to strim or not to strim

km79

ive recently planted hedging around front lawn inside boundary wall. now between the hedges and behind them grass has got quite long and few weeds popping up. should i risk strimming in between(afaid ill catch their stems) or should i use something like a shears?

Skrynesaver

I'm afraid my sugestion is initially more labour intensive, but will save time effort and hedging plants in the long run.

Weed under and around the hedges paying particular attention to perenial weeds. Then lay down a thick layer of newspaper (open the papers and overlap so the you have a layer one paper thick. Finally mulch heavily with Mushroom compost, spent barley or bark mulch.

The resulting "beds" will remain weed free for a couple of years and subsequently you need only top up the mulch.

You can use a geo-permiable membrane (Mypex/Landscape fabric) instead of the newspaper, however I find that paper works well and the worms will gradually pull it into the soil, improving it.

km79

thanks for that i actually have a roll of that membrane left over from something els so will use that but wont get around to it till summer. in short term should i risk strimming or another method for long grass?

dardevle

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long term go the route suggested by SS....membrane/mulch, in the short term hand weed or use a shears to get close to the trunk, otherwise you risk stripping the bark and causing injury or even killing the tree.




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