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.