Make it a family event
weedwhacker/rototiller

I've been tempted to enlarge the beds but so far have held back because my wife knows that if that happens, I will be outdoors all summer long

How large is large? We have 1/4 acre and there is very little grass left. I'm disabled and DH retired (early) last year. We do both like to garden though and have the time for it.

The main thing that it key here is not that it's a low/no maintenance garden but that it's an easy maintenance one. I do use self-seeding plants - particularly feverfew, which many consider a pest. I do not mulch (too much heavy work!) so plants are my mulch. 'No bare ground' is my basic philospohy. The feverfew, for instance, fills all the empty spaces in the sunny gardens. In about 2-3 weeks time, I will wander around and cut it all back by half and leave the cuttings where they fall - they shade the soil, provide moisture and nutrients and the scented foliage seems to discourage pests. Cutting them back also delays bloom so they bloom with the daisies. Then they get cut back again after they've had a chance to seed.

A related issue is garden clean-up. In the fall I mainly just remove stuff that is diseased or prone to disease (peony foliage, for example) or really big stuff that would fall over. In the spring I remove any 'woody' stalks still standing but the foliage is largely left to compost in place. Yes, some 'bad' bugs may overwinter in it, but so do good ones so it largely balances out here. Snails can be the biggest problem. Any we see get promptly stomped on!

In the shade garden, columbine and white corydalis operate in much the same way as feverfew in the sunny garden, minus the cutting back (except for cutting back the columbine after the flowers finish.) Most of my weed problems can be taken care of during a daily walk around the garden, admiring the plants and yanking any weed you see.

Since walking around is an important part of the maintenance process, there are lots of paths through the garden. The beds are also mostly narrow enough that they can be easily accessed casually from the paths for weeding or deadheading.

Edging had become a big chore a few years ago. I have mostly eliminated the need to do that. The front beds are now all edged with brick - with the very important metal barrier between the bricks and the grass to prevent grass from creeping in. In the shady back yard the grass is separated from the garden areas by putting a path on the outside of the bed, between it and the grass. The grass is less apt to cross the path and, if it tries, it is very visible and easily removed.

I think everyone has to find their own answer to the problem. It may involve an acceptance of a less 'tidy' garden - perhaps more shrubs with the vigorous groundcovers allowed to run free? What works for me may not work for you. I have also been adding more shrubs in the sun garden because I can see that deadheading is the next task I'll be wanting to reduce in scope so I'm looking at high impact plants that don't need much deadheading. It's a moving puzzle that you just have to keep working at...

I have 2/3 acre - lots of grass, lots of different gardening areas, lots of weeds. I'm not getting any younger and I have RA. I keep thinking it might be time to mulch bigtime, but then I remember I have trouble hefting the 40 lb.bags. So I weed or use my scuffle hoe.

Just because something blooms I'm not inclined to want it - I've pared down my perennials and concentrated on the proven deer resistant (AT LEAST FOR ME) - peonies, nepetas, veronicas, ferns, bleeding heart, Oriental poppies... Because Liquid Fence works fairly well, I've kept some hostas, daylilies, phlox, Asiatic lilies, balloon flowers... Have a wealth of things like forget-me-nots, Johnny Jump Ups, Aquilegia Canadensis, Saponaria Officinalis, feverfew that I just let do their thing and don't mind pulling if they get in the way since they all freely seed.

Small shrubs are replacing big gaps in the perennials and I'm finding much joy in using more and more annuals. Lot of bang for the buck with petunias, impatiens, pansies, dahlias, portulaca, statice, etc.

I have this issue too. Haven't solved it completely but better than it was. You have gotten a lot of good suggestions already.

Maybe we could boil this down to a list we can all add to?

1--No bare ground. Hostas and astilbes completely cover the ground in many areas for me. No weeds, pests, diseases. Liquid Fence on the hostas for the deer. And no bare ground means no mulching.

