Roundup and Planting

19 years ago

I just came inside from trying to pull weeds from an area that I am planning to plant a perinnial flower garden. I inherited this little patch when we bought the house 2 years ago and it looks like it was supposed to be a flower garden, but it just didn't happen.

Unfortunately, there are tons of little chrysanthium plants that have spread all over this area, but they have never bloomed; they just leaf and get about 3" tall. There are also a few patches that have sprouted what looks like some kind of grass, but I don't know what it is. I transplanted vinca as a ground cover in the past, and that has done well, but I don't have the effect I want, so I dug up several patches this morning just to save it. There are also patches of lamb's ear that I dug up, as well.

As I was weeding and trying to see if maybe I just tilled the area if I could start all over from scratch, it occured to me that even if I tilled it, some of the mums and whatever is already there might survive and pop up all over in places that I don't want it.

I bought a lot of plants last weekend at Pike's Nursery, so I am really anxious to plant, but in order to get the desired effect, do I need to spray roundup on the existing things that I don't want growing there? If so, how long do I need to wait before tilling, then putting good soil and planting the plants?

Would you even spray the roundup? If not, will it be okay to just till and plant?

I'm sorry for the rambling! I hope I made sense...Thanks for your help!

Beverly

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Comments (3)

quirkyquercus
19 years ago
I would pull out the weeds. You can spray with roundup then you're left with dead weeds that you have to pull out anyway. :-)

Im not a fan of tilling and wouldn't bother unless this is an area like a vege garden where you will be frequently planting and replanting.
bevinga
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks! Unfortunately, I am going to have to till, because the soil is not in very good shape there and I am going to have to mix in a large amount of good soil. I'm going to put some Jungle Growth Vegetable and Flower soil in the bed and hopefully it will come along. As I was digging today, I think I found some Japanese Beatle grubs. Great. Just what I wanted to find. I am going to see if there is anything I can get that will help eradicate those little buggers before they grow into pesky, annoying, destructive flying beasts!
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Twinkle
19 years ago
I agree, weeding by hand is best. Ideally, you would pull out all the weeds, dig in the soil amendments, wait to see what weeds sprout and pull those up, then plant.

However, I realize it's spring and we all have spring fever! If this area is just too big to weed by hand, try this: Till the area, then rake out as many weeds, roots, etc. as you can. Then add soil amendments. Plant and put down mulch. Some weeds will sprout, but you can pull those by hand while they are small.