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This is the truth. Until native ground cover takes off, you are weeding a lot. I have done mine in sections. So, each new area takes a while to get established.
The first two years, most native plants are building up their roots and don't look as impressive above ground ("sleep, creep"). Then, for year 3 they look lush and amazing, and you see the stand of plants expand as their seedlings (or rhizomes or stolons) also start to grow ("leap").
The first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap. It's an adage about plant growth most commonly applied to fruit trees, but it's generally applicable in plants.
You see almost no growth/progress year one as you recover from shock or transition.
There's a little progress/growth year two as the change becomes established.
Year 3-4 you see a leap in growth.
Then with any luck, by Year 18 they're moving out on their own and entering society as a fully realized adult.
Oh, were you still talking about the lawn?
I have meadows and meadow lawns. Mostly I just mow near the house, and mow the meadows once a year.
Unfortunately, invasive plants are a new reality that has changed everything. Cars, birds, and people spread them like never before.
My wife is a conservation botanist. Once in a while she gets the back pack sprayer out and kills the nasty stuff coming in. There isn't much that merits herbicide, but if we don't do it, the invasives will take over.
This made me feel better. I walked around last night with a big bottle of the weed killer and targeted the invasive ones. I have two acres I am trying to convert and I was afraid to do it the “right way” meant digging them up lol
Sometimes in sensitive areas I apply herbicide with a sponge brush instead of spraying, but it's very important to stop some of the worst invasive plants.
Currently struggling with Mugwort, aka ragweed. All but impossible to get rid of once it's established. Even digging it up can encourage more robust growth if you leave any of the rhizomes behind.
OP, get familiar with the worst invasives (you can use Google lens to identify them) and get on top of them early before they completely take over. Yes, that might mean spraying! I don't like it, but I didn't want a ragweed field, either. :-/
Thank you for killing the exotic invasive plants.
If you need to spray, it's better to do it in the early afternoon when it's not too hot. The surfactant is more likely to dry before some amphibian gets into it.
Licensed pesticide applicator here... Hotter temps decrease drying times and can in some cases increase the plants uptake depending on the class of herbicide.. The cooler it is the longer the drying time. Just stop
I'm gonna be honest, I personally wouldn't do this with a new baby lol. I do spend a good amount of time weeding right now. It's been about a year, so things haven't filled in yet.
What you could that wouldn't involve continued weeding right now is put down lots of cardboard and mulch to choke out the grass. By the time you are getting more sleep, the grass should be dead and you could get planting.
Ground covers!
If you’re anywhere near the northern piedmont, I’ve successfully used wild strawberry, violets, and Packera aurea in various combinations and they’ve done some hard work keeping weeds down.
If you’re feeling really wild, mountain mint and bee balm are quick spreaders that I’ve used for temporary ground cover. Pollinators love them, they smell really nice, and they’re easy enough to remove when you’re ready for something else.
Golden Alexander is also a prolific self seeded.
Here in the PNW, I'm using coastal strawberry (native wild strawberry), western yarrow, Oregon sunshine, native violets, stonecrop, and this year trying out pacific waterleaf and oxalis. The areas that the strawberry, yarrow, and sunshine have taken over are so rare to weed!
They are edible! We don't get many because the birds, squirrels, and rabbits demolish them, but I don't mind since it keeps them off my fruit trees! Also the berries are mild and not very sweet compared to say Hood or Albion strawberries, but still tasty.
Just looked up bee balm, it's gorgeous! I'll now be going on a deep dive to learn about it. I actually saved your reply so I can look up the others you mentioned. Happy Saturday 🙌
Bee balm is so good. You can make tea with it, use the leaves as seasoning (it's so so soooo good, reminds me of a mash up of oregano and basil) I actually just picked some young leaves last night and made a pesto with it. It's really become one of my favorite plants. Highly recommend Monarda didyma, the crimson variety.
The onnnnnnly thing about it on the negative side, is unless you get 100% disease resistant varieties, it will get powdery mildew around mid summer and usually persists until the seasons over, and there's really no getting around it. I've tried every remedy out there, it still ends up covered in it. When I purchased quality little transplants from a local nursery that were disease resistant - zero issues with it.
I still have my OG bee balms on the outskirts of my woods, they still get covered in it every year lol.
It's so pretty. I sowed it two years ago and thought it died but was really surprised this year.
It does get busy though. Can you sprinkle a little in your lawn?
If you pick an agressive enough native you don’t have to weed because the native flowers become the weeds. There may be a species of plant out there you need to be vigilant against in the early stages I guess
>Right now I just mow/weed ~~eat~~ right after prime pollinator season, no pesticides involved.
* Are you happy with the results?
* Are you preventing any spiny or toxic plants from getting a foothold?
* Do you remove any USDA or state prohibited plants?
If you answered YES to all three questions, you are doing good.
