A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Ideas for weeds in flower beds?

I was wandering what everyone does to keep weeds out of flower beds? Also do you use mulch and if so what kind and color?

Wait for a good soaking rain, then go out the next day & pull them. It is time consuming, but well worth it if you get the roots.

My choice of mulch depends on what's in the bed & what the soil's like. And over the years/seasons I'd have to say I rotate mulches.

My mulch of preference is pine straw, but if your soil is on the acidic side to start with, too much pine straw can eventually make it more so. As a mulch goes, pine straw doesn't deteriorate as quickly as soon mulches (which can be good & bad, depending on the state of your soil). My second favorite is straw (not hay), especially if I'm starting a new bed. Straw does decompose rapidly & so for a new bed is ideal. I have also "mulched" flower beds with rotted manure especially if we're going through a year or two of dry weather. My least favorite is nuggets, with shredded bark second to least. I've had significant problems in the past with club fungi in bags of shredded & nuggets. The fungi formed a mat at the surface and prevented rain from soaking in. Plus, there's some evidence that the process of bark decomposition actually removes more nutrients from the soil than are deposited when the bark decomposes.

Oh! Wait! I forgot about compost. Mulching with compost is good, especially at the end of the season. You can cover it up with a decorative mulch in the spring.

I like the pine straw too, or grass clippings. sometimes I'll use hay if neither of the other two are available at the time. I hear hay has lots of seeds in it, but I haven't run into any problems using it anyway. I put paper down first then the mulch on top. If I pull weeds, I'll only use one layer of paper then the mulch on top. sometimes If there are too many weeds I'll cover them with severaly layers of paper to choke them out. then put the mulch on top. I'm not real fond of the bark mulch either. it tends to float away when we have heavy rains. and it seems like it attracts lots of ants. maybe cause it grows fungus like marica was saying?

oh my I have been usung bark in my beds close to the house---hoever the nursery where i go tells me whichone to buy---however I do put down a nice layer of pea gravel between the house & 8-10 inches out. I was advised to keep the bark at least 6 inches from the house as it would tend to draw termites to ths house if I did.----So far so good--

I use grass clippings in my veggie garden---and I love it for there---especially in my asparagus bed.---The herbs like it too.


What is pine straw--I have never seen it....

I get my pine straw (pine needles)from under pine trees. we have a few on our property. I'm not sure if you can buy it or not?

Thanks everyone! I am going to get mulch tomorrow, but was not sure if I needed to put anything certain in there as well. I have plastic over the ground on the flower beds right now. so once I put the mulch on, it will weight the plastic down and kill the weeds that do grow. I been living here for 6 years and pulled for one day each year and just about all of them are gone now. I am also going to mulch around my pond. I hope to get some pics on here soon.

we DO like to look at pic's.
best of luck!

As someone said above, pine "straw" is pine needles, specifically (& usually) the pine needles of long leaf pine. (So each needle is roughly...6-8" long.) It's sold as bales, just like hay or straw. It's often raked up from golf courses in the south. It used to be available almost exclusively down south, but is becoming available more & more up north. Down side? Price. I stopped at a place in NC a couple of weeks ago & it was selling for $3.99/bale. Here in Cincinnati it's $7.99. Must be transportation costs.

I have pictures to put up. I need to get them on my laptop(I am currently on the desktop) and load them on here.