Hi all I had a forest of clivias that I removed after buying a house. Now I want to keep that area clean, prevent weeds, flatten it out a bit and mulch.
As you can see there's lots of roots leftover. Do I need to get rid of these somehow?
I saw a tool online called a cultivator, seems good for breaking soil up so I can even it out and then putting mulch over?
How does one learn all about gardening?
by No_Accountant2009
3 Comments
A cultivator is very useful for breaking up packed earth, but they don’t love roots and runners being tangled into them. I would probably just try to churn it all up with a pitchfork.
From my experience you basically don’t need to remove the roots if they’re more or less just lying on top, you can just mulch over.
You ‘may’ get one or two pups come up again, which you can just pull out, but otherwise the roots are basically just organic matter that will decompose.
If it were me, depending how big that area actually is, I’d probably have another go with a bit more of a shoveling to get the more concentrated areas of roots out at depth (to avoid minor re-sprout), bit of a rake again to get the root matts out, then some top soil and mulch (or garden then mulch, whatever the plans).
Cardboard + Mulch and you should be mostly fine for a while. Other weeds will always blow in and germinate and you might (slim chance) get a clivia able to somehow survive and push through, which you can just remove as needed.
>How does one learn all about gardening?
If you’re like me; Mostly through failure.