Maggie, just to be safe I would pull out the weeds by hand - it would be a shame to kill any of your established perennials.
After all the weeds are out consider putting down a couple of inches of bark or other mulch. This will keep your weeding to a minimum for the rest of the season and will cut down on your watering requirements too.
The mulch will also give it a nice finished look. Just be sure not to pile it up around the base of the perennials - leave an inch or so to avoid rot.

Good luck!
Debs

I would use round up.....very carefully! Any spray you get on your plants will potentially kill tham....but on a windless day and holding the spray close to the weeds there is little danger.
The weeds will take about 3 weeks to die, so if you are in a hurry, best to pull them.
Then pile on the bark mulch...not the big pieces but the fine pieces.
Linda C

I would use roundup also. I use it all the time around other plants - set the nozzle to dribble and hold it close to the
weeds. Then put fresh mulch over the just sprayed weeds and everything will look good again.

Sedum and ornamental grasses are about as low maintenance as they come. There is no such thing as a no maintenance perennial. Get rid of the weeds and put down some mulch.

Like hotstaholic said, sedum and ornamental grasses are really low maintenance. For the weeds or regular grass that grows near your plants, use Roundup using a paint brush. I use Roundup, but never spray it on...too chancy getting it on me or the good plants. I have several different sizes of paint brushes to use on my weeds. I even use the roller type paint brush with a long handle on large areas so I don't have to get down on the ground. Btw, if you mulch your gardens, it'll help keep the weeds down. I use cocoa bean mulch, grass cuttings, leaves and on one of my gardens I use a shredded wood mulch.
Don't ever be sorry about the gardening questions you ask. We have all had to learn and are happy to pass on any info that can help other gardeners. Good luck with your new home and gardens!

Kat

I agree with hostaholic--grasses and sedums are about at low maintenance as you can get. But you still have to weed! It might help if you planted a groundcover between the sedums and grasses. Geranium 'Karmina' or 'Biokovo' are low maintenance, nearly evergreen, need no pruning, dividing or deadheading, and will slowly fill in around your other plants. Another plant that would work is Sedum 'John Creech'.

But you still have to weed now and then.

Thanks so much for the responses. We are off to the garden center to purchase mulch. I noticed no one responded to my question regarding Preen....bad stuff???

Also, there are weeds that are growing smack in the middle of some of the sedum and grass clumps...how do I get those weed roots out without disturbing the roots of the sedum and grass?

Thanks again!

Maggie, I would just sit down for a couple of hours and pull the weeds by hand. Then cover with a thick layer of mulch.

I don't use Preen myself. I've heard of Preen, but have never used it, so I don't know if it's organic or not, and I garden organically. I did have a friend who used it and it seemed to me she still had weeds to pull!

Despite the overwhelming feeling I get sometimes when I look at ALL the weeds I have, I have to admit that I kind of like weeding. While I'm sure my time could be better spent doing the other hundred chores that need to be done in the garden, there is something very relaxing and peaceful about sitting on the ground on a quiet morning or afternoon and just pulling out weeds.

Good luck!
:)
Dee

I don't use Preen. You have to weed first then use Preen on a weed free area. Preen does not kill existing weeds, it keeps new weeds from germinating. Its not a forever fix either, you have to do it every season, at least. So, one way or another, you're still weeding.

I'm a hand weeder - and from the look of your beds, at least from what can be seen, you'd hardly be spending a lot of time at it. Most plants are tougher than they look and pulling a weed with a reasonable amount of attention to what you're doing generally will not disturb sedum or grasses. Pull the weeds up then lay down a layer of mulch. Maybe you can get free mulch if your municipality has a compost site.

Responders are correct - there is no such thing as no maintenance gardening/landscaping. Well, you could put in astro-turf and plastic plants. Failing that, something that looks nice and enhances your home is going to take some effort.

Lots of help is available here on these forums.

After you get the big weeds out then just weed a bit every other day or so. I don't use any weed killers in my garden. I weed as I walk around plus I have everything mulched.

In regards to weeds within the plants/grasses, I try to get my fingers in there and just pull them out. I know this can be difficult and sometimes I've had to remove the plant so as to get to the weed. That's a worse case scenario.

I too enjoy weeding. I always step back and look at the garden and pat myself on the back after I'm done. Looks great! :O)

weeds that are growing smack in the middle of some of the sedum and grass clumps...how do I get those weed roots out without disturbing the roots of the sedum and grass?

Just yank them out. The sedum and grasses won't care one bit.

There don't look like that many weeds there in the pics, and I would think you could make quick work of just getting down and pulling them out. You could also use a hoe turned kinda sideways to poke at the root area of the roots. Then rake up the weeds and toss them.

What is important is to get those weeds out of there before they flower and seed. That can happen seemingly overnight, and then the battle just continues.

So scratch them up, get the mulch down, and if you want to put some preen down on the soil before the mulch you can. I have used it, but I really don't know if it works.

Good luck...

I would try to pull out all that are close to the plants and spray the rest. I lay down layers of newspaper and then mulch. I use Preem. It is good stuff. A friend of mine that has a hugh greenhouse told me the secret of using it is to weed, then sprinkle and then sprinkle again in a week. The beds that I have used Preem in have very few weeds. Working on getting all of my beds sprinkled...

Susie

I saw a good trick in Garden Gate magazine this week. You tape one of those foam paintbrushes to a yardstick and apply the Roundup that way. It is a good method for weeds that are too close to plants but hard to pull up.

I'm a hand weeder except for fence lines but hostaholic nailed it, there ain't no NO maintenance garden.......:)

Right now I have a billion unwanted seedlings (mostly alliums) coming up. But later (like the end of May) I want to direct sow some flower seeds. If I used Preen now, would it take care of the "bad" seedlings and "wear off" in time to sow the flowers?

No, Linnea! If you plan to hand seed wildflowers, do not use Preen. It works to prevent seeds from germinating in the beds, but it doesn't know what kinds you want and don't want. I don't know about alliums, but most onions (good and bad) I have had experience with require that seedlings be dug, not even pulled. Not what you wanted to hear, I am sure. Maybe you can learn to adore alliums? I am very careful to cut off spent onion flowers before they make seeds for this very reason. (I don't even go out of town when garlic chives are flowering, the little darlings.)

Maggie, I read in the first gardening book that got me hooked that if you can prevent any weed in your bed from setting seed for three years in a row, you'll have the problem 99 percent licked (this is in conjunction with using mulch). I have made it my gardening motto and it is absolutely true. Take a lovely little walk around your yard everyday. Look at everything and enjoy it. And, whenever you see the tiniest weed coming up through your mulch, bend over and pull it out. It's good for the waistline, and takes so little time you won't even count it.

For weeds that are close to my perennials, I use a round plastic container-like the ones that hold a pint of sour cream, with the bottom cut out. You could also use a big soda bottle with both ends removed. Put it down over the weed that needs to be sprayed and spray. This holds any drift down to a minimum. Any landscaper I ever asked always advocated spraying over handweeding whenever possible-handweeding often leaves pieces of root behind, and then the weed just regrows. Spraying, two times a few days apart on sunny days with light wind, seem to do a better job. And mulch or compost helps too.