Daylily in bermuda
The rains we had 10 days ago were great for our plants, but they were even better for the weeds. Every place that we weeded before the rains hit, are now having to be re-weeded for this Saturday’s Spring Garden Day/Markets in the Country event. I even have Marty out there helping me and no, I will not get them all!
Since I do several areas with seeds, I cannot use a pre-emergent on all of my flower beds. I also have to wait anywhere from 2 – 4 weeks after transplanting daylilies to use a pre-emergent in those beds (you need to let them get established). I also cannot use my pre-emergent on my iris beds. I will say that where I have been able to use a pre-emergent, I still get weeds – just not nearly as many as an untreated bed.
I do use oak leaf mulch on some parts of my garden as well, and in those areas the weeds are a little less, but what I find is the bermuda goes under the mulch and comes up in another place without me seeing it expand.
We are going to try some white plastic mulch this summer on a couple of new beds we are planning. We have stayed away from the black plastic mulch, because we thought it would be too hot for our plants, since we have them in full sun. I also will need to put my flower beds in with transplants/plugs instead of seeds. I will also have to lay our drip tape under the plastic mulch. But if it helps me not have to weed – I’m for it at this point.
Yes I could use various herbicides to help get rid of the weeds, but I really prefer not to use that many chemicals. Ah well, weeding is good dirt therapy for getting frustrations out. On the good side, my daylilies are starting to really bloom and I even have a few straggler iris blooming!