2--Easy-maintenance plants totally or in the majority of the garden. Your list of these will be affected by your conditions.

3--Not all plants that spread rapidly are bad. I love both yellow loosestrife and wood anenome--beautiful, long bloom, easy. If they beat up something else, well, life isn't fair.

4--Avoid high-maintenance plants--staking, spraying, deadheading, etc.

Ok, what would you add to the list? Help us all out.

Some good ideas here. I don't have a lot of time to post at the moment, but I wanted to add something about mulching. It does not have to be heavy work or expensive. Use shredded leaves! Most people (in the north, at least, I would assume) have to do fall clean-up, so shred the leaves. They're free, they are light and easy to spread, and they help feed the soil.

I personally think mulching is the one thing I must do to help keep maintenance down. It's when I don't do it that I seem to have more work.

:)
Dee

I'm with diggerdee - mulch, mulch, mulch. Mulch keeps seeds, whether they be weed seeds or seeds of ornamentals that you don't want all over the place, from making contact with the soil and germinating. Mulch will cut down your work by a long ways. The easiest way to get things under control would be to spray Roundup on everything you don't want and immediately put mulch down. Some seeds will germinate that are already in the soil, so you'll have to spray periodically to keep things under control.

I use shredded leaves for mulch because I don't have $$ to buy wood mulch. You can put down cardboard until you get mulch, whether it be leaves or wood mulch. Grocery stores are a good source of cardboard. Mulch in bulk is cheaper than getting it in bags.

Also, my motto is, "Life's too short to put up with plants you don't like." I figure sure, I paid money for that plant, but leaving it in the garden isn't going to get me my money back, it's only going to irritate me. So plants that are driving you crazy should be eliminated.

And if you have too many gardens than you can manage, there's no shame in eliminating some. Move the plants you like into the beds you're going to keep to replace the plants you get rid of. Then Roundup everything in the bed you're going to turn into grass. Two weeks later, put down your grass seed. I wouldn't clear out the beds you're going to turn into grass until late August though. Grass seedlings will probably die during the summer because they don't have the chance to get established before the heat sets in. The best time to seed a lawn is in the fall.

This will be a lot of work initially, but will be easier in the future. Good luck!

Deanna

We have a small g*arden so I'm not struggling like you are but we need to keep things low maintenance. Most of our beds are shrubs with spring natives, like Tiarella, Phlox divaricata, along with Hostas and Astilbe in the shady areas and Hellebores which cover a lot of ground and only need one trimming in the spring and look good the rest of the year. We also have spring bulbs which are very little care once you have them in the ground. Especially if you plant them so that something grows in front of them to cover the bulb foliage as it is dying.

We have one long mostly sunny perennial bed that I've started adding more and more shrubs to as well. The perennials were what I was craving but I found them to be more trouble then I expected. So Butterfly Bushes, Hydrangeas, A Ninebark and Rhododendron 'Little Gem' has been recently added in place of perennials that were not working out. I also loved IRIS, but I gave them one more chance this summer and have already decided they are coming out. They were a real chore dividing and replanting them last fall and they don't look good this year due to that, so that is just not going to fly. I am planting more and more groundcover as well. Grasses can be very low maintenance. I've had a Pennisetum 'Hamelin' in the same position for 10 years and I trim it once in the spring and that's it. It did get bare in the center once but someone told me the trick of cutting it out in the middle and it grows back in. Worked like a charm.

Mulching is something we can still do. We buy it in bags. We wait for a sale at KMart and we use the van and go pick up about 30 bags at one time and they load the van for us. When we get home, we manuever the bags out of the van onto the two wheeler. We just drop them gently and don't lift them. Then we pile them in the veggie garden and use them one bag at a time until they're done. So no shoveling mulch and no carrying large bags. Moving them with the two wheeler to where we need them to go.

