HelpfulGardener.com

Hi. I live in AZ so my flowers are at the end of their lives, sweet pea, snapdragon, gypsophilia, dianthus, petunia, (also have freesia, iris, glads, hyacinth) my problem is this, before planting in sept. we brought in fill dirt from craigslist (big mistake) needless to say as soon as I watered the weeds went balistic. So many they almost ruined entire season for me. I need to know the best way to get rid of them before next planting season. I have been told to rip everything out, dig out bulbs, chrysanthemums, etc. cover entire bed with black plastic and leave it for 3-6 weeks killing everything in soil then supplement soil before next season. Will this work? any suggestions would be great, I have grown flowers for years and only had standard weeds, always just pulled, never use chemicals, but it has taken most of the joy away from my garden. Its a huge stress reliever for me usually. Help! I want my garden back.... thanks in advance for any replies. Take care.

Especially if you have bulbs and other things you want to save, the black plastic sounds like way too much work.

How big an area are you talking about? Unless it's huge, I'd just keep pulling them. Work a section at a time and be sure you put down mulch as soon as you pull the weeds, so you don't have to keep re-doing it.

If there's areas where there's enough space between the things you want to save, you can just chop down all the weeds with a hoe and then mulch over the whole thing, weeds and all.