Weeds are taking over.

[jardinlady]

Please help, I really need your imput, solution to this matter.
My yard is infested by weeds, I keep pulling them out and they keep comming in and they are stronger than ever.
Just 3 weeks ago I had pulled all the weeds out and the back yard was clean and now they are tall and all over the place. Thankfully when I cleaned my back yard last time I decided to put a fence around my vegetable garden so weeds over there are not as bad.
Do you have a good idea of how to take care of weeds, something more permanent?
I have not used any quemicals like weed killer etc... because I have 2 dogs that go to the backyard all the time and also because I have vegetables growing in the backyard so I did not want to kill my vegetable plants.

Help, prety please

[dcarch]

Three ways:

1. Mulch
2. Mulch
3. Mulch

dcarch

[jardinlady]

so you are saying once I take the weeds out just to go and put mulch?
What type do you recommend? Is it expensive?
Remember I have 2 dogs and one unfortunately likes to dig.
I wish I could train my dogs to pull weeds

[carolyn137]

jardin,

Just curious but is this a question about weeds in general or weeds in your tomato patch?

Solutions might well be very different depending on which it is.

[dcarch]

1. Mulch: If you mulch with black or red plastic, you don't need to pull the weeds out. Additional benifit is much reduced need for watering. If you mulch early in the season, the plastic will retain solar heat to warn up the soil.

2. Mulch: Straw mulch. If you mulch thick enough, you will chock out the weeds. Additional benifit is reduced need for watering and if you are a sprawler (no staking) the plants can rest better on the straw.

3. Mulch: Composted leaf and lawn clippings You may need to pull some weeds out. Additional benifit is reduced need for watering and you can tilt the compost into you soil and improve you soil after the growing season.

I am sure others will advise.

dcarch

[Suze]

It would help to know what kind of weeds are the problem.

For example, are these reseeding annual type weeds (like crabgrass), or maybe something more hardy like nutsedge, or kudzu, or asiatic jasmine, etc.

[jardinlady]

Sorry for the delay. I was trying to get a picture loaded in this forum so you could see how my garden looks but I am not sure how to do it.
Well I'll try to explain myself better. All my veggies are fenced in, I did this so my doggies could not tear in, so far I am kipping this weeds under control, by pulling them before they get to big, some mulching will probably take care of the problem here.
The weeds that are getting out of contol are the one outside the fenced area, practically the place where my dogs go to the bathroom, play etc...
Every time I pull them out tiny seeds fall out and it reseeds itself into a stronger plant. I am not sure which kind it is, I think I have a mixture of crabgrass and others that are very hardy. They are definetely hard to pull out and sometimes I have to dig very deep to take it out.

Sorry if my first post was confusing.

[feldon30]

I carefully use weed & feed on my grass and water it in. I do not get it within 2 feet of the garden though.

This means I cannot use my grass clippings in the compost pile or for mulch purposes though.

[jardinlady]

Is this safe to use if you have pets? Does it work for very tall weeds? I really don't have any grass out back and just have weeds.
If it was up to me I would burn all those weeds to the ground, that would definetely be faster