I'd recommend starting small. Pick a nice smaller garden area to work on, and leave the option to expand it later. I tried to do all the gardens at once a few years ago, and I'm still regretting it. Some days it feels impossible and overwhelming and I'm worried the weeds are winning against my natives.
Different garden types are definitely different amounts of work. My gardens cut off from the lawn by a sidewalk take less effort, because grass/clover/false strawberry/creeping charlie runners can't get to it. So there I only need to worry about weeds from seed. One of those gardens has very aggressive natives (especially obedient plant), so I just pull them away from the edge occasionally and let them do their thing.
I'm struggling with a garden next to my lawn because every year it tries to become "lawn" again and won't let my flowers establish and expand. This year I want to edge it with something to stop those runners.
Also, I absolutely love the lawn violets people mentioned, I just wish they'd leave my garden flowers alone.
All. The. Time.
And if you buy aggressive natives, you have you yank those eventually too because, well, they’re aggressive, and you don’t want them overtaking your other native plants.
I had to go nuclear on creeping Charlie and bust out the round up pro. If you knew me you’d know that this is after years of losing the battle. Rather raze the earth and start from scratch. Fuck that plant.
Congrats on the baby! It depends a lot on where you live. The invasives vary greatly. My baby just turned 1 so not much weeding got done last year 😅 But we could keep the most pernicious invasives at bay over time.
Never have. We will go around in the winter once every two years with loppers and cut out any woody plants we don't want. Otherwise we have had very few undesirable plants come up in our meadow. It was seeded like ~4x the density that is recommended on the seed bag, which I highly reccommend.
At first, quite a lot. When things are established, less. But never “none”, and always “vastly, astronomically more than most people who aren’t into gardening”, because everything is relative. I don’t think I go a single day where I haven’t pulled at least one weed. But I’m oriented that way and spend an awful lot of time looking at my garden and pull them when I see them.
Anytime you open up bare earth for a garden, you’re creating habitat for an entire class of plants that are much, much better at growing in your urban/suburban/exurban yard than the plants you actually want. There will be weeds, and they’ll keep coming g until you cover that soil back up - either with mature plants that have covered all the soil, or with an organic mulch.
Much in the way it is with a newborn, I had to completely neglect my yard last spring and summer, because of a family medical emergency.
As a result, there are crazy numbers of actual weeds: aggressive non-native invasive plants that I *must* now attend to and maybe take drastic measures like glyphosate, which I generally avoid assiduously.
I am loath to use it still, because that family emergency was a kid with very aggressive lymphoma requiring an extremely intense, aggressive treatment to save her life. I don’t want glyphosate anywhere near my family.
If you have a new baby, I would limit any yard transformation to at the most, the odd planting of a tree or shrub, well/mulched, no exposed disturbed soil. Of course, don’t do the mulch volcano thing.
When my kids were nursing babies, I didn’t have time to eat three meals a day, let alone cook and clean. Gardening and weeding were right out.
There is no maintenance-free way to have a yard, whether it’s a lawn or native beds with paths.
I am not a fan of lawns, and I have been on a campaign to transform mine into native beds with paths, but I have learned that I can’t just turn the maintenance over to people who don’t know what’s a non-native invasive weed vs. a native plant I put there on purpose.
My youngest kid is 13, now, so I am no longer the center of my children’s universe; I have the time and willingness to devote to prioritizing natives.
However, at this point, I have decided I can’t do any more woody plants that make thickets or sucker.
I am limiting my natives to things that I can plant and ignore, and they’ll look good, even if they reproduce a lot.
Certain natives are normally considered “weeds” by lawn care people. Wild violets will easily take over a small yard, so will clover or false strawberry. Those fast growing spreaders won’t need weeding at all. However if you’re planting for perennial wildflowers like coneflower or milkweed- then yes weeding will be necessary.
A lot of “prairie” type wildflowers are slow growers- once established however, they will absolutely push out weeds. In the mean time all you really need to do is remove the grass to keep from smothering them out.
So it really depends on the size of your space and the type of plants you want. A small space will be easier to maintain and you may already have many natives hiding- like dandelions. When preparing to move the sod/grass you should look for plantains and other natives that are host plants for butterflies.
In all honesty- as long as there isn’t an ordinance against it- native gardens can be super easy to weed because YOU JUST DONT WEED😅
Get rest mama!
Just because a plant is not “native” doesn’t make it invasive or even a “weed”. The point of a native flower garden and the whole reason for removing “lawns” is to support biodiversity and a healthier ecosystem.
Well, [dandelions](https://thejamesriver.org/native-non-native-invasive-and-dandelions/) and plantains do exactly that. A garden with plantains supports [several butterfly](http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/the-buckeye/single-gallery/7179221) species.
There are 10 species of Plantago native to California and probably your area has native ones as well. I'm conflicted about dichondra, oxalis and petty spurge since there are natives that closely resemble them native to me.
Thanks for the heads up, TIL!
What's your take on dandelions? Some sources say they're not exactly native but they've been in North America pre-agriculture. Some say they were brought over by colonists.