The more important thing we do is mulch with chopped leaves. We have a wire bin that we deposit all the grass clippings in and in the fall when the leaves fall on the lawn, they just get mowed up with the grass and dumped into the wire bin. No raking. Any leaves that fall into the beds are left there. One of our neighbors has a larger lawn and 5 trees and doesn't keep a bin, so we worked out an arrangement that he would dump his leaves over the fence into our yard. He likes it because he doesn't have to bag them or buy bags. He has Silver Maples which have small leaves which don't need to be chopped. Last year was the first year we did it. It was a riot! We had this huge amount of leaves and I just left them there along the fence line behind my shrubs and this year has been a breeze, barely a weed at all to be pulled in any of those beds. You can see in the photo below, that he did all the work getting them into the yard and all we had to do was spread them a little. We got a layer behind the shrubs that was about a foot deep.

{{gwi:222854}}

I do like the look of mulch and I'm committed to mulching as a way of keeping the weeds down, so we do buy the smaller amount of bark mulch and spread it along the front edge of the shrub beds and do the rest of the bed with the chopped leaves.

I also believe in 'no bare ground' and I'm working on that. I think that if there is a good plant growing in every space then there is nowhere for a weed to grow. [g]

If you have beds that you decide to get rid of and want to redo them, you can advertise on Craig's List or Freecycle which I prefer, to ask if anyone wants to come and take plants if they dig them. I did that last fall and a very nice gentleman came to my house with a shovel and all the supplies necessary and dug out Spirea and Grass and perennials and took them home. He was very happy to have them and I was very happy not to have to dig them out.

Oh and one more tip. If you have weeds that get away from you, instead of pulling them all out, mow over them with the lowest setting on the mower, lay down cardboard over the area, and wet it down and cover with mulch or chopped leaves. We find this less work then digging over and pulling out a whole area that has gotten away from us. Not actually garden bed areas, but areas that we haven't finished planting yet, like under trees or beside the house, etc.

Like Woody said, it's a moving puzzle that you just have to keep working out.

Thank you for all the great ideas, and especially for taking the time to write about your gardens and gardening methods. I have about a quarter acre of garden beds, and I'm feeling overwhelmed about where to start. I want to bite the bullet and get rid of plants and beds but I need to get a backbone! (Yes, I hate digging out & discarding plants that I've paid good money for.)

I agree about the iris--love the fragrance, but if I don't keep after them, divide them, etc., they get out of control. And the recent rains have made their blossoms a soggy mess.

Thanks again for offering your suggestions. I think I'll start with a notepad and pencil, walk around the yard and make notes about what I see that I dislike, want to change, move, get rid of, etc.
Marcia

big sign out front

you dig you can have .... and then flag a bed ...

and a lot of round up ....

perhaps you should move any treasures out first ... lol

contact the local garden clubs and ask them what they want .. there is little more excited than a garden club person.. leaving with a trunk full of plants ... just dont tell them you dont want them anymore.. lol ...

ken

I agree with mulch mulch mulch. I get it by the truckload at various places, where it is much cheaper than by the bag. It is actually a HUGE timesaver.

Also, have some kind of edging that is easy to maintain. I have stones and bricks that I can mow over to keep the edge.

I have several large flower gardens and we have a very large vegetable garden. My DH does most of the work in the veggie garden, I get the work in the flower gardens.
Three things I wouldn't want to be without are: Roundup, Preen and straw for mulch. First I put down the Preen then I put the straw down fairly thick and have had excellent results with it. Anywhere there is straw, no weeds, even the next spring.
I have gotten so if a plant doesn't do what I want, it goes to a new home or is composted. Plants that require too much attention from me are not welcome.
For the last couple of years I have joined a group of gardeners that have a plant swap and sale every spring. Many of my little seedlings find new homes that way. It's also alot of fun talking to others that share your hobby. We advertise on Craigs list and put up a few fliers around town.
Hope this helps.

Nancy VB

Well, I'm going to be a party-pooper here and just ask that you think twice before using any Round-Up. It's really not necessary, IMO, to use a chemical to get rid of perennials. Just offer them for free on freecycle, as suggested above. Most people will be more than happy to dig the plants if you are giving them away.

