how do I kill the grass and keep the flowers?

mmsall

We bought our house over a year ago. There are huge landscaping beds around the house that were way overgrown with weeds and dozens and dozens of plants/flowers. I let them grow last year so I could see what was going to come up. Well, there's boatloads of gorgeous flowers that I'd like to keep. The problem is the grass and weeds that are also coming up...How do I kill the grass and weeds and NOT the flowers? Please help!!

pugznploons

best way is to dig up the weeds/grass, make sure you get the roots

TootsieK

Two options come to my mind: manual or chemical.  If you can face the vast amount of work involved, the manual way is safer and probably quicker.  Wet the bed well to loosen the soil and pull up every non-desirable plant by its roots.  Then mulch mulch mulch around the desirables and throughout the bed.  The cleanup will last longer if you put newspaper or landscape fabric under the mulch, thereby blocking out sunlight for seeds and roots that are already in the soil and keeping new seeds from reaching the soil.  With large beds, you'll go through a lot of mulch and calories.  Look on it as a way of building up your vitamin D and getting a good workout.

If most of your weeds, and none of your desirables, are grasses and you can't face doing all that manual labor, you can look for a grass herbicide.  I know they exist; farmers use them all the time.  But you may have a hard time finding them unless you go to an agricultural supply store.  Make sure the grass herbicide does not also kill broadleaf plants.  Follow the directions very carefully. 

A regular "grass and weed" herbicide cannot be used if you want to salvage any of the plants.  A weed is simply a plant that is out of place. For example, morning glories are prized by gardeners but detested by farmers, who consider them virulent weeds. Herbicides are not mind-readers and cannot tell which plants you want to keep and which you want to get rid of.  They kill it all. 

Your best bet is to take pictures of your flower beds to a good garden store and ask their advice.

lmdbww

Our flowerbeds looked like hell-in-a-handbasket when we moved into our house. Think waist high weeds, out of control bushes, etc. It took a good 2 growing seasons to finally get all of the weeds out, but we just kept pulling and pulling. We did not use any sprays because I didn't want to kill anything that I wanted to keep.

Turning the soil over helps to loosen it and make getting the root of the weeds easier. Also get a weeding tool (looks like this: 

It will help you get the root better.

Also, taking good care of your lawn and keeping weeds under control there too can help to keep weeds out of your flowerbeds.

mmsall

thank you everyone. You've been very helpful!!