In parts of the Mid West they plant their crops while at the same time spraying with roundup. Roundup needs the plant to assorb the weed killer and after it dies some gardeners then till under the weeds and plant. That won't remove any seeds which haven't started to grow. It would have been better for you to have at least cut all the weeds to keep them from dropping seeds into the ground. Burning will kill some but not all seeds.

whenever i start a new bed i till first to work in what's needed (for me usually lime, calcium and phosphorus). Then i keep the bare patch watered and give it a light fertilizer. This lets alot of the surface weeds sprout.

After one or three weeks i spray a weak solution of Round-up. Some folks just stop watering but it takes longer and some weeds don't really care. Round-up gets them all pretty quickly. Depending on how bad your problem is and how long your growing season is you might repeat this once or twice.

After that try not to stir the soil up-just top dress and mulch. i am surrounded by miles of weedy pasture and vacant land so i still do a fair bit of weeding.

don't use Preen if you'll be planting any seeds-they won't grow. Guess it would be OK to use around transplants but it seems like an odd choice to use around food crops to me.

in a temperate climate this might be something you do in the fall so you can get planting in the spring-sorry, not sure about that. Maybe the burning you did accomplished almost the same thing.

I am pretty new to gardening as well. I have tried a few ways to cut down on weeds. What has worked the best for me is to place landscaping fabric down and put leaves on top. It is a lot of work at first, but the rest of the season is a breeze. Last year was the first year I did this and the fabric is still in good shape this year. I just finished planting my potatoes. I planted them in straw, this is my first time doing this. I hope this helps. Good luck. I also live in Minnesota.

The biggest problem with using RoundUp is that you need warmer temps for it to do it's best work.

I would cut the weeds growing to the ground with a weedeater. Rake them up and get rid of them. Since you had a garden there before, the soil should not be compacted, and you probably wouldn't have to till it, which would bring up millions of new seeds.

I would plant my transplants and mulch heavily. I lay wet newspaper in a thick layer, then mulch on top of it. The absence of light will help to keep the weeds down.

In places where you plant seeds, such as for lettuce or radishes or beans, you are going to have to do some weeding. You might want to RoundUp those areas before you plant seeds. Just don't till it afterwards. Also, you can pour the RoundUp into a can or jar, and apply it with a paint brush, to keep it from blowing in the wind. You can kill your whole garden with a little wind and RU.

To kill large areas of weeds with RU, pour some into a paint tray, and apply it with a paint roller. It works!

Janie

Janie; I like your idea to keep from having a "spray" kill problem, Thanks
Paul

I'm sick of weeding, too. I'm doing the 6ml black plastic route this year. Check out this thread.

I'm also considering getting a Circle Hoe (dot com) as posted in one other thread for use in the spots where I won't have the plastic.

You will never get a hold of your weed problem until you deal with the seed bank. There is only one method that offers partial relief: lots of mulch, never till. If you have to till, till once at the beginning, incorporate whatever manure you can, then end it. The broken down mulch will form a top layer of relatively seed free soil. You need one foot of mulch for one inch of top soil.

Dandelion seeds will still blow in, but the existing ones will be buried. They will resurface in small amounts as wildlife (earthworms mostly) churn the soil, making the problem more manageable. I even seed my own weeds (arugula, corn salad, purslane and miners lettuce).

If you have existing perennial or biennial weeds, the method is the same with cardboard below the mulch in the first year. Use straight Roundup applied with a small paintbrush on those weeds that manage to push through (mostly near the cardboard holes where your veggies are).

If your mulch is harsh for plants (wood chips), balance it with urea and wood ash, and use veggies that are more tolerant of those conditions until it becomes soil. Dead leaf mulch turns into soil in one year, which is generally mild and friendly to all vegetables, although at my site it tends to have a few maple seeds in it.

'You will never get a hold of your weed problem until you deal with the seed bank'. Glib is absolutely right. Do you know the saying 'One year seeding , seven years weeding?' I honestly don't think there is a quick fix apart from thoroughly digging and weeding repeatedly. However, it doesn't all have to be done at once. If you can cover the areas you can't work on with anything light excluding and do it bit by bit you'll get there. My allotment is over 1000 sq ft and it was an overgrown meadow when I started. I just did it gradually, digging by hand with a fork and now, admittedly several years later, I have to go looking for weeds. Keep the hoe going between plants once you have got an area cleared and don't let the weeds seed again. Since reading on these forums about cardboard etc I have tried that but perennial weeds just come through eventually. Nothing beats doing it the hard, but thorough, way.

'You will never get a hold of your weed problem until you deal with the seed bank'. Glib is absolutely right. Do you know the saying 'One year seeding , seven years weeding?' I honestly don't think there is a quick fix apart from thoroughly digging and weeding repeatedly. However, it doesn't all have to be done at once. If you can cover the areas you can't work on with anything light excluding and do it bit by bit you'll get there. My allotment is over 1000 sq ft and it was an overgrown meadow when I started. I just did it gradually, digging by hand with a fork and now, admittedly several years later, I have to go looking for weeds. Keep the hoe going between plants once you have got an area cleared and don't let the weeds seed again. Since reading on these forums about cardboard etc I have tried that but perennial weeds just come through eventually. Nothing beats doing it the hard, but thorough, way.

It's true cardboard is not a total solution but it sure helps. A heavy patch of rampant growth can be mowed by machine or scythe and then cover the whole deal with as much cardboard as you can get ahold of. Fall is of course the best time to do that, but even now there's time to get quite a bit of break-down.

pn - I think maybe my climate has a lot to do with the low success of cardboard. I have been trying this technique because people are enthusiastic on these forums. My problem is that we get so much rain the card is sodden within days and disintegrates very fast. 2 weeks ago I layed some flattened corrugated boxes on a grass path I wanted to get rid of and covered it with about 6 inches of last years leaves ie sodden and quite heavy. The grass and enchanters nightshade are poking through already and as for the bindweed - well it's just laughing as it snakes its way up through the mush. Before the scares over chemical leaching I had better success with old carpet. But then you have to dispose of the carpet eventually. I still think that in the end you just have to dig!