Customer Complaining About Weeds

[phasthound]

Originally Posted by treedoc1

You should be happy to go back and spot spray weeds for "x" dollars if it wasn't included in the original proposal.
Do nothing for free, but do exactly the work stated when you sold the job.
Go backs will kill your business, change orders and upsells will add to your profitability.
Always offer a solution and price it accordingly. A free service has exactly that value...$0.00.

How much value does poor service have? Or an even better question is: how much does poor service cost you as a businessperson?

[Think Green]

I guess you northern guys don't have bed issues with spurge, chamberbitter, purslane, and sedges.
you can rape a bed down to the soil, apply 4 inches of mulch and within a week have seed pop up from chamberbitter, spurge and sedge. It must be my hot temps, but come on lets be real. Sometimes tilling isn't a reality in densly planted beds even with line trimmer cultivator's and the mantis.
As far as the customer, yes go back and reapply some gly and kill the weeds before they reseed. As I said above, if you don't get some of these weeds before they seed drop, then the irrigated beds will only reoccur and cost you more trips. Geotextiles is good for a while until seeds grow on top of the mulch layers. I guess I don't understand the comment of paper!!!! You mean applying newspaper as a base layer to keep out weeds?? HMMM! Never did this other than to provide a moisture barrier for my garden and to solarize a pathway. Other than that, the paper will break down and serve no purpose.

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by Think Green

I guess you northern guys don't have bed issues with spurge, chamberbitter, purslane, and sedges.
you can rape a bed down to the soil, apply 4 inches of mulch and within a week have seed pop up from chamberbitter, spurge and sedge. It must be my hot temps, but come on lets be real. Sometimes tilling isn't a reality in densly planted beds even with line trimmer cultivator's and the mantis.
As far as the customer, yes go back and reapply some gly and kill the weeds before they reseed. As I said above, if you don't get some of these weeds before they seed drop, then the irrigated beds will only reoccur and cost you more trips. Geotextiles is good for a while until seeds grow on top of the mulch layers. I guess I don't understand the comment of paper!!!! You mean applying newspaper as a base layer to keep out weeds?? HMMM! Never did this other than to provide a moisture barrier for my garden and to solarize a pathway. Other than that, the paper will break down and serve no purpose.

The news paper will act as a weed block for a while. It does break down but by then the mulch is settled.

Personally, I do not like any weed block and would rather have the mulch in contact with the soil, and breaking down and improving the soil. Pre-em and Gly will help but laying down 3 to 4" of mulch is key. I do not like turning it, I would rather mulch over. The exception being annual beds. Again I have few weed problems in those and we hand pull them on full service accounts as it is no big deal in a tilled bed to pull weeds.

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by kirk1701

Yu know Smallaxe I'm starting to notice that, my Oak tree's for the last two years in front have started looking like the leaves are drying up mid summer?

Early this spring I pulled back a lot of the landscaping paper from around the tree's but I don't think it was enough. I'm still seeing one tree that looks like the leaves are curling up so I left the hose on around the bottom last night for about 4 hours.

Should I pull it all up? I defiantly don't want to loose these tree's hell I had enough problems with tree's

Also, it's not mulch, it's pine bark and I freshened up this spring and last spring also, didn't take any out. Could I have that stuff around the bottom to thick smothering the roots?

I don't think pine bark mulch would ever smother roots, on it's own... your fabric over the top of the tree roots could be seriously drying out the rootzone of the trees however... Here again is another good place to look at the soil and assess its moisture availability...

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by Think Green

I guess you northern guys don't have bed issues with spurge, chamberbitter, purslane, and sedges.
you can rape a bed down to the soil, apply 4 inches of mulch and within a week have seed pop up from chamberbitter, spurge and sedge. It must be my hot temps, but come on lets be real. Sometimes tilling isn't a reality in densly planted beds even with line trimmer cultivator's and the mantis.
As far as the customer, yes go back and reapply some gly and kill the weeds before they reseed. As I said above, if you don't get some of these weeds before they seed drop, then the irrigated beds will only reoccur and cost you more trips. Geotextiles is good for a while until seeds grow on top of the mulch layers. I guess I don't understand the comment of paper!!!! You mean applying newspaper as a base layer to keep out weeds?? HMMM! Never did this other than to provide a moisture barrier for my garden and to solarize a pathway. Other than that, the paper will break down and serve no purpose.