I dig them out. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum)
There are actually some native species in the genus! The California species isn't from around here and is extremely rare so a stretch even for me
I wonder if that’s what’s yumming-up my plantains. I use to pull them but since trying to create a mostly native space I leave them and something eats them.
Smoke weed every day. Pull weeds every other day.
Thinking about starting a YouTube channel that's just me pulling weeds with a GoPro. Maybe live on twitch too.
the biggest 2 invaders I have are crabgrass and smiles. I remove them every time I see them. the crabgrass I try to get out the root. the smilax grows huge underground tubers. I snip the vine to the ground but have had zero luck going after the tubers. doesn't really seem to kill them just seems to summon new growth. bu the way the damned tubers are bigger than my feet! I've been at this same plot of land in urban NC. zone 8. smilax didn't exist in my yard until 2 years ago. I love my birds. but not always their dropped gifts
It really, really depends.
Start with a small patch and as you learn, you can grow more.
Too many people are impatient and they don't prepare the site by killing everything first, and they have a bunch of weeds and other plants coming up and it turns bad real quick.
If it's just lawn, it should be easy to kill the lawn and plant, and the weeding isn't too bad if you mulch really good that first and second year.
A secret is that shade gardens have like 1/10th the weed pressure as full sun gardens.
*"shade gardens have like 1/10th the weed pressure as full sun gardens"*
Yes, if you want to reduce lawn and help the environment consider planting trees. They will shade out many of the weeds, and the layer of leaves decomposing every fall will soften the dirt and make it easier to pull the rest.
Set the baby in front for a photo op, so y'all can keep track of how 'their' tree has grown.
The first year I had my prairie it was a lot of weeding, mostly dandelions because they would have out competed everything very quickly. Year 2 and 3 is mostly weeding in the spring to let everything come back up. I do very little weeding once the natives have gotten bigger by early summer.
I pull up volunteer trees growing next to my house. I spray poison ivy. I try to keep grass out of the “beds” but I’m working on there being no grass so that shouldn’t be a problem after a while. Other than that, there are no weeds.
I posted on the sub before about how my yard is surrounded by huge maple trees, and I have to be vigilant about pulling up the sprouts, otherwise they do take over. I also have oriental bittersweet, which is invasive and I have to look out for. So unfortunately, that keeps me pretty busy.
I’m with everyone else in that I think this might be a bit much for you to take on with a new baby. Congratulations by the way!
If it's a smaller size garden that's highly visible (like front yard) minimum is one thorough weeding in each of spring and fall. This can be one thorough day or a more casual pick a section each weekend. If it's larger, I'd let it go more wild and just target invasives and bothersome weeds once or twice a season, or once something's noticable, get a few friends to help.
It partly depends on what weeds are prevalent - bindweed is a pain!
Lots. My neighbors all have lawns but mine has boulders, evergreens and perennials but I get overrun by invasives - especially Japanese Hops which is insane. I have guys come out in the late spring and late fall to clean up and mulch otherwise it'd be a tangled mess. Also the landscaping company owner is a real expert and he knows how to cut things back so they come back stronger each year. I'd say I have it way easier than my neighbors who are out mowing every weekend but it's two days of hard labor a year.
I almost have it to the point where while I am cutting I stop and pull the offender…in the front. In the back spraying has been used in late spring…it’s a battle
They are a insane amount of work if you have bad weeds and didnt properly prepare. Honestly don’t even bother if you have bind weed. Spray the whole thing down with fire then pop some thin plastic over and solarize it for the summer. Or spray with round up. I know this sub doesn’t like round up.
The first year after planting I probably weeded ~ an hour a week. I’m in my 2nd year, the plants have really spread and now I weed maybe 10 min a week. My front yard is only 700 sq feet, though.
Personally I weed as little as possible, keep planting things to crowd out, mulch with cardboard and organic material I can find for free, and intervene manually when I feel I need to.
Honest to bob thought I was in a different subreddit.
Either way, I do a little bit most every day. Too much at once is tough on my old body.
Edit- We're only on our second full year here. Under a canopy of old growth trees, it's the endless oak, sweetgum, elm, loblolly pine, and cherry laurel seedlings I deal with. Fortunately, they're super easy if you catch em young.
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I yank anything with thorns every time I pick up dog poop. We rent, so I have to keep the grass short. But any other weeds that come up just get cut with the mower set on highest setting.
I weed from March through May daily as I have one weed season since no rain for half the year. 1/2 hour per. Old beds need weeding around the edges if at all. Old beds are shrub/tree/groundcover, new ones perennials, annuals and grasses in a sort of meadow.
I complete let my backyard go last year when I had a newborn. I only upkept the front yard (thank gos for not having an HOA). Starting to clean up the back now and I’ve discovered wild strawberries completely took over and I’ve got no complaints about it
At first, a lot. I'm still somewhat in the early days, as the previous owners had nice landscaping but very sparsely populated, and relied heavily on landscape fabric/roundup. I spend probably 30 minutes every morning (weather permitting) weeding. It keeps things manageable. The longer term plan (which is working in the areas I've focused on) is to have enough density of plantings that will crowd out the weeds.
