(December) My flower beds are showing signs of a lot of cool weather weeds
starting to crop up. Is there a cool or cold weather herbicide I can apply now
to keep my beds from being overrun with them? Would it be possible to spray with
a hand sprayer? I have large shrubs in the washed gravel beds around my house
and would not want to harm them.
The mild fall weather has really let the winter annual weeds kick into high gear. If you have the weeds primarily in a lawn area, a 2,4-D herbicide will work well--they are easy to kill when small. 2,4-D cannot be used in flower beds, however. In the flower beds, spot sprays with a glyphosate product (such as Round-up) will be great, but shield any desirable plants from the herbicide. I don't know of any herbicide to be used around flowers and shrubs that would kill the broadleaf weeds without damaging the plants, if the spray got on them. Using a sharp hoe now to scrape off the young seedlings would also work well, and then apply a fresh layer of mulch and you may be done for the season.