My Work Paid Off

You may recall that before leaving on my last trip, at the end of March and the beginning of April, I weeded all of my flower beds and applied Preen.  Preen is a granular product that discourages the germination of weeds.  It doesn't kill weeds, however.  Surprisingly, even in March, I had a lot of weeds sprouting.  I had to go through and try to pull them all before applying the Preen.

When I returned home in early May, I was glad to see than my beds were not a field of weeds.  They were not 100% weed-free, but I had probably missed some or not pulled them out completely by the roots.  But my work paid off, and now that I am working on my garden, I am spending less time weeding.  As you can see by the photo, some areas are completely free of unwanted vegetation.

(And, no, Preen has not paid me for this endorsement!😀)

What is still an aggravating chore every year, however, is trying to pull out the garlic that sprouts in my flower beds each spring.  

Decades ago, my mother planted garlic by her rose bushes because she had read that it repels aphids.  Now I have garlic coming up in most of my flower beds.  Every spring I try to pull it all out... not always successfully getting it out by the bulb... but every year it comes back.