And as far as weeds in the beds (where you have the plants you want to keep), if you spray Round-Up on them you are likely to get drift onto the wanted plants. Mulch instead, with newspaper underneath. It's healthier for you, your garden, and the environment.

Climbing down off the soapbox...
:)
Dee

I hear your pain! I add new beds every year. Here is what works for me:

1 - weed with a hoe as soon as you get back from FL. After all the weeds are carted away

2 - move out the self seeding problem plants. give them away.

3 - use PREEN on all exposed dirt, not on your plants but it won't hurt them anyway. It only prevent weeds from germinating.

4 - spread 2 inches of mulch on top of PREEN and water.

You should have very few weeds to deal with for the rest of the summer. As the plants grow bigger there will be less work for you to do.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with Dee. If anyone is considering using chemical products to try to get control of their g*arden, I think you would do yourself a world of good to at least try other methods. You would be pleasantly surprised how effective, easy, and cheap it is to use newspapers or cardboard and some kind of mulch. All of us keep newspapers to put out with the r*ecycling...well, maybe newspapers are not so common anymore, but I'd be surprised if there is anyone that doesn't have access to all the newspaper or cardboard they want. You can also feel good about helping not to fill up the landfills which is a major problem these days.

We have started to use cardboard routinely, so that whenever we get a box, DH just gets the box cutters out and cuts it into strips and stores it in the g*arage for the g*arden. We had a bonanza at C*hristmas time. [g] He was actually skeptical at first about whether it would be too much trouble or it wouldn't keep the weeds down long enough, but he quickly saw the benefit and ease of use. I don't have to ask him to save it anymore, he is always on the lookout for cardboard. And every year we see more and more beneficial insects and birds in the g*arden and I've been really excited about how many earthworms we've had since doing this. They love the paper!

I don't have any advice other than the great tips that have been offered, but I did want to comment on the last newspaper comment above. We've started using the newspaper method to create new beds, rather than digging out the grass. We just mow or weed-eat the grass really low, plant whatever we're planting, then layer up to the plant with newspaper and mulch. It DOES significantly reduce weeds and it makes the work of starting a new bed just a fraction of trying to dig out grass.

But what I wanted to say was, it really is amazing about the earthworms it draws! Yesterday I had something to plant in one of the beds we had newspapered. I pulled back the mulch, found a seam in where I had put the newspapers down and pulled back those edges to plant. I could not believe the earthworms I saw under the paper!!

Lots of great advise in regards to mulching. I began realizing that the gardens had to become an easier hobby about a year ago when the hip bones started talking to me. DH is not a gardener so I do everything myself, except the lawn, and sometimes I do that too. We have 2/3 acre.

The value of mulching is amazing. I too don't have the $$, so in the fall I collect leaves from the curb. Anything which is already shredded is placed in one pile and non-shredded leaves are set aside in a leaf mold pile. I don't spend anything on mulch.

I've started being very selective when buying plants. If it's not on my list for the year, I don't buy it on the first run. Takes discipline but it is working for me. I am also introducing more shrubs and trees to the gardens and removing plants which don't really make the grade - ie. too much work.

All the best!!

gottagarden, I did want to comment on getting mulch by the truckload vs. getting it in bags. We have tried it both ways. Everyone's situation is different. We have back problems in the family, so we are always trying to skirt around picking up a shovel. Our garden is small enough that we can do what we need with maybe two trips during a season for bags of mulch. Especially since we use more chopped leaves than we do bark mulch. We find that we can maneuver and manage the mulch better using the bags then having some dumped into the driveway that someone has to shovel. If you have a healthy back, maybe getting a truckload might be a system that works better for you.

Thanks for more great tips and ideas. I hope to get a handle on this garden. I really do want to remove a couple of beds--I've gone beyond the limit of what I can reasonably do and still enjoy gardening.

