Recently redid a garden bed and didn’t put down weed barrier. Can I lay down preemergent?

That’s how I feel. Other than spurge and sedge, not many weeds pooping up around here this time of year. Maybe over there. Bermuda grass is our biggest bed concern and it doesn’t care one bit if you laid down a barrier or not.

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Bermuda grass is our biggest bed concern

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Luckily we have St. Aug in the front yard, so no need to worry about that. Will keep that in mind for the back yard though when we redo it

Weeds are a big part of Baton Rouge gardening. Whenever I see a weed-free garden here, I think of all the work it requires.

My advice is to keep beds few in number and incorporate dense shrubs that don't let the sun hit the ground. Follow directions on pre-emergents. They do slow the attack.

When you prepare a bed (weed, turn, incorporate organics) don't mulch immediately. Rather, let it lay bare and water daily for a week. That will germinate the seeds in the topmost layer... you may be amazed. Then hit with RoundUp-type herbicide or scrape away as shallow as you can with a hoe. When all the sprouts are dead/gone, plant bedding plants and mulch.

BTW, weed cloth under gravel does slow the process of the gravel paths mixing with dirt.

What do you guys do for grass in beds?
I thankfully have the weeds under control, but over the years grass has crept in to the beds. We have an established bed with mulch and even a metal edge, but yet grass starts poking through. I hit it with Roundup every couple of weeks, or my wife pulls as much as she can, but seems like there's no way to stop it.

Get you some Preen.

I use.preemergents but still have a weeds I have to pull. I’ve tried newspaper and cardboard when making new beds but it takes time. I used to help an d friend with his flower beds and he used roofing shingles. Worked like a charm. We used small pieces of shingles to put under our back yard fence line. Works like a charm!! No more weed eating there.

I take that premixed Roundup that has a cup you can fasten on the end of the wand and spray any weeds in my flowerbed. Long as you spray while the wind is not blowing very hard it’s easy and you have precision control if you push that cup over the weeds and give it a quick mist because the cup blocks it from overspray. I’ve got flowerbeds all over my yard and I’ve never killed anything other than a few annuals that I accidentally sprayed. My boss has a forestry degree and he thinks I’m nuts for doing this, but I’ve been doing it that way for years and never have issues. You just have to make damn sure you don’t spray your plants. Now when Roundup was the original stuff no you couldn’t do it this way. But this stuff today isn’t anywhere near as strong but still the same a little of that stuff goes a long way. It takes 20 bales of pine straw to mulch my beds. No way I’m getting out there and pulling weeds.