Help Me Take Back a Flower Bed

June 26, 2017 11:02 AM

This overgrown monstrosity is actually a flower bed. Miraculously, a series of flowers appear there every year (I guess that's, like, bulbs or something?). How do I kill the weeds while avoiding collateral damage to the bulbs?

I do own a trimmer/edger (and also a machete), and a lawnmower. So I can use all that to cut this stuff down to soil level, which shouldn't hurt the perennials (unless someone knows a better way). But how do I manage going forward? I'd rather avoid harsh chemicals, but don't have time/patience/tick repellence to do it painstakingly by hand.

Note that a lot of it is actually invasive trees, with extensive root systems (yeesh!). Note also that I suppose I wouldn't mind replanting new perennials if it would make things easier.

Re: the weeds growing in the cobblestone cracks in the front of the picture, I usually just blast them out with the trimmer/edger. Is there a better way (again, avoiding harsh chemicals)?

posted by Quisp Lover to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

You can kill weeds with vinegar and salt. Just get a gallon of vinegar and pour a box of salt in it. That will kill weeds in the cobblestone cracks. I am not any horticuturalist and sort of a dweeb gardener, but most areas like that need to be hand weeded to see exactly what is in there. Then you can cut down the trees and drill a hole in the stump and pour salt in that to kill them.
posted by chocolatetiara at 11:19 AM on June 26, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks, chocolatetiara. Just to note that when I referred "invasive trees", I meant that a lot of the "weeds" are actually baby trees. No stumps or anything yet.
posted by Quisp Lover at 11:26 AM on June 26, 2017

That really looks as if the whole thing needs to be dug up. If the flowers you want to keep are bulbs, they will survive being dug up (once their leaves have died back) and replanted.
posted by Azara at 11:32 AM on June 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Chocolatetiara, can one just pour the vinegar/salt solution at will?

Will it only kill weeds?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:19 PM on June 26, 2017

I wouldn't be pouring vinegar and salt anywhere where you actually want to grow plants.

I use it in cracks between concrete buy never in a flower bed


For your bed, I'd start at an edge and start pulling and digging out. It would probably be easier to take it all out and start again.

You could look to see if you could find a volunteer gardener group.. sometimes they'll help you identify what's in the bed and worth keeping
posted by Ftsqg at 12:31 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I had a similar situation in a garden bed and managed to pull it back to usability by ripping out pretty much everything by hand, putting down a weed-and-feed solution (I used Preen pellets), planting a bunch of perennials, mulching heavily, and then weeding by hand occasionally. I don't think mowing will work as you won't get the roots of the weeds, and vinegar/salt will kill the bulbs and anything else you do want. If you focus on trying to get the roots of the weeds you'll still have to do some hand-weeding to get stuff you missed and stuff sprouting from seeds from previous years, but once the initial rip-out is done, it's much more manageable. I find this easiest when the ground is pretty wet, so if you're doing it now, water it well before starting.

For the cracks in the cobblestone, yeah, the edger is fine since they'll keep moving back in, or you can pull as much as you can and put in some moss (if it's wet/shady enough) or creeping thyme or something that you want to be there.
posted by SeedStitch at 12:33 PM on June 26, 2017

You pretty much have to do it by hand. What I would do, and have done, is start by getting a big stack of newspapers, several bags of mulch, garden gloves, a hand pruner, and yard bags. Start at one corner Pulling up weeds and cutting down anything you don't want. Work around anything you want to keep. Put newspaper down at least two pages thick, folding in place around the plants you want to keep. As you go, add handfuls of mulch on top of the papers, covering completely, at least two inches thick. It will take a while, but will be done. Then go back and hand weed anything that pops up later, but most of it will be gone.
posted by raisingsand at 1:36 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Much won't pull out by hand. Again, much of this is invasive tree saplings (3' high) whose root systems are extensive and tenacious.
posted by Quisp Lover at 1:39 PM on June 26, 2017

With tree roots like that you have to dig everything up. The difficulty is in identifying the plants you want to keep versus the weeds/weed trees that have to go. But bulbs make it easier! Use a good Sharp spade (or several, if you can get people to help) and dig everything up. Sift out the bulbs - they should be obvious, and you can replant them later. Put groundcover cloth around the edges (and maybe the bottom) of the dug up flowerbed to deter new tree roots. Then refill the bed with the bulbs and fresh bedding mix soil.

