Beginner Gardening: xeriscaping in Eastern Washington without a lawn, 1 by allenbar

allenbar wrote:
We live in arid E. WA on a wheat-farming plateau. Our lot is about 1/2 acre. The ground is overrun with native noxious weeds. We could not win the war last summer 2007. The more we killed them the more they survived.

We decided to go with Xeric plants, stones, mulch, walkways and absolutely no lawn. There are approximately 8-12 different noxious weeds that survived all store-bought weedkillers. The weeds even crowded out the Dutch clover and Canada Green we planted.

No ground must show except the gravel drive---even that is a challenge.

We established 10 hybrid poplar shade trees last summer and 500 privits that line the fence. It's April 20 and the yard is already overrun with weeds whose roots are so deep they cannot be dug. If we dig them---more seeds are disturbed and more weeds sprout.

It's April, the snow just melted and the clay soil has already turned to hardpan but the weeds love it!

Has anyone dealt with this? We are considered Zone 3-4. Very little moisture, about 3000' elev.

I'm at my wit's end.