I use Groundclear. It doesn’t migrate and only kills the plant or grass you spray it on. It’s comes in a gallon sprayer at Lowe’s. I take 10 minutes every week and walk around the grass and hit any weeds, then hit the flower beds for any grass or weeds. Before the end of the day they are already brown. It’s the only way to keep it under control with the least amount of effort. Everyone has 10 minutes a week. Plus no bending over. Pulling weeds is futile because you rarely get all the root and it just comes back. You have to spray them.

Weeds
 

Mulch becomes a breeding ground for weeds when wet or all the time. Pulling out once a week works best

Won’t the torch method burn the landscape mat?

I’m told that using mulch or pine straw is better for keeping the weeds at bay than landscaping rock/stone.

real easy to solve. you need the heavy duty fabric, then you need at least 3 inches of mulch. We use cypress mulch in bulk never a weed since 2006!

Exactly. It is what the developer uses everywhere to keep the weeds in check around the landscaping. Cheap and easy. Apply a fresh layer at least once a year. Chemicals are ok if you use them properly, but be careful about using some of the "extended control" ones that contain dicambra around your shrubs. They can kill or stunt growth of plants or even palm trees. I found out the hard way.:sad:

I feel for you we heard putting down a barrier like newspaper, sheets of plastic. It worked OK for a while then the weeds would pop up right against the flowers or shrubs! Preen we found out works the best. Don’t know what to tell you!

Roundup has a pre-emergent weed killer, in peletized form that seems to work better than Preen

Some of them are "presents" left to me by generous squirrels. Thanks to those happy helpful critters I now have a gorgeous cluster of elephant ears around four feet high in my flower bed. I also get a couple of deerberry plants that pop up, but I usually pull them because they take too long to flower. I might let the next set stay, if they're "gifted" in the right location.

I use either pine bark or cedar bark (not shreds) each year, topping off the previous year's layer, and depending on what's available when I remember it's that time of year again.

I also hand-pull the weeds by the roots. This takes practice, patience, and a sturdy comfortable foam garden kneeler. I have fewer weeds this year than I've had in the past few years (not including the squirrel presents).

My garden bed is 100% organic because I grow flowering herbs in it, and because I want the bees and other pollinators to be safe collecting nectar. No pesticide, no fertilizer. If it's meant to grow, it grows.

I hate rock. They heat up in the sun and get hot hurting the roots of plants. Then you put fabric under them and the water and fertilizer does not go where you want. Dirt gets into the rock and weeds grow. Horrible. Pine straw is the best. Never use chemicals such as round up. Buy vinegar at 30 %, cut in half with water and dish soap. Never use salt. It can never be removed from the soil and will kill anything else you may want to plant. Vinegar is a chemical but does not have long term chemicals that can have deleterious effects. It does an excellent job of killing weeds and does not cause cancer or other issues. I garden every day, as it is my hobby. It feels daunting at first when weeding but if you pull the weeds when flowering, you will see progress.

The weed torch looks awesome. Even if it doesn’t work I want to try one :)

Unfortunately, pine straw doesn’t look good for long. We covered our one year old (new home) pine straw with a thick layer of fresh pine straw three months ago, and it already has flattened and is turning gray. The Villages seems to add new layers of it 2-3x annually, and when they let it go too long it looks really bad.

Roundup
 

Roundup (Glyophospahte) does not sterilize the soil. It kills by absorption through the leaves and will not leach through the soil. I saw a comment that sunlight will kill roundup's effectivness after a day of exposure. If that's true it's even better for not killing thing through the soil. I go through 2 1/2 gallons of concentrate every year at our home in NC (4 acres) so far I haven't died. Good luck!

weed killer snapshot
 

We had good results with Snapshot. Follow directions and warnings. Do not use on vegetable gardens.

From Manufacturer:

Snapshot® specialty herbicide delivers season-long control of broadleaf and grassy weeds. Depending on your area, Snapshot works around the clock for up to eight months to keep landscapes and container—and field-grown nursery ornamentals weed-free.

