r/UnethicalLifeProTips • u/wishuponawell • Jul 15 '24

Request ULPT [Request] I have 7 days to make $350.

• Location is south US • Recently been scammed • No organization/person will offer loan • No items to offer for sale • Currently have $0 (besides some change) • Trust in others is dead & cold • Highly skilled in art & most creative aspects • Will not do harm to other individuals • Merely weighing options • Failure is not one of them • To miss the deadline is out of the question

1.8k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

89% Upvoted

577 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/faerybones Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24

No products, I should have mentioned that I build and maintain pollinator gardens (still weeding 90% of the time). Even landscape fabric is harmful (and useless). Some of my clients used Preen, but they still had to call me to pull weeds lol.

What you want is dense green growth so there is NO VISIBLE MULCH at all. Groundcovers help out-compete the weeds, bare mulch attracts them.

Repetitive pulling will diminish the seed bank in the soil, where years of weed seeds are buried. If you wait too long and the weeds flower and drop seeds, you have to start over again. So make sure you're pulling them at least once a month, but once a week is better.

Leaving leaves in the beds, in a neat 2-3 inch layer, is the ultimate weapon against weeds. My clients who leave leaves in their beds pay me less money because there's not much for me to pull.

Other weapons:

Hori hori or weeding sickle

Bypass pruners (I like Felcos)

Tarps to dump pulled weeds in

Bucket to carry with you for weeds as you pull them

With those tools, I was able to work and save up enough to buy a trailer, so I can take weeds/vines/debris to the dump. Junk hauling is also a thing, but everyone and their uncle does it.

An electric blower is good to blow the walkways and other hardscaping clear when you're done weeding and there's green confetti or dirt everywhere.

I always give a warning in the estimate that weeding/invasives removal is never a one and done deal. Either you pull them and they maintain it themselves after, or they sign up for your maintenance plan.

2

u/eternal42 Jul 19 '24

Fuck yeah Felco 2s are the best.