little weed seedlings growing

[Steve]

Hi all, I have recently annialated all of the weeds in the front garden borders. The weeds were pretty agressive, but I sprayed them all with glyphosate and they all died. The weeds were large, tall things with thick stems. Not prickly. There were also loads of "crawling" weeds which had spread over a large area.

The dead weeds were dug out and I turned the soil over. I also edged the lawn right down along the border so the grass roots were cut.

Anyway, I replanted some bedding plants and a couple of hardy shrubs.

A couple weeks on, I have noticed some seedlings coming out between the plants. They just look like two tiny leaves, but theres hundreds of them, everywhere!!

How can I:

1. get rid of these without killing the bedding plants
2. stop them recurring?

Open to suggestions.

 

[Srodders]

1. Wait 'til they're a bit bigger and pull them out by hand or use a hoe if able to do so without damaging other plants.
2. Don't dig the ground over again, could also try some form of mulch.

 

[r896neo]

I disagree with srodders advice,

Don't let them get bigger and do hoe them now.

With your weedkiller use you will have eradicated most of the perenial weeds such as dandelions etc and now the little seedlings are just that seeds blown by wind etc that are probably mostly annuals.

These are easiest dealt with by a light hoeing over and then leave them to dry out and die.

People sometimes think that once a bed is weeded it should be clear for a few months, this is nonsense and hoeing once a week will keep them at bay.

As srodders said a mulch of some sort will help reduce weeds.

 

[JohnD]

every time you disturb the soil you bring more weed seeds to the surface.

If you hoe it religiously, at least once a week, they will never get big enough to do any harm. You will have to do it every week for seven years.

Alternatively you can apply weedkiller and not disturb the soil.

Alternatively you can hoe it once, then lay on a thick mulch (I use 4 inches of lawn mowings, but use leaf mould, garden compost or horse muck if you have it) and the tiny seedlings will not be able to fight there way through. Any that do appear, you can pull out and replace the mulch where disturbed. You can draw the mulch round the stems of your established plants so that they stick up through it.

The birds will eat or carry away your mulch, and the worms will pull it into ther soil, so you will have to do it again about once a year. It will improve the fertility and texture of the soil. You do not have to dig it in.