Roundup Question ??

This is the problem with putting chemicals in the hands of the ignorant.

You can put down newspapers and mulch to suppress weeds.

Roundup is not a pre-emergent herbicide. It works only on growing plants, not on seeds.

What kind of mulch are you using?

Using cedar mulch.

James

There's your problem... closet weeds coming out...

Roundup only works on growing plants. There is something wrong with either what you are using for mulch or how you are doing it.

David

Pray tell what are closet weeds ??

Don't worry about it. It only gets worse when you understand him.

Cedar bark, wood chips, or needles?

I bought some new stuff called Preen. It is pre-emergent, meaning you put it on when the weeds AREN'T there, and it keeps them from sprouting. Says it can be cultivated right into soil next to existing plants. Check it out. I hope it works as good as it says, I have a large area that needs weed control.

Steve

But, one man's plant is another person's weed.

Preen works greart for our flower beds, as long as we get it on them early enough.

Brooklyn1, are most Brooklynites about on your same intellectual level, or are most of them rather sane and decent ????

James

By the way, the mulch is cedar bark.

James

"James" wrote in news:hp-dnSVau-o8BKjTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@posted.localnet:

I live really close to Brooklyn and most of them are nicer. He COULD use a short lesson from Dale Carnegie.

That being said, there are alternatives to the chemical solution. 25 ft^2 is really not that hard to mulch. If you are not having success with your current mulch, it's time to try a different one.

Do you start your flowers from seed, or do you use seedlings? If the latter, spreading some black plastic garbage bags over the plot before you plant them, and then using a trowel to punch holes in the plastic where you want to plant should work just fine. You can then cover the bags with whatever mulch you like best- the bags will stop almost anything else from growing.

Salt hay also works wonders, if you can get it. It's a beach grass, and suppresses weeds because it high in, well, salt.

Someone else mentioned newspaper. That works well too, and like the plastic bags, just lay them out over the plot, punch a hole where you want to plant a flower, and after you're done planting, cover it all up with your cedar.

If you're planting seeds, things get more complicated.

All best,

Chris

To inhibit weeds, you might need a mulch that is more dense.

I use hardwood leaves -- ash, oak, liquidambar, and zelkova -- and allow them to pack down. I rake the leaves from my lawn and paved areas in the autumn and place them in my beds. I also place fallen small branches over the leaves to prevent the wind from removing them. Around my oak (Quercus lobata), I anchor the leaf mulch with chickenwire pegged into the ground.

Around my camellias, I use the output of my office shredder.

Both leaves and shredded paper form dense layers throught which weeds have trouble growing. No, they don't completely prevent weeds; but they sure do inhibit them.

Chris, thanks for the ideas... I am planting grown plants from small containers....

james

I laid out newspapers with long narrow gaps where the furrows for the seeds were. I then planted the seeds in the furrows. I did that with cucumbers and then did a similar thing on my other summer gourds (zucchini and crooknecks), only leaving small squares rather than long furrows.

VERY few weeds. Peachy!

Priscilla

"Priscilla H. Ballou" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:

You never mentioned planting peaches!

:)

Chris