I have used Pre-emergents in my garden for many years. Once I tried Gallery but it didn't work as well for me. I have used Preen. I prefer Snapshot - it seems to work a bit longer.

As soon as the beds are cleared off in the spring, I put the pre-emergent down on the beds, top with pine bark chip mulch (if the bed needs mulch) - then make sure the area gets between 1/2" to 1" of rain or watering in the next couple days to activate the chemical. Although I still have weeds, I think they are greatly reduced when using the pre-emergent. I seldom get around to applying Snapshot during July to control fall weeds. Daylilies are blooming in July and I neglect everything else during that time.

I have heard that pre-emergent will stunt roots, inhibit growth on seedlings and adult plants. However my plants seem perform equally to other gardens around.

I once tried rolling out weed mat in a new bed - then cutting holes in it to plant the daylily - but I found it was a real mess to try to get up a few years later when we wanted to add amendments and till them in. I finally gave up and just moved everything to a new bed. Eventually, grass took root in the old mulch and now we just mow over the area. But I won't be putting that stuff down again as weed control around daylilies. I do use weed mat around my garden tomatoes, cukes etc - but I remove it that fall, before it breaks down.

I will try to get some photos of the tools I use for weeding. I have tried quite a few over the years. Some work well - and some were, in my opinion, a total waste of money.

I do use mulch. I like the smaller pine bark chips.

I have also used Roundup, and sometimes 2-4-D. Fuscillade (sp?) helped get the nutsedge under control. I use big sheets of cardboard to shield the daylilies and perennials when I am spraying. I learned that the slightest bit of over spray from Roundup or 2-4-D will ruin the rest of the buds on a scape. So I try to limit any spraying at all to early spring, or after bloom season.

Right now, I am having problems with wild onions in the daylily beds. ARGH!

Back when I was younger, and healthier - I just pulled all the weeds by hand. I actually enjoyed weeding! Now -- it is difficult, so I have resorted to some other means to combat weeds.

I would like to hear how you battle weeds in your daylilies - and in any veggie garden or perennial gardens....

I too use Preen and Snapshot. I don't think there is product that gets ALL the weeds, but Snapshot has 2 active ingreients in it. The Trifluralin that is in both is higher in Snapshot than Preen. What I've been told is Snapshot helps get the winter weeds that Preen doesn't get. I really couldn't tell a difference. What I do is after I'm done planting a bed and know I won't be messing in it anymore then I sprinkle it down on top of the beds and water it in.
I still have a few weeds here and there especially if I pulled some of those really small, but abundant weeds that leave some of the root behind when you pull them. You can definitely tell when it has quit working and it's time to put more down. As long as I keep track of when I apply it and reapply when I should it works great. I have seen no stunt roots or inhibited growth on seedlings or adult plants. Now, if you put it on a bed that you've direct sowed that's another story. I have heard that someone did this not realizing it would keep the weed seeds from germinating as well as daylily seeds and not one single daylily seed sprouted.

I use Killz All (same active ingredient as the professional roundup but cheaper than the regular roundup) and 2-4-D ( Weed-B-Gone) to spray around the daylily beds. When I have sprayed in the daylily beds, mainly for dollar weed, I taped a water bottle cut in half onto the spray nozzle so there wouldn't be any overspray. I have used cardboard to shield them as well.

I did get some over the top grass killer that is labeled as use on daylilies (ingredient Sethoxydim sp?) but never had to use it.

To keep ahead of the weeds, as I walk the beds, if I see a weed I go ahead and pull it. If I do this everyday while I'm out there it doesn't seem to get ahead of me. If I put it off and say I'll spray later, by the time I'm done with hybridizing or taking photos, I'll end up forgetting to do it and the weeds will slowly take over.

We have used black plastic between the rows in the veggie garden with bricks to hold it in place, and
shredded newspaper (black and white print only) around tomatoes. The tomatoes are in self-made
wire cages so the newspaper stays in place.

For flower beds, we use Preen, and also hand pull or dig out the stubborn weeds. Early spring, such as
now, is more labor intensive. The first is the worst. About to be overwhelmed with it since spring
arrived earlier, and the weeds are getting ahead of us.

A hoe.

My best friend!

