I am trying to get rid of weeds and grass in my flower beds without killing my flowers, it grows through mulch

Answer 1

The best thing to do is pull them by hand. Yes, it's a pain, but using herbicide will likely kill your plants if they are already established in the beds.
If the beds are empty and you're going to plant the flowers next year, then by all means spray away.

Answer 2

I'd recommend using layers of wetted newspaper as your mulch, as mentioned by mommyrayne and tinker_doo. I often use this to preserve moisture in the soil and keep weeds down. It works.
You can cover the newspaper with lawn clippings, baled pine needles in some areas, compost, or whatever.
The newspapers and mulch can be lifted up and added to a compost bin or moved to a food gardening area and rototilled into the garden to add nutrients.
The ink on the paper is soy-bean based now, and doesn't contain lead (lead-based inks were banned in 1972)

The active ingredient in herbicides like Roundup is actually a plant growth hormone which will break down in a short time once applied.
What the hormone does is makes the plants' roots grow so fast they rupture themselves. That's fine and dandy, and passes all the safety tests, but I would like to point out that the carrying agents--the bulk of the mix- are saponins (soaps), most of which haven't been tested.

It's better to work without stuff like this, especially if you might be adding flower parts to your salads. (some flowers are edible, and rose hip- or rose petal jelly is quite amazing stuff...)

A weed is simply a plant in a place where you don't want it. :-) Some gardening styles incorporate wild plants, especially the English Country Garden approach.
Search Google images for 'English Country Garden' for some illustrations like the following:
http://www.dreamgallery.co.uk/watercolor_e_detail/english_garden.jpg
http://sudoku.com.au/Prizes/H455.jpg

Answer 3

your best bet is to wait until a little later in the fall when the flowers are dying off. then mark the perennials and remove the mulch. then by hand remove all of the grass and weeds(if no perennials then use round up to kill everything) then (if round up not used if so wait two weeks before proceeding) add a little compost and till into the bed. cover with landscape fabric and put the mulch back on.
wait until early spring then put preen on the bed to prevent germination.then add plants and every two months add the preen again. you will have 80% less weeds and if you spend only a short time (5 minutes) picking what weeds do germinate your have a weed free flower bed.

Answer 4

First, always be sure when you mow to blow the grass away from your beds so you not re-seed.
By hand works if you just stay on top of things, as a good mulch you can easy pull roots and all.
Roundup is good stuff. What I do. Use a Pump Sprayer. Take a 1-3 liter coke bottle (Size up to you) and unscrew both the cap and the end on your sprayer. Make a hole in the coke cap for the wand end to go through and screw the spray adjustment end back on, this should hold the cap from falling off. Cut the bottom out of your bottle and screw onto the cap. This make like a cover you place over what you want to kill. I quick spray and you move to the next kill. Not getting roundup on your flowers.
Adjust the spray for a fine mist should be good.

Answer 5

What sort of mulch are you using and how long has it been on your flowerbed? Shredded hardwood mulch breaks down quickly and the weeds will sprout in it even with landscape cloth underneath. I use pine nugget mulch with landscape cloth underneath around our shrubs. It doesn't break down as fast.

In flowerbeds newspaper is a good option. You need about five layers of it and you need to dampen it before you put it down. Use only newsprint, not colored ink pages or glossy pages. It needs to be refreshed each season and of course you need to mulch over it. Nobody wants to see the headlines while walking in your garden! LOL

Answer 6

Hay and straw are excellent. Put a layer down of several inches over the mulch. You can often obtain this for free from local farmers or cattle ranches.

Answer 7

I haven't tried it, but I read that if you put down wet newspaper then mulch (or rocks, or whatever) that weeds will never break through - you could try it! Good luck

Answer 8

Take an artist brush and brush on RoundUp. The RoundUp goes through the leaves, down the stems, and into the roots killing the whole plant. The hotter the weather the better RoundUp works. Do not get it on your flowers.

Answer 9

what mulch material are you using? if you don't find them black polyethylene plastic bags/strips ugly looking, you can actually use them as mulch. Just cover the entire bed and make a hole where your plants/flowers can go through...also, enough space for you to water them.

Answer 10

the only way is toughs old work or you can go out and get rid of the old dirt and by new dirt but its has been cleaned to EEC standards so there no containment's like chemicals ETC...
but this will only last as long as you put work with it.
all so it doesn't help when your next door nab has the weeds and god knows what Else growning a bush in there back garden.
or you can go down to your local garden center and by lots of chemicals to get rid of them if you want to