Hi Sassy, I don't use it but a friend of mine does in early spring. She swears by it. She was telling me of one area in her gardens that she didn't hit it with in comparison to the others that she did and there was a huge difference. Tons of weeds in the non-treated area and very few in the treated areas. My only issue is that we have well water here and I try to be careful with what may end up in our ground water. That is why I don't use it.

This past fall and spring I didn't blow the leaves out of my hosta bed. I had very few maple or oak seedlings in comparison with other years. After the last frost in May, I walked through the hosta bed and scooped up the leaves and debris from under and around them by hand and then mulched. It has been relatively weed free with the exception of a few that came through the fence from the neighbors yard.

what are you talking about??????

ALL HOSTA LOOK BAD IN AUGUST... AND ARE GROWING ROOTS ...

move your problem children RIGHT NOW .... why wait????

preen ... what is it $175 for 50 pounds .... you can get a lot of mulch for that money....

basically ... you spread it early .. with certain distance per granule .... to create a barrier of sorts ...

then you are not allowed to step in your garden for the rest of the year .... or you will disturb the barrier.. and then have weeds..

since i usually preach experimentation ... i guess i would suggest one bed.. small investment.. and see if it works.. before going whole hog and failing ...

BTW ..... buy generic.. i THINK it treflan ... no real need to pay for the preen name

bottom line... for me.. a budget buster.. for you good luck

check MSDS for each.. see what it might do for our toads.. frogs.. birds... puppies.. cats.. children .. grandchildren... the infertility involved in never getting to g-kids .... etc...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Sassy,

I've had good luck with it. I use it in the spring, before the weeds start emerging, and it not only helps with weeds seeds but any seed. I planted a patch of alyssum (sp) a couple of years ago as a filler till the perennials gained size. The following year I had alyssum (sp) everywhere. Starting using Preen and that was pretty much the end of them.

When I'm making new gardens and incorporating organics and bark with existing soil I always mix in some preen to help with any seed I may bring to the surface. Basically any time I'm going to substantially disturb the soil I use it.

Hope this helps.

Alexis

Sassy, I've found that cardboard does wonders! Lay it down in the spring, between plants once they show their pretty faces, then mulch over the top.

Be sure to take off the tape & anything that's not biodegradable, and use only the brown & white (non-glossy) cardboard. Our local dollar store lets us get the boxes out of their recycle bin for free!

It also serves as insulation to keep moisture in, but is porous so that water gets to the roots as well. I generally leave 6-10 inches bare right around the base of the plant, for what should be obvious reasons.

Sassy... since you haven't used it, it may help to know how it works. Preen is a pre-emergent... it tell seeds not to germinate.

It is pretty effective. We have more garden than we can really take care of, particularly as we spend a lot of time in spring getting ready for our annual sale and can't stay on top of all the weeding.

I am careful using it around youngish plants... it is not supposed to affect growing plants, but some have noted a tendency for it to retard the growth of a young plant.

it will also keep your hosta seeds from germinating - it wasn't until we didn't get around to using it for a couple of years that I realized just how easily hostas reseed.

I'm told that weed seeds will pile up and when you quit using the Preen, you will have a big weed bloom. Don't know if this is true.

We've had good luck combining the Preen with Pine Bark Nugget mulch. We lay down newspaper, then mulch... and then toss Preen into the mulch to retard the growth of the weed seeds that fall into the spaces in the mulch.

Since my DH is with US EPA in the ground water and pesticides division, I try to go herbicide/pesticide-free (not applicable when we first moved in to a backyard that was ALL bamboo and ivy-LOL). I also use newspaper (avoiding shiny paper or that with colored pictures-read once that isn't good)or cardboard (a new idea for me thanks to ptilda!) and mulch with pine fines over it. No weed worries after that!

When I worked in a lawn and garden store several years back, I was explaining to one of the guy workers there how crabgrass preventer works (the Preen made me think of this story, as it's about the same thing). At the end of the conversation, he said it's basically like birth control. I cracked up laughing and said, ya, I guess it kinda is.

Karen

I wasn't expecting such a great response to my question.
Thanks to all.

Here's the deal...I'm old, I'm fat and I'm on the lazy side so spreading a truck load of mulch just doesn't appeal to me at all anymore.

I'm looking for a cheap and dirty way out of weeding. LOL.

I plant my hostas close together so weeds don't have much of a chance competing for the sunshine.
That works really well, but until the hostas grow together I have to deal with weeds. Also, the edge of the beds is always a problem.

Next spring I'm going to give that "weed birth control" a try.

Thanks a bunch.