How do I apply Roundup to garden weeds without affecting the good plants?

Put a bucket or a cardboard box over the plants you don’t want to destroy while you’re spraying.

Another way but more time consuming and laborious is to dig up what you’d like to keep, kill the weeds, then replant the keepers.

I’ve just been out and inspected the situation. The little weeds are coming up all mixed in with the flowering plants and shrubs and ground cover. I don’t know how I can separate them physically with a box or a tarp. I’m way out of my element here. I can pick stray commas and misplaced modifiers out of a ms. almost as fast as I can read, but I don’t know how to handle unwanted growths in a garden. What if I tried to apply the herbicide directly to the bad guys with a little brush?

It probably won’t do as much as you’d like it to. The weeds are so hearty. I don’t know where you reside, but here in WI, our weather was perfect for the weeds this year.

You could try it. You could also try pulling. It’s laborious but it is the best when weeds are mixed in an area where sprays won’t work. You could also remove the flowers from the weeds so they can’t re-seed themselves.

Roundup does make a foam so you can aim it and see where you’re applying it a little better. But if the plants really are completely interspersed, you’re going to kill friends as well as enemies.

You must live in zone 1-the tropics.

I have used a small brush to hit specific undesirable plants and it works moderately well. I also use bits of cardboard to wall off individual plants so I don’t overspray.

Unfortunately, your best bet would have been to apply a pre-emergent herbicide. These only stop seeds (such as weed seeds) from germinating and don’t bother little plants that you have carefully planted.

Otherwise, try hiring some motivated kids and pay them by the quantity somehow and hope they don’t get too many of the plants you want to keep.

Mulch, my dear.

I didn’t mention that they were coming up right through the mulch? They are, and vigorously.

Funny how people will despise weeds, when the true definition of a weed is a flower in the wrong place. Avoid using Roundup, that stuff is not good for the soil, despite what Monsanto™ says. And it is very expensive. I’ve been an organic gardener for going on twenty years, and I would never use any poison or chemical treatments in my yard and garden.

Certain weeds serve a purpose. I usually leave a small clump of weeds near my garden, as they provide habitat for the beneficial insects, and also help draw away the baddies. I’d just leave them in place, and check their progress every day.

Clear out a few weeds that maybe inhibiting the growth of the plants you want to keep, and once they are of a good size, you can weed them out completely. Snipping them off close to the ground with a pair of scissors or garden shears is the best way, as pulling them will disturb the roots of the plants you want to keep.

You can’t rush good gardening, and if you try to do so, you will not be pleased with the results.

@evelyns_pet_zebra I’m trying to be more like you are in the garden…but it’s so hard! I mowed over so many weeds today & wanted to see them out of my lawn

@Jeruba I have more weeds this year than ever. I don’t know if you’re experiencing a drought, but that’s the reason here. They’re in my mulch beds (even where I’ve never had problems) and my lawn (& I keep a healthy lawn). I have vinca, lamb’s ear, and strong rooted perennial ground covers and still have weeds popping in. So far, we’ve found pulling and heading of the flowers to rid without damage to be the best method.

Even my horticulture expert of a husband has killed many things unintentionally using RoundUp. You should really only use that kind of weed killer for getting rid of great swaths of things, like killing an area of grass to make a garden bed out of it. It’s definitely not the best tool for killing weeds mixed in with desirable plants. I’ll ask him in the morning what his recommendation would be. I’m pretty sure he’s going to say hand weeding. :(

You are going to have to hand weed. Get out and start pulling!

Find a teen-aged male who has a car and needs gas money. He will also have a strong back. (Or call the landscapers. They should have put plastic sheeting (I use green garbage bags) under the mulch.)

And ixnay on the Round-up. It will get into the water table, which is polluted enough and find its way into the taps of people who have wells, like me.

Well, it’s as I guessed. He said the only way is to do it by hand. He also said it’s very common to have a lot of weeds in a new bed… turning or tilling the soil has brought all the weed seeds to the top. Over time, as you (or someone you pay) weed the beds, it will be less and less of a problem.

Well, um, thanks . . . I thought we were going for low maintenance here. That’s what we asked for. With a bad back and very bad knees, I find this discouraging. Also won’t the stuff that has bulbs (like sourgrass) just keep sprouting no matter how many times I pull it? Always has.

@Jeruba The only alternative I can think of is removing the good plants, killing the rest with RoundUp, and replacing the good stuff. I think the “hire a neighborhood kid” idea is probably your best bet. :(

@Jeruba: I never heard of the stuff until now. Here is the very bad news; scroll down to read all the comments, most of them very depressing. Condolences.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55661/

Of course, you could always decide that you like the new plants and call them volunteers instead of weeds. Then you wouldn’t have to pull up anything. See? Problem solved!

I’ve solved the weed problems in my flower beds by forgetting the mulch and using ground covers; some like partial shade, some sun, all are easily transplantable and will soon make a mat so dense that very little will grow through.

I have used 27 of the 29 listed here (skipped Japanese forestgrass and cotula). The lawn mower keeps them from running amok, and your perennials will grow right through.

http://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/perennials/easy-ground-covers/

@gailcalled ;) Ha! My vinca lets the perennials grow through…as it does the burdock root, Queen Anne’s Lace, garlic mustard, and more ;)

Now then, in beds where I have less need fro flowers and more need to eliminate weeds, the Snow on the Mountain has prevented me from needing to hand weed my entire weekends away.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Now, what do I do about pennywort in my lawn and mixed into a bed covered with vinca?

@SpatzieLover: I also crowd my perennials and fill in a few holes each year with annual cosmos, nasturtium, marigolds, cleome, and annual sage. The occasional burdock and the ever-vigilant garlic mustard I get when they first appear. I like the Q A’s Lace and leave it.

The multipliers are nepenta, bleeding hearts, bee balm, monk’s hood, perennial foxglove, lobelia syphilitica, black-eyed susan, phlox, peonies, some hardy rugosas, clematis, sweet pea and morning glories (grown from seeds I harvest in the autumn), Russian sage, veronicas, NE asters, and the like.

Snow on the Mt is lovely; as is zinnia. We swap flowers here. I just got from my neighbor some gooseneck loosestrife and comfrey, speaking of running amok. And I find wild bee balm all over.