Preventing Weeds in flower beds?

k_warren8

I have a flower bed in the front of the house. Ive tried putting 2 layers of mulch in the flower bed but having problems with weeds. Any suggestions on other ways to keep the weeds out?

Dr.Loretta

You can't. No matter what you do, you'll have to go out and pull weeds.

sarahmf13

Pull the ones that are there and then sprinkle Preen on top of all the mulch.  You'll still get the occasional one that pops through, but I've maybe had 5 small weeds that I've had to pull where I've Preen-ed all summer.

alliapistor

Mulch can be helpful at keeping things from growing from beneath, but I find that a lot of my weeds get blown in and just grow on top of it.  For me, there is no way to kill the weeds without killing my plants as well so I just pull them out by hand.  If yours are coming up from below, you can try the black landscape fabric or newspaper or cardboard (but the latter 2 break down over time and need to be replaced).

BuffyJMB

Yep, everyone's right unfortunately.  There are products you can use by Orthomax.  There is an all over killer (grey bottle with handle), that will kill everything around where you pour it, and they say don't use it on an area where you will be trying to plant anything in a year.  Then they have the weed-be-gone, which you can pull a weed, then spray where the weed was and it won't (supposedly) grow back for a while.  I've had luck with both.  Weeds are the worst!  Good luck!

pattymctatty

sarahmf13:

Pull the ones that are there and then sprinkle Preen on top of all the mulch.  You'll still get the occasional one that pops through, but I've maybe had 5 small weeds that I've had to pull where I've Preen-ed all summer.

I was jealous of my neighbor's weedless garden all summer. This is what she does. I bought some too, it totally works! It prevents new ones from coming up, I've had to pull a few, but definitely not as many as I did in June!

lmdbww

You just have to keep on top of them and keep pulling (try to pull them from the root. This tool helps),

Mrs. M.

There IS a way to prevent the weeds. My mom weeded out all of her beds and then when it was cleaned out she layed out this kinda black like tarp matieral across the whole bed and then layed mulch on top of it. There have been NO weeds since! A local nursery may have the material. Hope that helps!