Ok I am a terrible gardner (Susan I need you to come help me LOL) and NOTHING grows in my front flower bed except weeds which obviously doesn't look too nice so I came up with a plan of action for this weekend.I sprayed weed killer on the weeds,am going to buy a bunch of bags of red bark,some big planter boxes and flowers.I am going to cover the ugly,icky,dead bed with bark then just use planters to grow flowers in instead of trying to get anything besides weeds to grow there.How does that sound? Any other ideas or tips for me???

Also on the side of my house I have stepping stones that go to the back yard,they look nasty as well as it is dirt not lawn and the weeds/grass grow between them.I was wondering if I could do the same thing there...kill the weeds lay bark between all the bricks and along the sides to make it look better??? What do you think? I have no clue if it will work and look good like I think it will.I also have no clue as to if my landlord will care or not but I don't think he will as A) It will make the yards look better and B) If he doesn't like it bark can be removed if I ever leave!

Cali,
Before you put the bark down, buy a roll of landscape fabric. It usually comes in a roll that is like 3' wide and 100' long for about $25.00. It is a woven fabric that will let the water drain through, but prevents the weeds from growing up through it from the bottom. Don't use regular plastic as a weed barrier, the bugs love to make their little nests under them.

Also, instead of bark, you could use decorative gravel. It won't rot, attract insects, get blown away, and it lasts forever. You can get the smooth beach pebble type so they don't hurt your feet when you walk on them. Check with your local stone yard about buying them in bulk instead of bags. It should be alot less expensive that way. If you put down 2" thick of gravel, you should get about 100-120 sq. ft. per ton.

Hope this helps.

Try to avoid the weedkiller. if you contact a feed store, you can buy a 50-lb. bag of salt and sprinkle that around where you want things to die. It will wash away in a rain or two, and leave no residue to poison the rest of the world.

And don't forget that you can punch holes in the landscaping cloth and plant whatever you'd like instead of using the planter boxes. Just make sure that you make a good-sized hole and fill it with good earth - humus, topsoil, perhaps a moisture retainer of some sort, before you set your plants in.

Cali~ I work for a tree company here is Colorado. And when we put mulch (bark) around the trees we always use weedkiller (roundup) so the weeds don't go through. So yes it will work, even in flower beds.

Well today is the big day LOL Lets hope my project turns out how I think it will!!

Went and got landscaping fabric,stakes,4 bags of bark and two big color bowls of flowers,it is 8 am here and my Aunt is coming over to help me before it gets too hot out,gotta mow the yards as well! I'll take pics and post them once it is all done,matter of fact I'll take before/after so you can see how funky it was before!

Here is how it turned out.The pic doesn't show it very well but it looks really cute :)

Next time try some coco hulls. They smell like chocolate.