Pull & Spray Keeps Weeds Away
 

Although our home check service, Away Without Worries, does not control weeds other than ones that crop up in the driveway or sidewalk, this season we just could not pass by the weeds we were seeing as we checked the homes of our customers. It has been a hayday for the weeds in landscaping beds here in The Villages. The weeds really thrived in the hot dry weather. They are determined to enter through a seam or hole in the landscape fabrics. Some grasses actually find paths from the lawn to the landscape through the decorative walls and travel and grow on top of the fabric and root in the decomposed materials in the landscape rock or gravel. They get enough water from the irrigation zone to be happy and multiply. So, we have found that pulling them is a good starting point. Once the visible weeds are gone, the beds can be controlled with granuals or sprays like Preen, Roundup, and Spectracide. Care must be taken not to let the spray get on the plants or flowers. Some weeds try to thrive by growing inside the plants and they are hard to see at first but once they get above top of the plant, they need to be traced to the ground and pulled out by the root. Do this the morning after a watering. Preen is a pre-emergent and stops weed seedlings as they sprout. Roundup and Spectracide kill existing vegetation by contact with the existing plant foliage. Treat any herbicide with caution as you would any poison; wear safety glasses and rubber gloves and be sure to wash any exposed skin when done. Regular treatment with a pre-emergent and a herbicide works well.
Pull and Spray keeps weeds away!

Definitely appears to
be a Jerry Baker remedy !!

well known (40 yrs) for creating
concoctions from safe household
products for “Yardening Needs”

I tbsp of Dawn is all you need. I walk my property every 2 weeks with this in a sprayer and it works great. As far as the preen, you are probably not using enough. I use it yearly before I leave for 2 months or more and have hardly any weeds when I return. It's cheap, double down on it and it will work wonders. If you stay on top of it, it really isn't a problem.

I read an article about using a small device like you would use to brown a crème brûlée. It’s an intriguing thought but needs to be used with caution around mulch that could ignite. It isn’t using toxic chemicals and I have tried preen which does suppress the growth but doesn’t eliminate it. I have some artillery fern and it seems impossible to get rid of them. Apparently when you pull them they drop seeds and only very extreme chemicals over a course of 3 months will get rid of them. Growing together they can make beautiful ground cover. But popping up where you don’t want them? Not so much. Incidentally I have used a vinegar/salt/dawn solution and lost plants as a result.

I have sprayed liquid pool chlorine (cheaper and stronger than bleach) for years and love the results.

Double the recommended amount of weed killer. That is what the commercial landscapers use, and it WILL stop the weeds much longer. Be careful around plants and hedges.

A friend told me about this, and it works perfectly. Never use Roundup/glyphosate again!

This solution is as cheap as it is effective, providing you with the garden that you have always dreamed of. Grab a 1/4 cup of the original blue Dawn dish soap, two cups of Epsom salts, and a gallon of distilled vinegar. From there, transfer the solution into your own weed sprayer. If you do not have one on hand, your local hardware store will have you covered.

For best results, wait until the morning dew has evaporated before spraying the solution. Once you have sprayed the weed, there is nothing else to do. When you check your garden later that day, those pesky weeds are going to be long gone. The best part of all is that this solution is actually far less costly than the harmful chemicals you are going to find at most stores.

How To Make DIY ‘Weed-Be-Gone” Without The Harsh Chemicals | 12 Tomatoes

You can also use cardboard. It is called sheet mulching.

Use 1 gal vinegar, 1c table salt, 1/2c dawn. Apply liberally to weeds. It's not a permanent solution, but I have found it's good for a few months.

Weeds
 

I hired a local fellow who pulls them for me at a very reasonable rate. I tried weed killer. The weeds laught at it!

Someone on our street bought a house to be used as a rental property and did the absolute best thing to prevent weeds. They got rid of all flower beds and shrubs and planted grass on 100% of their yard. It doesn’t look great, but it’s extremely low maintenance as far as weeds are concerned.

Mowers carry from other yards
 

Mowers will visit several different yards in a day. All manner of stuff with be on the mower from these yards and transfer to other yards. Dandelions, clover, weeds, etc. And yes it is a never ending battle. Wind driven seeds land everywhere.