We live in a country area, so no neighbors' leaves to use. We do have some of our own but not enough for all the beds. I do like the idea of using straw and Preen. I also have voles, and if any of you have experience with them, you know they love mulch because they can dig around plant roots without much trouble. That's one of the reasons, beside cost, I've avoided mulch. But if I have voles anyway, I might as well use the mulch!

Thanks again.
Marcia

Marcia

Whew. Can I identify with you. We spend 6 mo in OH and 6 mo in FL (PSL). I garden in both places. Right now? I am exhausted in OH ... from the physical yard work and also just "thinking" about what more there is to do. DH is not a gardner. And FL is his choice, not mine. I miss the 4 seasons. We are on 1 acre with an enormous amount of "beds", unfinished.

I don't know what to do either. I rationalize that the yard work is good exercise. But I never seem to catch up.

We have horsetail throughout the beds in the front, and I've been hand picking leaves from under cotoneaster and barberry out there (sloping western exposure). The landscape itself is finished, at least. But the maintenance? ... is a handfull.

Out back there are all kinds of weeds on another hillside that runs 100' x 40' plus a connecting side piece of the property that runs another 100' and is a jungle, too. I can't name the weeds except for the poison ivy and the wild roses. A nightmare ... and the rear exposure of the house is fully exposed to the rear hillside.

I have a landscape plan in hand but so far cant' bring myself to sign the dotted line. A pondless stream. The perfect setting for it. I'm having much difficulty justifying the cost of it.

1. We (you) could move into "easy living" up north aka similar to many of the FL places. Tough to decide to move, too, though.

2. We (you) could face facts and just hire more of the work done. I feel guilty about it, but this is the direction I am going to go until we decide what we're doing with this yard/house up north. Hopefully, I can work with the helper.

This thread has been very helpful. I have a large stack of newspapers in the garage. Ha. I've just never gotten to point where I could actually get them down on the hill. What a mess.

You said you have 3/4 acre of beds? Is that right? That is a whole lot to take care of!

Bottom line? You are not alone at all. I feel like I go to FL to work and come back north to work. And I know a lot of women in FL who feel the same. Now isn't that something.

Anyway ... for me, I have to face the fact that I need some hired help up here. That's hard. But we shall see. We already hired out the mowing, and that is a HUGE relief. Now I need to find some help for the rest of it and see how that goes. The alternative? This yard may actually force a move to some place easier to keep up. A dilemma, of sorts.

Good luck to you and your gardening.

Lethean

Marcia, I can understand your dilemma if there aren't enough leaves. Also the vole problem is definitely a reason to avoid the mulch. Do they favor any particular b*eds? Maybe those could be the first to be eliminated? [g]

If mulch is not going to be a solution, I wonder if the second idea of planting every inch of ground with a good p*lant will keep the weeds at bay. It seems to work for a lot of people.

Does hay have weed seed in it? Anyone know?

It sounds like you have been living with this feeling of being overwhelmed with the g*arden for awhile and that can't help any. [g] If you did eliminate a couple of b*eds, that might help a lot. Then in the rest of the b*eds, if you start slowly and don't expect to reach your goals too fast, just start with one small area and try to make it as low maintenance as possible. P*lant every inch of it with something easy.

I did that two years ago. My first area was a little strip between the h*ouse and g*arage and I planted it with clumpers and it has been no work since then. The effect that had, was to encourage me and push me out of that overwhelmed feeling. So now I'm working on my third area. Two down!

Ack!! Voles!!! The bane of my gardening existence!

Although, this year I seem to have a terrible problem with moles! I cannot believe how many tunnels and holes I've found. Luckily (knock on wood) none of the plants have been affected, but I'm keeping an eye out...

What I do in the beds that seem to be more prone to vole damage is I only mulch them once a year, and that is usually in December or even January, once the ground has frozen (it seems like it has been getting later each year lately). I hope by that time whatever voles have been there have left for warmer pastures.

