What can I use to kill the crab grass in my flower beds that wont harm the flowers?
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at
2:29 am
I have crab grass and other nasty weeds growing throughout my lawn and in my flower beds, is there anything I can use to treat both the weeds and crab grass that wont harm the lawn or flowers?
Is there something specific to use in flower beds?
Filed under: Flowers
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I see you’re getting a lot of advice about pulling up the crabgrass by hand. This might sound like about as much fun as a tour of Dante’s vision of hell, but consider this:
The crabgrass is so-named because it has a sort of crab-like shape: a bunch of arms radiating out from a central spot. And that means if you pull out the central structure, you’ve got the whole thing. Here’s what I do:
The day before your attack on the c/g, water the area where they’ve taken root heavily. Let the water soak in overnight. Next morning, tug at some of the c/g and see how easily they come up. If they pull right out, keep going -you’ll be done faster than you think. Several may put up a fight. OK, pass by them and get the others. As you do this, you’ll notice big clumps of dirt on the roots. Shake that off in a bucket to capture some nicely loosened up dirt, or around the base of any needy specimens you wish to keep. Save the crabgrass for a compost pile -the ultimate revenge.
You might find that in pulling up the easy ones, you also loosen the soil a bit for the tougher ones, so go back and try them again. No good? Use a dandelion weeder (metal thing with a "forked tongue" on the business end and they’ll give up.
In areas that are exceptionally hard to reach, or where you might risk damage to the good plants, use your grass clipper and mow the c/g as close to the ground as you can. Then cover all your weeded area with mulch. If the c/g can’t get sun, it will die off, just as it does every year. If at all possible, avoid chemical warfare in the planting beds. The stuff may not "hurt" the desirable species, but over time and with repeated applications it does alter soil chemistry and CAN challenge microscopic organisms that contribute to over-all soil and plant health. If you MUST use something, make it a contact killer that you can precisely spray onto the weeds and NOTHING else.
In the yard, if its not too hot and dry, consistent mowing is a good initial control; the idea is to mow them before they produce seed. But if it is hot and dry, mowing too much and/or too low can damage the good grass. Live with the problem until early next spring when you should apply a fertilizer that contains a pre-emergent weed control -they’re labeled as such at the store. Especially along the margins of the lawn -at a driveway, next to a planting bed, around trees, etc., you’ll see the occasional big hunk of c/g. Pull out these individuals.
For the flower bed – Hands and a hand cultivator.
For the lawn, an herbicide for preemergents applied in the spring.
You can use Preen. But, it will work more effectivly if you go through and pull a bunch of it out and expose the soil. Also, Preen will give food to your flowers.
I’ve always just used my hands. You can use round up in the yard but it will kill out all of the other grass in the area. Let it sit, and then later you can reseed. good luck.
There is a product from Ortho called "Grass-B-Gone". It claims to kill "all" grass, but no ornamentals, bushes, flowers, or anything like that. Only grass.
http://www.ortho.com/index.cfm/event/ProductGuide.product/documentId/ec7cb72d8976e197cf50adc95b5b9a53
For the flower beds, pull it, mulch it, forget about it.
For the lawn, use a pre-emergent.
Look at our blog entry of May 25th for more info on a natural pre-emergent weed killer for lawns.
Visit our website for more gardening ideas at-
http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/gardening-blog.html
Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!
first manually pull it out, then apply PERRENIAL preen, this won’t kill your perrenials but be careful around the annuals.
Pull them by hand in the flower bed. If you are extremely careful use round up only on the grass- but it could spray and kill your plants so hand pulling and mulch is safer. Weed be Gone is supposed to be safe on lawns but may not get the crabgrass. There are specific herbacides for spring, and some people recommend cornmeal for organic weed prevention- that may help with crabgrass.
Good luck…..crab grass is relentless, it never completely dies off and you’ll probably have to accept the fact that it will always exist to some extent in your yard. We’ve been dealing with it for a long time and have found that pulling it out by hand is the most effective, but exhausting. If you have small beds, I would just pull it out by hand, deep at the root.