You can stand up and weed for hours. Best one was very thin, purchased from Burpee. A long fiberglass handle that had several exchangable tools for the end. I keep it sharpened every time I use it, with an old barn file. Burpee must have stopped making them as I can't find them anymore. What a shame.

I don't use herbicides except for Roundup in non gardening beds (driveway)

The best pre-emergent that I have used is Snapshot. It is expensive here but worth the price. I have found that it seems to last more than one year. I just need to put it out in the fall to prevent the winter/spring weeds. I am tired of being outside in the late summer (August) when it is so hot and most all the flowers are looking ratty, so I am not motivated to be outside then. One note about Snapshot that Michele mentioned is that you need to be finished digging in a bed where you use Snapshot, because it forms a crust on top of the soil that keeps the seeds from germinating. If you dig in that bed after applying the Snapshot, the weed seeds will come through where you have dug. I have also heard that pre-emergents stunt the growth of daylilies or other plants, but I have not found that to be the case here.

We keep the daylily beds mulched and that keeps the weeds there to a bare minimum. I always try to pull any weeds there when I see them to prevent them from going to seed.

The best preventive measure that we all can take is to get rid of the weeds before they have a chance to go to seed. This is easier said than done. I hand pull weeds and use Roundup in nondaylily areas. We mulch our pathways with free wood chips that a tree service brings us. We have a cow pasture that borders the back of our property. We will always have weed seeds that find their way through the fence and germinate. As a matter of fact, that is where we have the worst weed problem plus in our vegetable garden. (This is where applying a pre-emergent in August would prevent our biggest weed problem.) I would rather have that cow pasture and its weeds any day instead of houses. I plan to pull more weeds this afternoon that are near the cow pasture. The soil is soft now, and the weeds come right up when pulled. Weed pulling is good mental therapy.

I have a very small garden and although I would love to try Snapshot, the price is a bit much. I looked into it last year but I actually may get some this year. Preen absolutely is not strong enough. I have neighbors who don't take care of their weeds and because of their neglect, I get tons of weeds. My most troublesome problem is violets. They have literally taken over my daylily beds. I have tried Roundup on them to no avail. Bought a new product last fall that I am going to try this spring. Only tough part is that it comes with a little brush and you have to paint it on every one. When you have literally hundreds, it will be very time consuming. I use wood chip mulch and that doesn't even deter them one bit.

With the preen, I use more than the photo on the inside label shows you to use and I think that's why that has helped so much. With the 2-4-D, a lot of people use it or have tried it in their daylily beds (conversation from email Robin) and 50% will tell you it will hurt (not kill) the daylilies and 50% will say it doesn't. It's not supposed to since daylilies are monocots and it's designed for dicots. Maybe they mix it at different strengths. At my old place I did spray a patch of grass (20' x 40') in front of one of my beds before because I was tired of the dandelions and such and any that may have drifted or splattered on the daylilies didn't seem to phase them.

Snapshot is expensive when you shell out the money at one time. I've heard some people say they've gotten it for around $70 for the 50lb bag but I think most people are going to pay $125.00 or more. That's actually inexpensive considering how much is in it and how often you apply it. Snapshot is supposed to last up 8 months whereas Preen lasts up 3 months. In the long run it pays off. There is another product that is the same ingredient as Preen (trifluralin 1.47%), but in a higher strength (5.0%). It's called Treflan 5g and I think most people say they get it for around $50 for the 50lb bag at the John Deer store or places like that. We can get if from BWI (I believe), but we stick with the Snapshot (triflualin 2.0% & isoxaben 0.5%)

I think that some people (not on here ) use these products and think they don't work because they still get weeds. The thing with these products is they keep seeds from germinating. If the seed has already germinated (but not emerged yet) it will still grow. If any leftover weed roots from some types are still there it can regrow. If any weeds that have been pulled are left behind (maybe under the soil) it can regrow. And there are just some weeds these things don't affect.

I know Preen prevents seeds from germinating because one year I used Preen before I planted my annual seeds and that was a big mistake. None of them germinated. Learned a lesson that time.

Snapshot has cost around $125 for a 50 lb. bag here. The business that carried it here has closed. I would have to go out of town to get it now. I have used Treflan in the past and was pleased. This morning I bought a 50 lb. bag of Surflan for $91 w/ tax. I have never used this. Has anyone had experience with this pre-emergent?

