I have a portion of my yard, pretty bi actually, that is all dirt and I don't really want to do anything with it, but I don't want it to go bad with weeds either. It's a run and play space for my dog so I want to keep it as free from obstructions as possible. Any tips on how I can do this with as few chemical applications as possible?

 

In Arizona I think the climate and your dogs would do most of the work keeping it bare. I'd just pull or spray what few weeds pop up occasionally.

 

I'm with Dane - dogs and lawns are a bad mix in the first place, it shouldn't take too much work on your part after the dog to pull anything which starts to grow.

 

Brings back fond memories. My grandmother's yard was mostly sandy. She liked it that way. She would get her broom sage home made broom and sweep it every day, keeping the grass and crud at bay. I learned to walk on that yard. Mom would put me down on it, and I went straight from a crawl one day to walking. Man that must have hurt!!

 

You guy's aren't familiar with how it works out here. I have nothing but bare gravel and sandy soil (with no weed barrier) on one side....after the wet season (yes we have them, even more so down south), bare sand or gravel will pop up a ton of tough weeds in just a day or so. I get some in spring...then the heat takes care of a lot...but once the wet weather and slightly cooler temps come....stand back.

These aren't grassy weeds mostly, but woody stuff. Baby tumbleweeds as well. I have to spot treat every 2 weeks when they get active. I just use weed killer mix, an actual soil sterilizer might be better.

The other side of the house has gravel and plastic...very few weeds and those that do sprout have no root system.

 

Vic: I'm counting on the dog to do a lot of the work beating down plants here. Could be wrong and this could be a big job.

 

We rented a house in AZ for a couple of weeks. When we arrived the front yard of the house it was a bare mix of gravel and sand with some decorative plantings including a humungous cactus. It was really attractive. After just a few days of rain and cold the front yard was a mess of weedy stuff growing. By the time we left it looked like crap. There were too many weeds for it to be an easy job to pull tham by hand.
Most of the houses in the neighborhood did not have the problem. I suspect the homeowners treated their yard's with chemicals . I would try putting down a germination inhibiter like Preen. You would probably have to apply before every forecast rain.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I'll look into the Preen, that sounds like a good idea. I just want to make sure that whatever I put down won't hurt the dog.

 

Vinegar is a decent herbicide which will not harm the dog but it has no inhibiting action, it would need to be reapplied to each new plant. The up side for me is my daughter likes spraying it and I'm not concerned about her with it either.

 

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You could go with a weed torch......seems it would address all your concerns.

Giant Weed Torch - Lee Valley Tools



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But a surplus army flame thrower would be more fun.

 

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Ha ha!!!

I'd recommend you use one of the "season long" weed killer products they have at Lowes or similar. You would probably want to make 3 applications about 4 months apart. One application during your monsoon season would help control anything that the rain causes to germinate.

Weed killers probably aren't strong enough to work on brush, though.

 

I always liked George Carlin's bit about flamethrowers. I was going to post a link but the language in the clips I found made that inappropriate.

 

I hadn't seen that one, or at least don't remember it, but yes very funny.

 

Has George Carlin ever used language that was appropriate for sensitive ears?

 

It was a short clip and I didn't recall any foul language but there was one inappropriate word, that was enough to warrant not posting a link.

 

Mitch - On many boards clips that contain language unacceptable for posting on the board are allowed to be linked as long as the poster provides fair warning about the content.

 

Yeah, that wouldn't be ok in my mind, though - I was only comfortable telling others what I was thinking and then they could go find a link if they wanted to do so. I have an eight year old, so I suppose I get a little more uppity about linking to things thinking about what would happen if she came across it.