I've heard you can still use Roundup if you isolate the weed....I mean, protect it from overspray by protecting with a milk carton or something. Keep it from getting on the good plants.

Thistles, we get lots of those; sometimes we can pull them; other times we must dig them, and if there are THAT many, we Roundup.

Try this. Pour some Round-up in a can, and get yourself a small old paint brush you don't care about. Cut the thistle stem near the ground and immediately "paint" the cut stem with the Round-up, rather than spraying. It's a more controlled way of getting the agent to where you want it to be. You may have to do this a couple of times. But the thistle will eventually die as the agent gets into the roots. The uncontrolled overspray of round-up when spraying can kill anything it touches.

By the way...wear rubber gloves.

Thanks for all the ideas, I'll give it a try!

One thing that I was told to do to control weeds, and it worked surprisingly, is to lay down newspaper on the soil (around the plants - a few layers), and then cover that with grass clippings. When you do this the first time, make sure to water it heavily as it needs water to stay put.

When little weeds come up in parts you missed, nail it with weed killer and they'll be gone in no time.

It works good...

Wooglin,

What you're referring to is known as "lasagna gardening". There's at least one book on the market about it. And it works best if the layers of newspaper and clippings and such are many.