preen is a weed suppressant I used it in the spring and summer and it worked really well and I reapplied it for the winter but it doesn't seem like it's working maybe it only works in the warmer weather

No, no, don't use "weed suppressants", people! that is just a tricky pseudonym name that is used to kid you into thinking that what you are buying isn' t poison, but these things are poisons!!! They are herbicides! And, no, they do NOT solve the problem, as Kristine LeGault clearly states in both posts: she used it, it seemed to be effective in the short term, but NOT IN THE LONG TERM. So, if you buy into the herbicide scam (call it Roundup , Preen, whatever) what you end up doing is paying out good money to buy a product that may temporarily kill off the weeds that are there at the moment, but will not continue to keep them away; the only way to do so if you follow the herbicide logic is to continue to pay out your money and time to buy and apply yet more poison to your land. It will certainly poison the environment and your soil. Roses in particular are VERY sensitive to herbicides...MULCH AND CARDBOARD RULE,lol!!!

I have been looking for an organic alternative to Preen. I used to use it years ago, and it did help, but I noticed an awful smell from it and I have been trying to use less chemicals. I know they make an organic Preen, I just have to find it. I think it's cornmeal, so you can try that too.

I have one of my beds edged with mondo grass. I does get weeds (I have a bad problem with nutsedge and I'm hoping my campaign of pulling up any as soon as they appear will help). The mondo replaces mulch and seems to suppress most weeds. Thick mulch helps and getting rid of weeds before they go to seed also helps. But Judith, it's an ongoing process for everyone. The pictures you see are probably after people weeded their beds, LOL.

Ok, it's cardboard for me lol. I never even thought about that. I have a bed that has a retaining wall and needs a lot more soil. So we will bring in a Trailer Load of new soil so I will put the cardboard down first after I read again and then the new soil on top

Weed again

Cori Anne, I've not seen this part of your yard yet. It looks wonderful! I have been loving your new backyard hardscape, obelisks, and plantings. Now I see THIS!!! It's all so beautiful. You really have a wonderful eye for it. I know what looks great when I see it, but I sure don't know how to put it together myself. Hats off to you:) Lisa

Thanks Lisa. That's the front yard. :)

I did the front yard myself over years (except the walkway... we hired out for that). It was such a labor of love/hate. Now it's all love.

Thanks Cori, That's all great advice. How about newspaper? I worry about the ink causing issues with the soil but I wouldn't mind something that breaks down over time. I've used landscape fabric before and its true what Cori says. Eventually it gets all disturbed and starts getting exposed and becomes a mess.

I've never read of any problem with the ink in newspaper. I put newspaper under topsoil/compost in my new Tea bed and it really worked. I'll have to keep weeding and mulching of course to prevent new weeds from seeding in.

Maybe if you have docile weeds newspaper would do. My weeds would have laughed at newspaper in the face and used it as fertilizer.

I spent the money on ramboard for cardboard because I was doing it myself and didn't want to have to do it again. In some spots it still took two layers... and the solarizing. But we did do a whole lawn (weeds more than grass) that was decades old. It's a different project than most. The weeds had grown hulk strong in that time. Everything that managed to grow there became persistent little squatters.

I should note though that the entire half acre yard now is totally maintenance free though. Drought tolerant. And beautiful. Which is why I put in the work and expense up front.

No mowing. I hardly ever have to weed if I keep the mulch levels up (except in the river rocks of the dry creek bed - I do have some weeding to do there). No muddy paws on the dogs. All I have to do in the garden are things that I want to do. As long as I can get my husband to blow the leaves this time of year. And I have more water allotted for things I actually enjoy.

Weeding is the pits. For me, mulch was basically the answer.

Here in rainy and hot South Florida, mulch tends to break down pretty quickly. I do mulch a ton but I get tired of mulching just like I get tired of weeding LOL. I'm going to try the newspaper thing for a bed that is currently driving me nuts with weeds and continue with the mulching. I may however put down some pebbles for the pathways.

Can you try cardboard instead of newspaper under your mulch? If mulch breaks down quickly I would think that newspaper would breakdown even faster.

I've been redoing my beds and entire yard after a few years of neglect. It didn't take long for it to get totally out of hand because I had never definitely dealth with the invaders. I'm doing it differently this time with heartening results.

Besides the minor annoyance of liriope, violet, ivy, parthenocissus and euonymus, I also had invasive bamboo, lemon balm, huge goldenrod, 5!!!! types of grape vine, wisteria and ampelopsis! They had formed bowers on the surrounding trees! I tried smothering with cardboard and carpet, but vines and underground creeper will find a way to the light. I ended up grabbing the pickax and shovel to dig them all out by the roots and that ended that, except for the occasional bindweed that still crops up. It was a LOT of WORK, as Cori Ann knows, but it's the only way for really bad deep-rooted plants and vines, short of heavy poisons. And I'm still not done. :( Solarizing did not work for this type of weed. It's probably better for those that are shallow-rooted.

Then I put down landscape fabric and carpet in some places with newspaper or cardboard on others topped by heavy mulch. LFabric works if there are NO weeds left and you know you don't want any further plantings; otherwise it's a nightmare. Carpet and cardboard work the best, but the soil tends to be a bit more compact and dry underneath until I put down heavy compost. I used newspaper where I wanted underplantings to spread or self-seed. It does compost down fairly quickly, but helps keep out the worst spring weeds which then pull out easily.

Since I didn't catch what weeds you're dealing with, I thought I'd share my experience for what it's worth.

Crazed gardener attacks invaders with axe! News at 11. ;)

You and I had a similar situation vaporvac. I actually used the a power saw in the ground going after those roots. My neighbors all have gardeners and think I'm berserk. :) Or maybe that I'm awesome. I don't know.

Anyways... Do not try that at home kids! Power saws are not recommend for ground use.

We rented a bobcat too and took care of some that way.

Then once we did the back we hired a demo crew and that was amazing. They removed EVERYTHING In just 3 days. Pool... Concrete... Trees (close to 40 "stumps" from trees and bushes/weeds that had grown into trees)... Weeds... Everything. I was in awe.

Geeze that is exactly what we have been doing. We pulled out close to 70 trees and stumps shrubs dead things and mostly dead things.

The soil is actually not bad and in most places I've amended it and added a lot of compost .

My biggest problem, wisteria, I'm still pulling Roots out ftom that. Honestly I do not think those will ever be all gone. I also have buckets and buckets full of grape hyacinth those things should be banned from the Market