Flower bed taken over by weeds! Please advise

[Anonymous]

Novice here. I have a small bed that originally contained perennials, but each year there are less and less due to weeds that have taken over the bed. It’s so bad now that I feel like the entire bed needs to be gutted, treated, and resoiled to permanently kill off the weeds. I don’t know where to begin on how to tackle this project. Any advice?

How do people deal with flower beds that are consumed by weeds? I need step by step instructions. Thank you in advance for your help.

[Anonymous]

Vinegar

[Anonymous]

I download an audiobook to listen to and after it rains I pull the weeds by hand so the soil is soft enough for the roots of the weds to come out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I download an audiobook to listen to and after it rains I pull the weeds by hand so the soil is soft enough for the roots of the weds to come out.

same but podcast.

[Anonymous]

Plant densely so there’s no room for weeds. Pull weeds from the roots. Sometimes newbies don’t realize this. If you don’t pull from the roots and you leave everything below ground intact, you are just giving the weeds a haircut and encouraging stronger root systems.

[Anonymous]

Get some pruning shears and a hoe. Start with cutting down the tall stuff, work your way down to the roots, try not to kill the flowers. It will look barren with a few half dead flowers. They’ll come back next year once the weeds are gone. If you aren’t sure if it’s a flower leave it, if it doesn’tbloom next year pull it out. In the figure try to weed in spring during first blooms.

[Anonymous]

You don’t have to treat or resoil. You just need to weed. If you want to do this the hard and fast way, take a digging fork (looks like a pitch fork with thick tines) and methodically loosen all the soil, levering all of the plants out, weeds and wanted plants. Toss the weeds and keep all the perennials to the side. When you have weeded the entire bed replant the perennials, water it, and then mulch it. The mulch will keep down weeds, but you will still have to weed it.

If you don’t want to take the perennials out, weed with a hand fork instead of a digging fork and target the weeds. Then mulch.

Every inch of soil needs to be covered by something or there will be weeds. Ideally then soil will be covered with plants you want, but you can use mulch while the plants fill in. One thing you can do is declare some aggressive low-growing plant that loves your garden a ground cover and let it go nuts. For me that is violets, yarrow, and evening primrose. All are native, easy, pretty, and aggressive enough to serve as a living mulch.

[Anonymous]

You need to be weeding pretty much every week from spring until fall.

[Anonymous]

It might be worthwhile to pay someone to weed. You can save your plants and then supervise to make sure they’re digging out the roots. Once you have a clean slate, re-plant and mulch. You have to keep an eye on it and weed as needed, and re-mulch in the spring every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might be worthwhile to pay someone to weed. You can save your plants and then supervise to make sure they’re digging out the roots. Once you have a clean slate, re-plant and mulch. You have to keep an eye on it and weed as needed, and re-mulch in the spring every year.

Who are you going to find that will be able to tell weeds from perennials?

As others have said, you need to get out there and weed. Water, give it a day so it’s not mud and then weed. Disturb the ground minimally (because your weeds probably went to seed last summer and every time you disturb the soil you create a chance for seed). Then plant more plants - throw in some quick growing annuals if you don’t want to commit to a few years of a plant, or get some native perennials in there. The pp who said you need more plants to crowd out the weeds is right.

And then MULCH. Thickly. Block the sun from those suckers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might be worthwhile to pay someone to weed. You can save your plants and then supervise to make sure they’re digging out the roots. Once you have a clean slate, re-plant and mulch. You have to keep an eye on it and weed as needed, and re-mulch in the spring every year.

Who are you going to find that will be able to tell weeds from perennials?

As others have said, you need to get out there and weed. Water, give it a day so it’s not mud and then weed. Disturb the ground minimally (because your weeds probably went to seed last summer and every time you disturb the soil you create a chance for seed). Then plant more plants - throw in some quick growing annuals if you don’t want to commit to a few years of a plant, or get some native perennials in there. The pp who said you need more plants to crowd out the weeds is right.

And then MULCH. Thickly. Block the sun from those suckers.

That's why I said to save the plants, and then supervise the weeding. OP can absolutely do it herself, if she just takes a small chunk at a time, and spends maybe 30 minutes on it a day.

If she doesn't want to bother with saving anything, she can just dump 6" of arborist mulch on it and call it a day. It will be ready for planting next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might be worthwhile to pay someone to weed. You can save your plants and then supervise to make sure they’re digging out the roots. Once you have a clean slate, re-plant and mulch. You have to keep an eye on it and weed as needed, and re-mulch in the spring every year.

Who are you going to find that will be able to tell weeds from perennials?

As others have said, you need to get out there and weed. Water, give it a day so it’s not mud and then weed. Disturb the ground minimally (because your weeds probably went to seed last summer and every time you disturb the soil you create a chance for seed). Then plant more plants - throw in some quick growing annuals if you don’t want to commit to a few years of a plant, or get some native perennials in there. The pp who said you need more plants to crowd out the weeds is right.

And then MULCH. Thickly. Block the sun from those suckers.

That's why I said to save the plants, and then supervise the weeding. OP can absolutely do it herself, if she just takes a small chunk at a time, and spends maybe 30 minutes on it a day.

If she doesn't want to bother with saving anything, she can just dump 6" of arborist mulch on it and call it a day. It will be ready for planting next year.

I think OP should absolutely do it herself; pulling up and potting the plants (even tagging them doesn’t feel like it would be enough for some lawn care people to preserve them) seems like a heck ton of work. If she does it bit by bit and throw down a bag of mulch once she hits an area (layering with cardboard if she really wants to smother them), then she doesn’t have to go back in it.

But get some new plants in first!

[Anonymous]

1. Agree with making a weeding day, on hands and knees, with a book or podcast.

2. Plant or replant, making note of where bulbs are placed

3. Cover with card board, overlapping so there are only gaps where you are expected a flower

4. Cover card board with mulch.

Update annually as needed.

[Anonymous]

NP- does cardboard work better than the black fabric cover they sell at Home Depot, or is it just more economical?

Anonymous wrote:1. Agree with making a weeding day, on hands and knees, with a book or podcast.

2. Plant or replant, making note of where bulbs are placed

3. Cover with card board, overlapping so there are only gaps where you are expected a flower

4. Cover card board with mulch.

Update annually as needed.

[Anonymous]

Re: black fabric stuff from Home Dept et al!

I spent yesterday pulling weeds from the black fabric. I’m going to try the cardboard and mulch method.

My tip for removing weeds from walkway cracks or even a dense area of your lawn: boiling water!