After much deliberation, my husband and I decided that we want to pull out the shrub roses and iris plants and move to container planters along our fence and (neighbor’s) arborvitaes. It’s a very long and narrow space, so all plants end up falling over from either height or water-weight, and blocking the mower’s path and walk way. Also, we both work full time, so we do not have the time to provide the amount of upkeep the current plants require to look nice. We realize some may not agree with this, but we have made up ours minds - our neighbors also have grapes growing over the top, plus we have a beautiful clematis growing opposite the garden bed, so we will still have some whimsy to keep things interesting.

The Iris has proven QUITE difficult to remove as it’s very mature and has a sense and intricate root system.

Now my question, since we are planning to only do containers atop mulch in the bed, do you think we can spread a heavy layer of Casoron to kill any remaining roots from emerging new growth? Or do you think we’d spend the time and money doing that, and still have to keep digging it up?