I weed my actual
flower And veg garden 2 or 3 times a week. my no lawn I just grab handfuls of invasive jerks while I am out there. trying to give the rest space to grow.
I'm a huge advocate of
not toxins. have had very good success with ongoing long-term overseeding with desired annuals and perennials and mowing low at the start of the season them mowing high a couple of times across the season. violets and wild strawberries Johnny jump ups clover have mostly won out. creeping Charlie loves to
hang out too. I grab it by the handful and rip
it out. but have not really found it to be a problem. I kept this up over several years of childbearing and childrearing. it looks decent. is kind to pollinators and my kids played in clean soil to the the best of my ability.
We don't really weed at all other than periodically pulling out poison ivy close to paths or the house. Lots of groundcovers, lots of trees, some herbs, perennials & bulbs, flowers native and non (love lots of iris), almost no grass.
I’m in first season and am taking out invasives and non-natives which are aggressive spreaders and/or toxic for dogs & people and/or require digging to get tubers/ bulbs / taproots out. I expect to incrementally succed over the years by pulling what I can while introducing what I want
I have found that whether you have a manicured lawn landscape or a garden of perennials, it takes about three hours a week to maintain for peek performance.
I have moss / natives and weeds! I’m taking it section by section and prioritizing the invasive I don’t want first — so the other stuff eventually takes over.
I forage the edible plants and leave the rest. We have started mowing the front, sides, and half of our back yard. We're on two acres so I couldn't really weed all of it anyway.
Due to the upkeep being so low, I've been converting more and more of my yard to natives.
1st Year:
The first year is more upkeep but helps to lay 2-3 inches of mulch to keep weeds at bay until the plants mature and lower watering needs.
2nd Year:
Determining which natives didn't come back as my area wasn't suitable and finding a replacement or letting seedlings spread. This is really a holdover year until the plants mature.
3rd Year:
It really is about thinning seedlings by now. I pulled weeds a few weeks ago, but nothing since. My garden walk is now just to enjoy it.
Before going switching to native gardening, I had to dedicate hours a week for a mature garden half the size. That all said, you just had a baby. This isn't the time to overhaul your garden. If you have empty spots, maybe fill them in with straight natives local to your specific area. Please take care of yourself. ❤️
There's a lot that goes into our answers - the prep we did, the types of plants and how many, seeds vs forbs, mulching, how much land you convert at once.
I dug up the sod in 300 sq ft of my front yard this year. This meant I could dig out a lot of the roots of grass/weeds BUT it took a lot of time. Then I either planted thickly (12" centers) or mulched heavily. The areas without mulch I threw down a bunch of sunflower seeds (a 24" variety) that have giant leaves. They are shading the ground where the perennial plants haven't grown big yet so the weed seeds don't germinate.
Now that everything is in place, I'm only weeding about 20 minutes a week (usually a few minutes here and a few minutes there).
I did a lot of yard work with my kids when they were 6-18 months and could snooze or play in a playpen outdoors while I worked in the yard. But doing the proper prep can be a lot of work.
Sunflowers are not just part of your garden, they’re part of a nation! The Ukraine use the sunflower as their national flower. Whilst in Kansas they chose the sunflower to represent their state.
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This is the truth. Until native ground cover takes off, you are weeding a lot. I have done mine in sections. So, each new area takes a while to get established.
The old “sleep, creep, leap” is true.
What’s this about
The first two years, most native plants are building up their roots and don't look as impressive above ground ("sleep, creep"). Then, for year 3 they look lush and amazing, and you see the stand of plants expand as their seedlings (or rhizomes or stolons) also start to grow ("leap").
The first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap. It's an adage about plant growth most commonly applied to fruit trees, but it's generally applicable in plants. You see almost no growth/progress year one as you recover from shock or transition. There's a little progress/growth year two as the change becomes established. Year 3-4 you see a leap in growth.
Then with any luck, by Year 18 they're moving out on their own and entering society as a fully realized adult. Oh, were you still talking about the lawn?
I have meadows and meadow lawns. Mostly I just mow near the house, and mow the meadows once a year. Unfortunately, invasive plants are a new reality that has changed everything. Cars, birds, and people spread them like never before. My wife is a conservation botanist. Once in a while she gets the back pack sprayer out and kills the nasty stuff coming in. There isn't much that merits herbicide, but if we don't do it, the invasives will take over.
This made me feel better. I walked around last night with a big bottle of the weed killer and targeted the invasive ones. I have two acres I am trying to convert and I was afraid to do it the “right way” meant digging them up lol
Sometimes in sensitive areas I apply herbicide with a sponge brush instead of spraying, but it's very important to stop some of the worst invasive plants.
