i need help cleaning up/replanting old rundown flower beds

[CQ]

I need to get rid of all the weeds in a flowerbed with peagravel. We want to leave the rocks, get rid of the weeds and plant perhaps some myrtle that will fill up and take over the area leaving it relatively maintence free. Anyone have any ideas the best way to do that?

[vintagejuls]

2 ways come to mind:

You could use round up and end up with dead, dried up weeds which will still be there in the peagravel but just dead or go the organic route and pull them up by hand.

Happy weeding - the downside of gardening...

unless of course you just enjoy being outdoors in the sunshine...

[rainbowgardener]

If there's nothing in the flower bed right now that you want, you could solarize it. Take clear plastic and put it over the bed and bury the edges so the plastic is tight to the ground. It will hold the heat in and cook the weeds. Leave it a few weeks. Then you can easily remove the dead weeds. The trouble with just hand weeding it now is that a lot of the gravel will come up with the weeds.

[applestar]

Is the pea gravel supposed to be mulch? Or is it mixed into the soil?
Do you WANT the pea gravel to be mulch -- as in are you planning to add more? Pea gravel mulch looks pretty and usually keeps weeds that spread by roots from coming up but seeds seem to manage to sprout find in them and you do have to keep up with pulling up the upstarts. Creeping weeds that spread by above-ground runners like vines, grass, or (in my case) clover WILL take root as well.

Now, MY favorite method for re-furbishing a garden bed is sheet mulching. But I'm not sure if this will work -- it might -- if you want to keep the pea gravel mulch. I guess I would adapt the method by cutting the weeds down, laying 4~5 layers of wet newspaper on top, making holes in paper layers to plant desired plants, then layering with another inch or so of fresh pea gravel (or another kind of decorative mulch) -- just enough to hide the papers and keep them from blowing around. The paper will smother the existing weeds and eventually break down. If the soil is poor and need to be amended, I would add 1~1-1/2" layer of rough compost BEFORE laying down the newspaper.

[CQ]

Thanks so much, everyone, for the wonderful ideas. Any others would also be wecome. We just bought a house with several halfway done and run down flower beds. I love to garden, but really am not very knowledgeable or experienced. One question about the roundup. Won't it keep anything else we try to plant there from growing? How long do we have to wait to replant? Thanks again! Any input is appreciated.

[rainbowgardener]

One reason why people who don't like to use poisons, sometimes use Roundup when they feel like they have to have something, is that it is bio-degradable. It breaks down into harmless phosphate and carbon dioxide, usually after a few weeks.

It is a poison though, so do be careful. Spray it directly on what you want to get rid of, don't breathe it, don't use excess. Don't use it where it could leach out of soil into waterways--it's more toxic to aquatic plants and animals than land ones and is more persistent in water.

So yes it kills everything, but you should be able to replant in a month.