The secret to few weeds is mulching, mulching and more mulching. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have everything heavily mulched here. The mulch keeps the moisture in during the hot summer and the weeds are few because there is really no place for them. Daylilies and shrubs and most everthing else has a thick carpet of fall leaves around them. If I ran out of leaves, I use straw bought in bales at a farm feed store.

I do use Preen on my Tall Bearded iris beds as those are the only gardenbeds not mulched here. I found that it lessens the weeds that want to take over there so that I am able to keep up with the weeding.

So my daylilies have never not been heavily mulched. Plus the mulch brings earthworms which help break it down and becomes the most wonderful nutrient rich soil and easy to dig also.

We don't get a lot of leaves in the fall here and most of the neighbors have lawn services so they take the cut grass and leaves with them. I wouldn't want my neighbors mulch anyway because their yards are all weeds. The only daylilies that I mulch with leaves are on the north side of my house. We live on a corner so the leaves blow into that bed and I just leave them there. That bed still gets some weeds but not as many. My backyard beds have woodchip mulch, but weeds eventually grow on top of the mulch unless I put some Preen on top, which I do. Nothing helps the violets though. They grow through anything.

Mulching with leaves is next to impossible here because the wind blows quite a bit and blows everything away. I actually tried last year since I had one of those yard vacuums that you hook to a lawn mower; I was putting it around all my trees since I had cut all the brush (more like a jungle) from around them. Well it looked good for a short while until the wind would blow it away. I would redo it and the wind would blow it away. So I said the heck with that. It even got so windy at times it would blow the pine bark I had in one bed out.

We grind leaves in the fall with an antique shredder/chipper, dangerous machine, but it makes the most beautiful leaf confetti. The confetti stays piled all winter then in the spring I mix roughly two forks of composted horse manure to one fork confetti and put it on the beds. Pathways get whole newspaper or opened paper grocery bags with confetti spread on top. By fall everything in the beds has been worked in by the worms. The pathways are soft to walk on barefoot all summer, only downside is the confetti sticks to damp feet if you are out before the dew dries off Any weeds are pulled by hand.

What's the best way to get rid of creeping charlie? I can't believe I actually planted this stuff in my yard many years ago. My mother (gone to be with the Lord 22 yrs ago) gave it to me because she thought it was "pretty".

Holding my head with my hands and "screaming"

I have not been successful getting rid of Creeping Charlie. I pull and pull, and seems like I make no progress.

My neighbor's whole yard is creeping charlie and it is starting to invade my yard. Only way I have seen is to pull it out. Luckily it pulls up rather easy.

For me it's preen in the Spring. Then hand digging the wild onion Roundup in the walkways and patios and very carefully in the beds if needed. I have been known to 'paint' roundup mixed with a little dawn( used as a spreader sticker) onto weeds too close to prized plants. I just use a cheap dollar store foam craft brush and a baby food jar to hold my mixture. For the most part my main nemisis is wild onion and this really nasty noid weed that spreads by runners. It's in my seedling beds and everything there is done by hand. I won't risk Preen in there since I straight sow. This nasty weed crawled in from my neighbors yard I have mostly eradicated it in the main beds and the yard.

Very good advice on not letting things go to seed. Watch your weeds. Watch your self seeders (when I like them they are called volunteers!)

'Confetti' works much better than regular mulch. Great suggestion.

Creeping Charlie likes acid soil - early spring and late fall scatter lime. The mild kind. It got rid of mine in a section of lawn, but CC does as it is named and now I should do that again...." memo to moi"!

I have creeping charlie growing right alongside the foundation of my house at the back of one of my iris beds. I think I will try painting it this spring, because pulling is awkward and I never manage to get it all.~Jan

We have creeping charlie in our grass in three different areas. I have used Otho Weed B Gone with success in killing it and not harming the grass. My problem is that I let it grow and spread and do not take the time to spray and kill. I have to keep it pulled as it wants to invade one of our daylily beds. I plan to take the time this spring to spray and kill it all once and for all. If it is in your grass, read the back label to see if it is safe to spray on your type of grass. If pulling it by hand, be sure to put it in a trash bag to discard and not throw it on your compost pile or somewhere else because it will take roots and keep growing there.

Doris