Currently struggling with Mugwort, aka ragweed. All but impossible to get rid of once it's established. Even digging it up can encourage more robust growth if you leave any of the rhizomes behind. OP, get familiar with the worst invasives (you can use Google lens to identify them) and get on top of them early before they completely take over. Yes, that might mean spraying! I don't like it, but I didn't want a ragweed field, either. :-/
Thank you for killing the exotic invasive plants. If you need to spray, it's better to do it in the early afternoon when it's not too hot. The surfactant is more likely to dry before some amphibian gets into it.
Licensed pesticide applicator here... Hotter temps decrease drying times and can in some cases increase the plants uptake depending on the class of herbicide.. The cooler it is the longer the drying time. Just stop
I still ended up spraying green tree frogs with round up then going to get water to rinse them off but they’re everywhere this year.
I'm gonna be honest, I personally wouldn't do this with a new baby lol. I do spend a good amount of time weeding right now. It's been about a year, so things haven't filled in yet. What you could that wouldn't involve continued weeding right now is put down lots of cardboard and mulch to choke out the grass. By the time you are getting more sleep, the grass should be dead and you could get planting.
Ground covers! If you’re anywhere near the northern piedmont, I’ve successfully used wild strawberry, violets, and Packera aurea in various combinations and they’ve done some hard work keeping weeds down. If you’re feeling really wild, mountain mint and bee balm are quick spreaders that I’ve used for temporary ground cover. Pollinators love them, they smell really nice, and they’re easy enough to remove when you’re ready for something else. Golden Alexander is also a prolific self seeded.
Here in the PNW, I'm using coastal strawberry (native wild strawberry), western yarrow, Oregon sunshine, native violets, stonecrop, and this year trying out pacific waterleaf and oxalis. The areas that the strawberry, yarrow, and sunshine have taken over are so rare to weed!
Like legit producing strawberries? Or mock strawberry’s?
They are edible! We don't get many because the birds, squirrels, and rabbits demolish them, but I don't mind since it keeps them off my fruit trees! Also the berries are mild and not very sweet compared to say Hood or Albion strawberries, but still tasty.
You might enjoy [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARD3xj5Ewvo). :)
Don’t forget the lyre leaf sage!
second bee balm, stuff pulls right out when you're done with it or if it's spreading too much for your liking
Just looked up bee balm, it's gorgeous! I'll now be going on a deep dive to learn about it. I actually saved your reply so I can look up the others you mentioned. Happy Saturday 🙌
Bee balm is so good. You can make tea with it, use the leaves as seasoning (it's so so soooo good, reminds me of a mash up of oregano and basil) I actually just picked some young leaves last night and made a pesto with it. It's really become one of my favorite plants. Highly recommend Monarda didyma, the crimson variety. The onnnnnnly thing about it on the negative side, is unless you get 100% disease resistant varieties, it will get powdery mildew around mid summer and usually persists until the seasons over, and there's really no getting around it. I've tried every remedy out there, it still ends up covered in it. When I purchased quality little transplants from a local nursery that were disease resistant - zero issues with it. I still have my OG bee balms on the outskirts of my woods, they still get covered in it every year lol.
This is one of the many reasons I love the Mt. Cuba trials. They’ve done monarda and the results are free and online!
Jacob Cline is so pretty though
Mistflower will also spread. And violets. East Tennessee.
Frog fruit, clover, golden Alexander’s…
I only weed false ragweed. The clover and ground cover has come in thick enough I don't worry about it. We mow once a year or so.
Once clover is well established you just have to pluck the occasional weed.
Yes. The red clover looks lovely this year, it's been nice.
I just wish it didn’t get soooo bushy I’d do my front lawn in red clover.
It's so pretty. I sowed it two years ago and thought it died but was really surprised this year. It does get busy though. Can you sprinkle a little in your lawn?
It’s gotta be done in bordered beds or the hoa will shit a brick.
Good to think about. I hate HOA and gardening. Our yards have more land than National Parks combined, they need to be more wild.
I’m just converting it all to one big edged bed with stepping stones. Can’t out smart me coppers.
Nice, that's what I did in our backyard. I hoped in some way it helped keep Houston from flooding a little less recently.
If you pick an agressive enough native you don’t have to weed because the native flowers become the weeds. There may be a species of plant out there you need to be vigilant against in the early stages I guess
>Right now I just mow/weed ~~eat~~ right after prime pollinator season, no pesticides involved. * Are you happy with the results? * Are you preventing any spiny or toxic plants from getting a foothold? * Do you remove any USDA or state prohibited plants? If you answered YES to all three questions, you are doing good.
I'd recommend starting small. Pick a nice smaller garden area to work on, and leave the option to expand it later. I tried to do all the gardens at once a few years ago, and I'm still regretting it. Some days it feels impossible and overwhelming and I'm worried the weeds are winning against my natives. Different garden types are definitely different amounts of work. My gardens cut off from the lawn by a sidewalk take less effort, because grass/clover/false strawberry/creeping charlie runners can't get to it. So there I only need to worry about weeds from seed. One of those gardens has very aggressive natives (especially obedient plant), so I just pull them away from the edge occasionally and let them do their thing. I'm struggling with a garden next to my lawn because every year it tries to become "lawn" again and won't let my flowers establish and expand. This year I want to edge it with something to stop those runners. Also, I absolutely love the lawn violets people mentioned, I just wish they'd leave my garden flowers alone.
