Weeds in flowerbed

ElephantBoy57

What is the best way to prepare the soil to be a flowerbed? I am in the process, turned the soil over and over, and over. In some bits I have sprayed weed killer, but I want to save some plants that are still in there.

It hasn't been used as a flowerbed for quite some time, so there is grass and weeds. How do councils do it, lots of overgrown flower beds at the moment.

Farway

The way RHS do it is remove the flowers then treat the weeds

I suspect councils just bin the lot and start again come spring

olgadapolga

Farway said:

I suspect councils just bin the lot and start again come spring

Unless it's my local council in which case they apply weedkiller to everything and then cover the remains with slate or gravel. 

ElephantBoy57

Farway said:

The way RHS do it is remove the flowers then treat the weeds

I suspect councils just bin the lot and start again come spring

I thought in hindsight, it could be better to move the flowers. Its a bit late in the season now and I don't have the space.

I did think councils might have a special machine that sanitises the top surface of the soil so weeds don't regrow.

elsien

Depends on the weeds.
Some of them you can just hoe the top off and let them die. Couch grass etc I try to dig the roots out as far as possible (although if you leave any behind they grow again) and keep going whenever they raise their heads again. Any plants where they're entwined in the roots I'll dig up, and try to free all the roots of weed bits then replant.  Anything big tap roots that will be a beggar to get out I use a spot weekkiller. Weedkiller is the option of last resort though. 

Davesnave

ElephantBoy57 said:

Farway said:

The way RHS do it is remove the flowers then treat the weeds

I suspect councils just bin the lot and start again come spring

I did think councils might have a special machine that sanitises the top surface of the soil so weeds don't regrow.

There are commercial flame guns, but even those would have zero effect on some perennial weeds.

The answer is patience and diligence; nothing else works long term.If you want a weed free garden, you graft.

In our village there are some posh houses worth around £750k. People who live in those can afford gardeners, but I see they have lots of couch in their borders and we don't, even though ours were made from what was essentially a field and rubbish dump. The difference is, they couldn't wait, while we kept tuning the ground and clearing the weeds or treating them for more than a season first. Then we planted mainly annuals, so we could nuke whatever else we'd missed first time around when they came out. Took about 3 years, but we ended up with a reasonably weed-free area and no couch. In the meantime, my wife had dug out over a tonne of stones....which was jolly good, but now I need to build a path to use them up!

Of course, if we turn our backs for long, there will still be a few docks or thistles showing. Even if you have a totally sterile bed, in the country there are literally millions of weed seeds travelling about.

twopenny

Farway said:

The way RHS do it is remove the flowers then treat the weeds

I suspect councils just bin the lot and start again come spring

Indeed they do. I have been known to follow the van when they are doing this and asking for them to fill a black bin liner with them. They otherwise go to compost.

I had lovely big pansys filling my big garden, that kept going 2 or 3 years. Entirely free.

I have covered precious plants in plastic bags and then used weedkiller. Just Weedol which affects the leaves from the surface. At the end of the day when the ground was dry again I took the bags off the plants. Think that was a Geoff Hammilton (gardeners world) idea I copied.

ElephantBoy57

My local council gardeners are no where to be seen at the moment. Not sure why since COVID should have less of an effect on outdoor work.

I have been turning the ground over and its looking better. I broke my spade though. Asda is now out of season, so they had none.

Wickes seems like a good store, maybe their low cost tools will be ok. At around £8 they are cheap. Not sure if car boot sales are on at the moment.

Mojisola

Second-hand (junk) shops often have good quality old tools, priced very reasonably. 

bouicca21

This seems an appropriate thread on which to ask about hoeing.  Although I have finally got rid of the worst of the alkanet, it is doing its best to reappear, and of course there are other weeds too.  I currently hoe the flower bed once a week, and dig out the little alkanet plants (though never get the root completely).  That regime is keeping the weeds under control.  But come spring there will be desirable seedlings. If I keep on hoeing I’ll be killing them too.  Do I simply stop hoeing in areas where I think the seedlings might be worth keeping and just concentrate on removing known weeds?

Farway

bouicca21 said:

This seems an appropriate thread on which to ask about hoeing.  Although I have finally got rid of the worst of the alkanet, it is doing its best to reappear, and of course there are other weeds too.  I currently hoe the flower bed once a week, and dig out the little alkanet plants (though never get the root completely).  That regime is keeping the weeds under control.  But come spring there will be desirable seedlings. If I keep on hoeing I’ll be killing them too.  Do I simply stop hoeing in areas where I think the seedlings might be worth keeping and just concentrate on removing known weeds?

I will have similar problem come Spring.

I intend to let them all grow until I can positively identify friend from foe

luckily weeds tend to grow faster than what we want so could be easier to identify early on