How do you do it?

I have been told to stay away from the Preen with gluten, as it doesn't work very well.

interesting. i wonder why.

I didn't know they had different types of Preen. I know Preen and Green, but other than that didn't know there was any difference.

Any idea where one would purchase salt marsh hay?

Thanks Dee. I understand what you're saying, and that would work well. I usually cover everything with tarps if I'm using Round Up. Your way would be easier. jJust keep moving the wood along with you.

Only locally, I'm afraid.

then it must have been Preen with gluten that I originally picked up, because it says on the container contraindicated for irises.

since my walkways are so narrow and small (got to rethink that because of the me-tumble factor) I use granite! LOL

There is Preen, Preen and Green, Preen for Veggies, and Organic Preen which is 100% corn glutin. I just use the Preen and love it. Never tried corn glutin.

I use Preen, I hand pull, keep the beds free of debris, and I always DIG clover, dandelions and other invasive weeds. The crab grass I don't mind at all, it just pulls out in a clump.
there are different types of clover, so keep that in mind. What I have gets the white flower on top and spreads by a runner. Preen will help control this as it also spreads profusely by seeds. That doesn't have to be seeds from your bed, can be your neighbor's lawn.
I use Round up as well if I have something invasive that I can't dig, for instance if it is too close to a plant. I either use a paint brush, or I have a piece of paneling that I hold up to block over spray between the plant and the weed. I spray my iris with Malathion about 3 times a year to help keep the insects down. I have them planted among my daylilies and I had a terrible infestation of elder bugs one year, and thrips so I just spray everything now.
I don't mulch around my iris much, but I do my daylilies. I found that bigger rhizomes are the result of more water. I let mine get so dry sometimes, the summer is so hot and hardly not much rain. The rhizomes tend to dry out, in that kind of heat. I avoid watering in the spring, unless it is just exceptionally dry that year. Spring or fall rains tend to lead to rot as the temps are low and they stay too moist. I usually trim all the foliage away about July as it tends to start to look real ratty.

My clover is the kind that starts with a bulb very very deep in the bed--the flowers have been a light pink. I'll probably have to disturb most of the bed this fall to try to remove as many of the bulbs and babies as possible. It's amazing how deep they are rooted and how hard they are to get rid of.

The only other weeds I have are some creeping grasses and runner stuff that is easy to pull out. The lawn care guys at my apt complex are evil with no catcher on the lawnmower and dangerous with the leaf blower that sends all the clippings and seed heads into all my beds and containers.

Preen sounds interesting.

I'm weeding now. putting down fertilizer. but I'm not going to Preen until next week. My first time trying it.

you will love it! just follow the directions is all.

If it will ever stop raining I may get to work out in the beds and containers. It's been a really wet late winter/early spring so far. I'm hoping not too much has rotted...

Anyone use Preen and Green? So many great ideas. I have made a list from all of the posts. Temperatures still in the 30s and 40s here, today snow, sleet and rain. I can't wait to get out and get started. Major snow almost all melted, now just wet, muddy and cold. Bonjon, love your pictures.

thank you!

Preen and Green is good too.

Just bought some today:) Gotta weed this weekend--think it's going to stop raining for a couple of days...finally. The funny thing is I bought a 5 gal bucket of Preen and Green a couple of years ago on clearance for $5 and was afraid to use it so I gave it to a friend...who I'm betting, based on how well I know her, she hasn't even cracked it open yet:lol:

My garden beds are all mulched heavily. This makes for very few weeds if any and lots and lots of both earthworms and slugs. Makes it very difficult to find just the right spot for bearded iris but were there is a will, there is a way.

I can only mulch my own beds! Not the field...that is hard old fashioned weeding and preening...

D

DH got the leaves & needles off a couple beds yesterday. If it doesn't rain I should start weeding those.

See now thats the difference between gardens. Iris in Mass is getting winter blown leaves off the garden beds to weed. I put lots of fall leaves on all my garden beds last fall and have no weeds. The leaf mulch does blow around some over the winter so I do have to uncover some of the daylilies.

well, Raleigh is the city of oaks, and we have tons of leaves that will naturally mulch the iris beds. I can tell you from bitter experience, you'll have both fewer weeds and fewer irises if you let them stay on the beds. it's never the iris you don't like much that rots under those leaves, either, it's always the one you prize the most, darn it all.

Wet leaves on top if irises can lead to rot. We winter mulch with pine needles.

we also have pines [Tarheel state, right?]. here's photo of a bed that was bare until mother nature and father pine just uphill out of the photo got working.

in the photo there's a row of roses that are mulched in pine bark nuggets, and that's a row of my tallest irises behind it. the iris bed was bare last fall. Have heard that pine straw is ok to mulch them with. guess this proves it. But unfortunately, that soil there is proving to be less hospitable, as these haven't grown as much as elsewhere. or is it the pine straw?

editted to add - didn't notice until I put the photo up here that DH used blower to rake leaves in early March and has managed to get them atop the pine straw! Gotta teach him to do better.

This message was edited Apr 3, 2009 2:35 PM

This message was edited Apr 3, 2009 2:39 PM

We take the mulch off in the spring, but we are not so hot & humid here. If we are lucky there are fewer than 10 days over 90 degrees.

I rake the leaves from the bearded irises into the tree and shrub bases behind the irises. The leaves do keep down the weeds, but the oak leaves we have hardly decompose a bit over winter, and they are quite smothering. I leave them in the JI and sib beds.