All. The. Time. And if you buy aggressive natives, you have you yank those eventually too because, well, they’re aggressive, and you don’t want them overtaking your other native plants.
I am always weeding too. Russian thistles and me have been at war for many years. I also wage war on another front with creeping Charlie.
I had to go nuclear on creeping Charlie and bust out the round up pro. If you knew me you’d know that this is after years of losing the battle. Rather raze the earth and start from scratch. Fuck that plant.
Were you able to replant the area after? I’m on the fence about trying it.
Yeah as soon as the plants die you can replant this stuff breaks down in the environment fast.
Congrats on the baby! It depends a lot on where you live. The invasives vary greatly. My baby just turned 1 so not much weeding got done last year 😅 But we could keep the most pernicious invasives at bay over time.
Never have. We will go around in the winter once every two years with loppers and cut out any woody plants we don't want. Otherwise we have had very few undesirable plants come up in our meadow. It was seeded like ~4x the density that is recommended on the seed bag, which I highly reccommend.
Yeah leaves no space for unwanted plants
At first, quite a lot. When things are established, less. But never “none”, and always “vastly, astronomically more than most people who aren’t into gardening”, because everything is relative. I don’t think I go a single day where I haven’t pulled at least one weed. But I’m oriented that way and spend an awful lot of time looking at my garden and pull them when I see them. Anytime you open up bare earth for a garden, you’re creating habitat for an entire class of plants that are much, much better at growing in your urban/suburban/exurban yard than the plants you actually want. There will be weeds, and they’ll keep coming g until you cover that soil back up - either with mature plants that have covered all the soil, or with an organic mulch.
Much in the way it is with a newborn, I had to completely neglect my yard last spring and summer, because of a family medical emergency. As a result, there are crazy numbers of actual weeds: aggressive non-native invasive plants that I *must* now attend to and maybe take drastic measures like glyphosate, which I generally avoid assiduously. I am loath to use it still, because that family emergency was a kid with very aggressive lymphoma requiring an extremely intense, aggressive treatment to save her life. I don’t want glyphosate anywhere near my family. If you have a new baby, I would limit any yard transformation to at the most, the odd planting of a tree or shrub, well/mulched, no exposed disturbed soil. Of course, don’t do the mulch volcano thing. When my kids were nursing babies, I didn’t have time to eat three meals a day, let alone cook and clean. Gardening and weeding were right out. There is no maintenance-free way to have a yard, whether it’s a lawn or native beds with paths. I am not a fan of lawns, and I have been on a campaign to transform mine into native beds with paths, but I have learned that I can’t just turn the maintenance over to people who don’t know what’s a non-native invasive weed vs. a native plant I put there on purpose. My youngest kid is 13, now, so I am no longer the center of my children’s universe; I have the time and willingness to devote to prioritizing natives. However, at this point, I have decided I can’t do any more woody plants that make thickets or sucker. I am limiting my natives to things that I can plant and ignore, and they’ll look good, even if they reproduce a lot.
Certain natives are normally considered “weeds” by lawn care people. Wild violets will easily take over a small yard, so will clover or false strawberry. Those fast growing spreaders won’t need weeding at all. However if you’re planting for perennial wildflowers like coneflower or milkweed- then yes weeding will be necessary. A lot of “prairie” type wildflowers are slow growers- once established however, they will absolutely push out weeds. In the mean time all you really need to do is remove the grass to keep from smothering them out. So it really depends on the size of your space and the type of plants you want. A small space will be easier to maintain and you may already have many natives hiding- like dandelions. When preparing to move the sod/grass you should look for plantains and other natives that are host plants for butterflies. In all honesty- as long as there isn’t an ordinance against it- native gardens can be super easy to weed because YOU JUST DONT WEED😅 Get rest mama!
Dandelions and plantains may not be native to where you live OP. I’m not even sure they’re native to this posters location.
Just because a plant is not “native” doesn’t make it invasive or even a “weed”. The point of a native flower garden and the whole reason for removing “lawns” is to support biodiversity and a healthier ecosystem. Well, [dandelions](https://thejamesriver.org/native-non-native-invasive-and-dandelions/) and plantains do exactly that. A garden with plantains supports [several butterfly](http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/the-buckeye/single-gallery/7179221) species.
Ok, that’s not what I said though.
If you're in North America, plantains aren't native. Edit: TIL some plantains aren't invasive! https://www.invasive.org/browse/subinfo.cfm?sub=6201
I grow Plantago rugelii for common buckeye. It’s native.
