How To Prevent Weeds In Your Flower Beds


It’s not to early to prevent weeds from popping up in your flower beds in the spring and summer months.  Yes, gardening shops will say it’s too early… but according to my expert gardening friend, it’s not.

I’ve been watching my neighbor, Linda, tend her beautiful yard for several years now.  She is a master gardener for sure!  She spends a lot of time in her yard, planting, watering, clipping… but not weeding.  Weeds were a constant garden challenge for me, until she shared her “weeding” tip with me.

Preen Weed Preventer is her answer.  You can place the Preen in your flower beds, ground covers and around trees and shrubs and those little pesky weeds simply will not appear.

You can’t wait to apply the Preen after the weeds has surfaced.  It will not kill existing weeds.  For it to be affective, you must apply it before the weeds germinate and peek their little head above the soil surface.

Linda claims that folks wait too long before applying the preventer.  Once the weeds begin to appear…. they start dropping little seeds for the next go around. Her special secret is, “You need to nip them very early,” says Linda.  The nurseries say wait until April or May.  But, Linda says that’s to late to prevent weeds from coming up in your tulips and daffodils. “Get a handle on it early.”

Linda likes to apply her Preen when the snow is still on the ground.  February is not too early, she claims.  Weeds germinate about 1/4 inch below the surface of the soil…so when the soil heats up…here they come.  Sprinkle the Preen over your flower bed areas and let the melting snow settle the preventer into the soil…. no early spring weeds.  Because you’ve eliminated the early weeds, they don’t have the opportunity to drop their seeds which creates problems later in the spring and summer.

Now, I like to turn, or cultivate my soil and add mulch to my flower beds… and that can still be done after the last frost in in May.  After turning my soil over, I rebroadcast the Preen before planting my flowers.  You can reapply the weed preventer a couple of times during the summer months but I’ve found if I start early enough in the spring…it’s not necessary.

Now the disadvantage to Preen is, you can’t plant flower seeds… because they… like the weeds…they won’t germinate.  However, if you purchase your plant starts through the nursery or you’ve grown your own, you won’t have a minutes trouble.

The weather man has predicted the “white stuff” for the end of the week.  I have my Preen ready to apply.  Since it’s yellow in color… I can easily see where the granules fall on the surface of the snow.

Till Later,

Kathy
Insightful Nana

P.S.  There are other brands of Weed Preventers, but I’ve found the the brand Preen to be the most effective for preventing weeds in your flower beds.


4 responses to “How To Prevent Weeds In Your Flower Beds”

  1. This is wonderful advice. Will put into effect ASAP! Because I’m a bit ‘odd’ and actually enjoy some weeding, I’ve never used any product to control them. But it can usually get out of conrol! I’ll use Preen selectively to preserve some fun for me! 🙂
    Thank you!
    (love the ‘insightful Nana’ name btw!)

  2. Nana, I must have been reading your mind. I just applied Preen over this last weekend. We designed new flower beds last fall but didn’t have time to fill them with soil. So…I brought in some new topsoil and the first thing we did was to apply the Preen. Now with this latest snow storm, we should be in good shape for some weed control. Thanks for all you do. Griff #2