I do not re-mulch in spring. It does make for a bit more weeding in those beds, but since the beds are full, it's not tooooo bad.

I like PM2's idea - if you are going to get rid of beds anyway, get rid of ones where the voles are! (And hope they don't move to the other ones, lol!)

There are a lot of great ideas in this thread - ones we can all use! I do find that certain beds (and they seem to be my shade beds... hmmm...) are almost no-care. Seems I clean them up a bit in spring, throw down the mulch, and really don't need to do anything else. The hostas, astilbes, columbines, hydrangeas, heucheras, tiarellas, bleeding hearts, foxgloves, azaleas, geraniums, lobelias, viburnums, itea, clethra - they all seem to do fine on their own. A bit of deadheading now and then as I walk through, and that's it. And maybe some water at the height of summer if it has been dry.

Seems to be the sun beds in my yard that require a bit more care. Or maybe it only seems that way because I hate working in the sun, lol....

:)
Dee

Dee, that's funny, I was going to say the same thing about the shade beds being easier and then I wondered if I was just imagining it. Plants in the sun do seem to grow faster and weeds definitely do.

what a great thread; thanks for starting this, marcia. I just re-learned everything i already knew but forgot. i just turned 69, out of shape, and nearly killed myself in the sun and humidity yesterday, but could anybody drag me inside? no way. tonight the cardboard goes DOWN! thanks to everyone.
pat

This thread made me remember my very favorite garden web post by luseal--Your Aging and Winter Gardens--it is under the winter garden topic--sorry I don't know how to link it-but it is MUST read..it makes you really stop and think about caring for a garden as we age.

Lethean, you can empathize with my situation, with two gardens that each get only half of your attention.

Prairiemoon, yes, I've been feeling overwhelmed and unhappy about my garden for a few years now. But being away from it until early May made me realize that it can't continue to exist in its current form.

Dee, I agree that the sunny beds grow the most weeds. I guess I need more trees and shady beds.

Today I pruned some dead branches from roses and have the scratches to prove it. The fragrance among the roses was wonderful. I haven't made any decisions yet about beds to eliminate, except one that was supposed to be a wide path but is now growing self seeded plants. I think it is one that will go back to being grass.

Below is the link to the post that newfiewoofie refers to.

My continued thanks for your thoughts and ideas, and especially for your understanding!
Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: Your Aging and Winter Gardens

You don't want to use hay. Use straw, clean straw, there are very few seeds.
Lots of great ideas here.

Nancy VB

I use grass clippings from my mulching mower. The grass clippings break down quickly and adds fertilizer back to the soil and the soil is so crumbly. After the clippings break down, I just add another layer and have been doing this for years. I use grass cippings for my backyard gardens and pine needles for my front yard, which is more attractive. I agree--mulch, mulch, mulch!!!!

These are some great ideas, I especially love the cardboard one and to think I've been foolishly recycling the stuff. About leaves, I get a lot because I have a fence on one side of the yard and around my shade garden. I don't bother raking them in the fall though it has increased my snail and slug problem but I do bag them in the spring I also have a mulching blade on my lawnmower so no grass clipping to bag or rake. As for mulch, thank god for Lowe's they have a 50% off open bag policy for which I get some pretty full bags of mulch. I also watch craigslist for free mulch which helps me out greatly. As I told an older friend of mine who just had a pace maker put in and was frustrated by not being able to do a lot in her garden. I reminded her that gardening is not a sprint its a marathon. In other word do a little at a time and it will get done.

Marcia, I would like to email you. Sounds like we are in the same boat. My DH and I are near 60 now, and I'm feeling over-whelmed too. Especially this year. We are trying to keep my 90 year old father in his own home, and that's leaving a lot less time to do things around our home. Just keeping up with spring grass cutting is hard. We moved here in the late summer of '06 and some things are already to the point they need divided and replanted.