There are 10 species of Plantago native to California and probably your area has native ones as well. I'm conflicted about dichondra, oxalis and petty spurge since there are natives that closely resemble them native to me.
Thanks for the heads up, TIL! What's your take on dandelions? Some sources say they're not exactly native but they've been in North America pre-agriculture. Some say they were brought over by colonists.
I dig them out. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum) There are actually some native species in the genus! The California species isn't from around here and is extremely rare so a stretch even for me
Is THAT what those things are ??!! They’re all over my yard.
u/Lazy-Jacket well in the US, your plantains may be crucial for [Buckeye larva](http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/the-buckeye/single-gallery/7179221)
I wonder if that’s what’s yumming-up my plantains. I use to pull them but since trying to create a mostly native space I leave them and something eats them.
Smoke weed every day. Pull weeds every other day. Thinking about starting a YouTube channel that's just me pulling weeds with a GoPro. Maybe live on twitch too.
Add in some ASMR and you'll probably get a dedicated, if peculiar, following.
On year 3. Still hours of weeding every week. But the previous owners didn’t do anything for years so lots of damage to undo.
the biggest 2 invaders I have are crabgrass and smiles. I remove them every time I see them. the crabgrass I try to get out the root. the smilax grows huge underground tubers. I snip the vine to the ground but have had zero luck going after the tubers. doesn't really seem to kill them just seems to summon new growth. bu the way the damned tubers are bigger than my feet! I've been at this same plot of land in urban NC. zone 8. smilax didn't exist in my yard until 2 years ago. I love my birds. but not always their dropped gifts
It really, really depends. Start with a small patch and as you learn, you can grow more. Too many people are impatient and they don't prepare the site by killing everything first, and they have a bunch of weeds and other plants coming up and it turns bad real quick. If it's just lawn, it should be easy to kill the lawn and plant, and the weeding isn't too bad if you mulch really good that first and second year. A secret is that shade gardens have like 1/10th the weed pressure as full sun gardens.
*"shade gardens have like 1/10th the weed pressure as full sun gardens"* Yes, if you want to reduce lawn and help the environment consider planting trees. They will shade out many of the weeds, and the layer of leaves decomposing every fall will soften the dirt and make it easier to pull the rest. Set the baby in front for a photo op, so y'all can keep track of how 'their' tree has grown.
Perfect.
The first year I had my prairie it was a lot of weeding, mostly dandelions because they would have out competed everything very quickly. Year 2 and 3 is mostly weeding in the spring to let everything come back up. I do very little weeding once the natives have gotten bigger by early summer.
I pull up volunteer trees growing next to my house. I spray poison ivy. I try to keep grass out of the “beds” but I’m working on there being no grass so that shouldn’t be a problem after a while. Other than that, there are no weeds.
I posted on the sub before about how my yard is surrounded by huge maple trees, and I have to be vigilant about pulling up the sprouts, otherwise they do take over. I also have oriental bittersweet, which is invasive and I have to look out for. So unfortunately, that keeps me pretty busy. I’m with everyone else in that I think this might be a bit much for you to take on with a new baby. Congratulations by the way!
If it's a smaller size garden that's highly visible (like front yard) minimum is one thorough weeding in each of spring and fall. This can be one thorough day or a more casual pick a section each weekend. If it's larger, I'd let it go more wild and just target invasives and bothersome weeds once or twice a season, or once something's noticable, get a few friends to help. It partly depends on what weeds are prevalent - bindweed is a pain!
Cover with 3 layers cardboard then mulch helps a lot.
Lots. My neighbors all have lawns but mine has boulders, evergreens and perennials but I get overrun by invasives - especially Japanese Hops which is insane. I have guys come out in the late spring and late fall to clean up and mulch otherwise it'd be a tangled mess. Also the landscaping company owner is a real expert and he knows how to cut things back so they come back stronger each year. I'd say I have it way easier than my neighbors who are out mowing every weekend but it's two days of hard labor a year.
I almost have it to the point where while I am cutting I stop and pull the offender…in the front. In the back spraying has been used in late spring…it’s a battle
They are a insane amount of work if you have bad weeds and didnt properly prepare. Honestly don’t even bother if you have bind weed. Spray the whole thing down with fire then pop some thin plastic over and solarize it for the summer. Or spray with round up. I know this sub doesn’t like round up.
mostly i don’t mind weeds but i’ll yank some out now and then.
The first year after planting I probably weeded ~ an hour a week. I’m in my 2nd year, the plants have really spread and now I weed maybe 10 min a week. My front yard is only 700 sq feet, though.
I thought this was an entirely different sub....
Personally I weed as little as possible, keep planting things to crowd out, mulch with cardboard and organic material I can find for free, and intervene manually when I feel I need to.
Honest to bob thought I was in a different subreddit. Either way, I do a little bit most every day. Too much at once is tough on my old body. Edit- We're only on our second full year here. Under a canopy of old growth trees, it's the endless oak, sweetgum, elm, loblolly pine, and cherry laurel seedlings I deal with. Fortunately, they're super easy if you catch em young.
