A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Weeds! (like skyoung's question)

Hi Everyone-

I need to remulch since I have bought our new home. There is a lot of grassy weeds in the flower beds. I have hand-pulled a bunch. How perfect and weed-free should it be? Can I use a weedkiller instead of doing it by hand? If I use a weedkiller, how long should I wait before laying down mulch?

Thanks!

Jen

Just go thru the beds with a hoe or a 3 prong cultivator or similar and damage the weeds by scuffing the soil lightly. Give them a few days of direct sunlight to burn them off and fertilize the beds then mulch over the top.

If you're putting a thick layer of mulch on your beds, there's really no reason to worry about the weeds as 95% of them will be smothered by the layer of mulch. Otherwise, a day will be more than sufficient of a wait after applying an herbicide.

How interesting! Thank you both so much; think I will experiment a bit with both suggestions. Thanks again for your time- you know how frustrating it can be with us newbies.