We are faithful mulchers, and that has helped with weeds and reseeding problems. I've learned to use Round-up on weeds that are hard to dig. It helps a lot.

Mulch by the truckload is not as expensive as buying bags, even with a delivery charge. And once you get mulch down, every year there are less and less weeds to deal with. And you also don't have to put as thick a layer down once you've initially used it.

If you'd like to email me, I'd enjoy comparing notes with you. Gardenweb won't let me get to your page where I can send you an email, for some reason.

Linda

I just returned from 12 days away on vacation. There were torrential rains, multiple times while we were away. I expected a jungle of weeds. Didn't happen. I have a jungle of flowers instead.

Last fall, I mixed together 1 bag of organic cow compost with 3 bags of organic garden soil... the $1.50 per bag variety from Timberline (at Lowe's). I used the mix as a top dressing throughout my perennial beds after the first frosts and clean up.

I direct sowed larkspur, poppies, nigella, flax and other seeds for spring bloom.

In April, after the spring plants were all up out of the ground, I spread a thin layer of the organic Timberline compost (cow manure) and sowed my summer annual seeds (zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, celosia, etc.) The cow manure was a great medium for seed germination, btw.

Went away. Came home. Can't believe how few weeds are out there.

The total cost for my large garden was less than $60. I had the bags of compost and soil in the back of my pickup truck. I pulled the bags to the edge of the tailgate and dumped the contents into my wheelbarrow to mix. So, I didn't have heavy lifting. I used my shovel and rake to spread the mix around the plants.

For the landscaped areas (shrubs, trees...not garden areas) my husband mulched with triple ground hardwood mulch in the fall and in the spring at the same time that I did my garden composting. He had a lot more weeds to pull in his areas than I did in my entire flower garden!

Wonbyherwits, that's surprising that the top dressing kept your weeds at bay. I guess you buried the weed seeds, plus you had all those nice flowers to enjoy. How deep was your top dressing?

I guess I'm going to try more mulching! I'm saving our newspapers for a start.

Linda, I'll send you an email and we can 'talk' about our garden problems and successes.
Marcia

Marcia, glad to hear you sounding more hopeful. :-)

Wonbyherwits, that is also a very interesting story. I suppose you did bury the weed seed plus if you were using bagged soil on the beds, I think they usually heat the soil enough to kill the weed seeds before packaging, don't they? If the soil produced weeds, I don't think they would sell much of it.

I just wanted to share with you that I found my backbone (!) and started in one corner of my garden beds, dug out and divided a big miscanthus that was blocking views of other plants, transplanted part of it closer to the back of the bed, tossed (a biggie for me) or transplanted plants that never did well or got too big for the space, will finish a small block path I started a few years ago and never finished, and I'll mulch when I get all that done. Because plants have grown taller and are blooming in the rest of my garden, I don't feel quite as much despair as I did a week ago, even though I know there are still problems in all of them.

While this one corner is probably just a 20th or less of my garden beds, getting started with the process and just letting go of plants that don't please me has helped ease my feelings of hopelessness that I could ever get a handle on the messy beds. And I will be eliminating one bed that is pretty much just a weed patch now, and maybe another later this summer.

So thanks for all your suggestions and coming to my rescue when I needed it! Your responses were a great help to me.
Happy gardening!
Marcia

Marcia, sounds like you've reached a more peaceful place about your dilemna; i'm so glad! I do have one big suggestion>>>>> see my recent thread:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0513284629366.html

best,
mindy
www.cottonarboretum.com
a teaching website

Here is a link that might be useful: Please don't throw away Excess Plants!!

Hi, Mindy,
I'm willing to share plants that are worth sharing. Many of my plants were pass alongs or started from shared seeds. However, some aren't worth passing along. So far I have thrown away Sedum acre, lemon balm, some small butterfly bushes (deep, woody roots that don't transplant well) and obedient plant (not Miss Manners, which I would like to find). Some plants I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! And wish I knew that when I planted them, too :-)
Marcia