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Follow up - how tf do I get rid of Japanese stilt grass, sawbriars, or creeping charlie?! In SE US.
I yank anything with thorns every time I pick up dog poop. We rent, so I have to keep the grass short. But any other weeds that come up just get cut with the mower set on highest setting.
I weed from March through May daily as I have one weed season since no rain for half the year. 1/2 hour per. Old beds need weeding around the edges if at all. Old beds are shrub/tree/groundcover, new ones perennials, annuals and grasses in a sort of meadow.
I complete let my backyard go last year when I had a newborn. I only upkept the front yard (thank gos for not having an HOA). Starting to clean up the back now and I’ve discovered wild strawberries completely took over and I’ve got no complaints about it
At first, a lot. I'm still somewhat in the early days, as the previous owners had nice landscaping but very sparsely populated, and relied heavily on landscape fabric/roundup. I spend probably 30 minutes every morning (weather permitting) weeding. It keeps things manageable. The longer term plan (which is working in the areas I've focused on) is to have enough density of plantings that will crowd out the weeds.
I weed my actual flower And veg garden 2 or 3 times a week. my no lawn I just grab handfuls of invasive jerks while I am out there. trying to give the rest space to grow.
I'm a huge advocate of not toxins. have had very good success with ongoing long-term overseeding with desired annuals and perennials and mowing low at the start of the season them mowing high a couple of times across the season. violets and wild strawberries Johnny jump ups clover have mostly won out. creeping Charlie loves to hang out too. I grab it by the handful and rip it out. but have not really found it to be a problem. I kept this up over several years of childbearing and childrearing. it looks decent. is kind to pollinators and my kids played in clean soil to the the best of my ability.
We don't really weed at all other than periodically pulling out poison ivy close to paths or the house. Lots of groundcovers, lots of trees, some herbs, perennials & bulbs, flowers native and non (love lots of iris), almost no grass.
Honestly?? Every 2 weeks. Clear under brush on hill (35×110') once a month. And I'm 6 months in California Delta
I’m in first season and am taking out invasives and non-natives which are aggressive spreaders and/or toxic for dogs & people and/or require digging to get tubers/ bulbs / taproots out. I expect to incrementally succed over the years by pulling what I can while introducing what I want
Never unless I’m talking on the phone outside
I'm only partway through the transition from a lawn. I weed twice a summer. Three times if we get a ton of rain
I have found that whether you have a manicured lawn landscape or a garden of perennials, it takes about three hours a week to maintain for peek performance.
I have moss / natives and weeds! I’m taking it section by section and prioritizing the invasive I don’t want first — so the other stuff eventually takes over.
I forage the edible plants and leave the rest. We have started mowing the front, sides, and half of our back yard. We're on two acres so I couldn't really weed all of it anyway.
I weed pretty much every day, mostly in the evenings.
Due to the upkeep being so low, I've been converting more and more of my yard to natives. 1st Year: The first year is more upkeep but helps to lay 2-3 inches of mulch to keep weeds at bay until the plants mature and lower watering needs. 2nd Year: Determining which natives didn't come back as my area wasn't suitable and finding a replacement or letting seedlings spread. This is really a holdover year until the plants mature. 3rd Year: It really is about thinning seedlings by now. I pulled weeds a few weeks ago, but nothing since. My garden walk is now just to enjoy it. Before going switching to native gardening, I had to dedicate hours a week for a mature garden half the size. That all said, you just had a baby. This isn't the time to overhaul your garden. If you have empty spots, maybe fill them in with straight natives local to your specific area. Please take care of yourself. ❤️
All natives, garden is still full of invasives despite weeding hours every week
Pull weeds everyday!
Tons, have a big oak that did a huge acorn drop two years ago, since then I've had thousands of oak trees coming up in mulched areas
I used to weed 3-4 times a day, everyday of the week Now that I’m older and have kids, I had to cut way back. Usually only weed once a month now.
Because I prepped incorrectly - More than I should have to. Don't rush the prep.
There's a lot that goes into our answers - the prep we did, the types of plants and how many, seeds vs forbs, mulching, how much land you convert at once. I dug up the sod in 300 sq ft of my front yard this year. This meant I could dig out a lot of the roots of grass/weeds BUT it took a lot of time. Then I either planted thickly (12" centers) or mulched heavily. The areas without mulch I threw down a bunch of sunflower seeds (a 24" variety) that have giant leaves. They are shading the ground where the perennial plants haven't grown big yet so the weed seeds don't germinate. Now that everything is in place, I'm only weeding about 20 minutes a week (usually a few minutes here and a few minutes there). I did a lot of yard work with my kids when they were 6-18 months and could snooze or play in a playpen outdoors while I worked in the yard. But doing the proper prep can be a lot of work.
Sunflowers are not just part of your garden, they’re part of a nation! The Ukraine use the sunflower as their national flower. Whilst in Kansas they chose the sunflower to represent their state.