Your weedwhacker plan for things coming out of the wall is a fine one. They also make flamethrowers for the purpose, but they're really best for flagstone or brick walkways, and not super fast.
posted by ldthomps at 2:02 PM on June 26, 2017

If the trunks are less than three inches in diameter, you can just cut them off at the ground and then do the newspaper/mulch. You can spray the cut trunks with the salt and vinegar solution before you mulch for extra insurance.
posted by raisingsand at 3:19 PM on June 26, 2017

This looks to me like a weekend of graft with an appropriate set of tools. I would recommend something like a Hart Short Handle Double Mattock, a decent shovel, and perhaps a pry bar of decent length (to give you leverage, obviously, but also to save your back). Get yourself some colourful gardening tape to mark those things you don't want to inadvertently deracinate in your mad frenzy.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:31 PM on June 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Btw I know you said you don't want to do it by hand, but without using chemicals (or hiring a backhoe to get it done in about five minutes) that's kind of the only way. I suppose in theory you could machete everything back and cover it with black tarp for six months to kill everything off, but would you even want to?
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:10 PM on June 26, 2017

No salt if you want things to grow again. You can use boiling water and concentrated acetic acid (industrial strength vinegar) or burn it using a Weed Dragon (basically a propane torch). It's hard to get away with no digging out, but the above can make the eventual digging out easier.
posted by quince at 10:55 PM on June 26, 2017

Response by poster: ======
"I suppose in theory you could machete everything back and cover it with black tarp for six months to kill everything off, but would you even want to?"
======


Why wouldn't I?
posted by Quisp Lover at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2017

Because that would kill all the nice flowers as well. It would be the easiest way to start from scratch though, hack everything down and cover so it all dies.
You would have a long time of ugly tarp and then you'd have to put in some new soil and new plants.
If you want to save the good plants, then you have to do things by hand and just kill the bad ones.
posted by rmless at 9:11 AM on June 27, 2017

Response by poster: The area's a packed, dense, thicket of nightmarish weeds and invasive tree saplings, plus a few perennial bulbs right at the very front (toward the right in my original photo).

Are bulbs so expensive, or labor intensive to plant, that it's worth two days of grueling work to save them? I'm guessing not, but I really don't know....

The other question: if I do put in new soil and bulbs, how long would it take before it turns back into this again?
posted by Quisp Lover at 9:47 AM on June 27, 2017

Well, there's no real reason you wouldn't want to just kill everything, other than that established plants (in this case, the flowers) tend to be more reliable than new plants, if you're after fast returns. You'll still have to dig out the saplings/mini-trees eventually, but yes, it would be a lot quicker and easier if you weren't concerned about saving anything.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:13 PM on June 27, 2017

A little late to the question, but I had some ideas. I used to work doing habitat restoration/invasive weed removal and this is right up my alley.

In terms of minimizing labor, your best bet is to stump cut the small trees and things that can't be easily pulled. Cut the tree a few inches above the soil, and while the cut is still fresh, paint it with undiluted glyphosate weed killer (Round Up, Ranger, etc). A wide foam paint brush works well. You want to get the weed killer on within a minute or so of making the cut for maximum effectiveness. You can get a small generic/house brand of the weed killer. for $5-7. I'd also suggest thick, forearm length chemical resistant gloves and wrap around safety glasses. Vinegar and salt are absolutely effective on weeds, but they're best for sidewalks and driveways. It's too hard to control where they go in soil, and it can ruin the area for other plants.

Doing it this way is probably the least labor intensive, and painting it on minimizes exposure to desirable plants. The stumps will die off, and as they die they'll be a lot easier to pull out. This can take a few months, maybe up to 6 depending on what all you have growing there. Particularly nasty invasive plants may need more than one application of weed killer - just cut the stump and paint again.

This won't immediately solve your problem, but it's pretty fast and low impact. Note that this works best for plants with a stump 1/2 inch wide or larger.

Afterwards you'll want to carefully dig up the bed and check out the bulbs. You may find large clumps of bulbs that need to be split. Keep up with future weeds while they are still small through hoeing, hand pulling and the like - and most importantly, try to get the weeds put before they flower and set seed.

Good luck!
posted by Orrorin at 1:25 PM on July 3, 2017