No, but as I mentioned we have quackgrass and a few more like it... is it possible for you to actually dispose of your spurge, before rushing to put down the mulch???

[Think Green]

Axe,
LOL!!--I wish it were that easy as the spurge is similar to Poa annua. These little weeds produce enough seeds........that are hard to be seen by the visible eye. They are so lightly weighted, that falling into crevices the width of a piece of paper, they will sprout in 5 days with little moisture.
This all reminds me of another thread that we could almost prove that mulches is contaminated with seed matter. It is almost like you can completely clean out a bed to be bare soil with a hoe or mechanical effort, lay the mulch at 4 inches and then in a week see more weeds emerge. Crazy!!

[kirk1701]

Originally Posted by Duekster

The news paper will act as a weed block for a while. It does break down but by then the mulch is settled.

Personally, I do not like any weed block and would rather have the mulch in contact with the soil, and breaking down and improving the soil. Pre-em and Gly will help but laying down 3 to 4" of mulch is key. I do not like turning it, I would rather mulch over. The exception being annual beds. Again I have few weed problems in those and we hand pull them on full service accounts as it is no big deal in a tilled bed to pull weeds.

Duekster I have a question
I have about 6" of pine bark in mine, freshened up a couple times each sping since 2010 when I put in the landscaping now.

I didn't remove any and I took up some of the weed block around my big oak tree's because of fear water wasn't getting to them.

If not lack of water then could the 6" of bark be smothering the roots?

What Pre-em you recomend because more of the weed block is coming up and thats the route I'm going next season.

[kirk1701]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

I don't think pine bark mulch would ever smother roots, on it's own... your fabric over the top of the tree roots could be seriously drying out the rootzone of the trees however... Here again is another good place to look at the soil and assess its moisture availability...

I should had read one more post down, thansk smallaxe

Like I said, more is coming up this fall, I don't want to move it now and ruin the fresh look I just put in but I took enough up already around the tree's.

Watering around this "FARM" has become a full time job without watering 100 year old oak tree's too

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by kirk1701

Duekster I have a question
I have about 6" of pine bark in mine, freshened up a couple times each sping since 2010 when I put in the landscaping now.

I didn't remove any and I took up some of the weed block around my big oak tree's because of fear water wasn't getting to them.

If not lack of water then could the 6" of bark be smothering the roots?

What Pre-em you recomend because more of the weed block is coming up and thats the route I'm going next season.

There are concerns about putting a lot of material on tree roots. Some oaks are more sensitive than others. I am more concerned about the root flare and trunk of the tree being covered. Have 0" next to the truck and taper out up to 5" on newly planted trees. 0" at the to 3" around the tree is you must. I just keep the grass off my trunk and keep a bare ring 24" or less around the trunk of my trees.





I do not use pine bark mulch. IMHO, they do not have the break down well, ammend the soil. Native Hardwood mulch is best. Cedar is second best. I also like Bois D' Arc Mulch very much as it is the hardest native tree around here and considered a scrub tree.


I do not use a Pre-Em on Beds for the most part. If it is a new bed with large shrubs it can be helpful the first season or two.

[kirk1701]

Originally Posted by Duekster

There are concerns about putting a lot of material on tree roots. Some oaks are more sensitive than others. I am more concerned about the root flare and trunk of the tree being covered. Have 0" next to the truck and taper out up to 5" on newly planted trees. 0" at the to 3" around the tree is you must. I just keep the grass off my trunk and keep a bare ring 24" or less around the trunk of my trees.





I do not use pine bark mulch. IMHO, they do not have the break down well, ammend the soil. Native Hardwood mulch is best. Cedar is second best. I also like Bois D' Arc Mulch very much as it is the hardest native tree around here and considered a scrub tree.


I do not use a Pre-Em on Beds for the most part. If it is a new bed with large shrubs it can be helpful the first season or two.

Sorry for getting off topic here and have more questions pertaining to the tree's so cary on and I'll start another thread.