Using salt for weed control is effective, but salt never goes away. Constantly spreading more every few weeks will eventually build up enough to harm everything growing there. Weeds, flowers, shrubs alike.
Need to look at the whole picture, including how time concentrates seemingly harmless compounds, making a soil that nothing wants to grow in.

Weeds
 

I use Green Gobbler that I purchase at Ace Hardware. It really works the best for me. It is 30% vinegar. It even kills dollar weeds which are very hard to kill.

Not really true:
Weed torches are designed to heat the plants’ cells causing them to burst. This destroys the weed’s stem, which causes them to no longer be able to ingest water or nutrients, essentially killing the weeds. This is a fairly easy process that involves holding the torch and walking slowly between garden rows, killing the weeds in less than a second.

A weed ecologist from the University of California, Tom Lanine, offers information on when it is obvious that weeks have been effectively killed using this method. Essentially, he says that when the weed changes from glossy to matte, then it should die within a few hours. It is recommended to leave the weed to compost naturally and there is no need to disturb the soil.

Another expert, Mike Orzolek from Penn State, recommends that flaming weeds two to three weeks apart. Flaming will kill annual weeds completely, but does not kill the roots of perennial weeds. Often, gardeners will see new shoots a week or so after flaming and additional treatments can deplete the roots, killing the weeds.

source

I beg to differ. I use Preen about every six months and it works well. HOWEVER, when I apply, I apply it very liberally to the point that the rocks look like they have a dusting of snow on them. I have very few weeds that pop up in between applications. When I do, I spray them with Roundup (mine has a little cover over the nozzle so it goes only where I want it to). It is rare that you see a weed in my flowers or me pulling up a weed. :spoken:

I have someone take care of my flower beds as I am not able to do that kind of work. I do have a hint on how to kill the weeds that grow in the cracks of your driveway and walkway. I'm a tea drinker. I boil water for my tea and as my tea is brews I go outside and pour the rest of the water from the tea kettle along the cracks. I start at the bottom of my driveway and work my way up to the garage door. That way I don't stand in any water as it slopes toward the street. The next day, weeds are gone. I guess I boil them to death!!!!

Weed killer
 

1/4 cup dawn liquid
2 cups Epsom salts
1 gal white vinegar
Works great, Epsom salts good for plants, non toxic

Preen Weed Preventer is Wonderful!
 

I use Preen about 3 times a year in the garden beds. It really helps prevent weed growth. Especially if you use it as a pre-emergent (pre-season) treatment.
Also the best weed/grass killers without using pesticides is a simple combination of concentrated vinegar, salt, dish soap and water. To make 2 liters of weed spray, add 1cup table salt, 6 cups Harris 35%white vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dish soap, fill with water to 2 liters. Stir well. Spray. When done , rinse out sprayer unit. I recommend wearing gloves. It is pretty caustic on skin. Stand back. The weeds will die!

I’m surprised ARC approved that.

Get rid of all the plants that need constant watering and feeding.
Let the weeds take over the borders.
Just call it a Natural Environment Friendly Garden if reported.
No maintenance, and saving the planet.

Those chemicals are harsher than Roundup. I kid you not. Roundup is just a weak phosphonic acid that breaks down rapidly. Just because 12 Kalifornia morons sitting on a jury decide Roundup causes cancer does not make it so.

If you try to pull them out a the root does not come out with the top of the week it will just grow back over and over again. Just spray with weed killer if they are not too close to your other plants. You can also spray the ground area where there are not weeds appearing.

We replaced our pine needles with Pine Bark over landscape cloth. The only thing we really have any issue with is some grass shoots that come from the Zoysia grass. Almost no weeds other than that. The acidity of the pine bark keeps them away. I don't get the rocks, Pine Bark looks way more natural, easy to maintain, and if you need more it is like $2.00 a bag at Lowes or HD. Also, if it gets in the lawn and the mowers hit it, it doesn't fly and break your windows....
Ed

You are my hero.