Herbicides in Flower Beds
Before you have hysterics that I even mentioned the "H" word, let's explore the notion that sometimes they are a good thing. There are a few cases where they are the best way to regain control of a bad situation. They can also prevent some problems that have few other solutions.
First, let's look at herbicides in general. There are two basic types: those that kill growing plants and those that prevent seed germination. Those that prevent germination are called pre-emergent herbicides. The ones that kill growing plants (post-emergent) are either non-selective (meaning they will kill all kinds of plants) or selective (these kill specific groups of plants). You really need to know what you are trying to do in order to select the right one. Many people use whatever is at hand, often with disastrous results. It need not be that way. Herbicides should never be thought of as magic medicine to keep weeds down without any effort on the part of the gardener. I especially have a problem with routinely spraying herbicides on lawns. The chemical most often used for that purpose has an extremely bad reputation (deserved, in my opinion) for health and environmental risks.
All that said, let's talk about the situations where using herbicides is warranted and can be done with little risk. One such situation is creating or renovating a flower bed where there is an invasive perennial weed or grass already well established. In the first case, the area can be sprayed with a non-selective herbicide containing glyphosate to kill all the vegetation present before planting the new bed after the appropriate waiting period. You could mulch the area and wait a season for the existing grass or weeds to die, but often that wait isn't possible.
The second case faced my mother in her home in Kentucky. She had beautiful terraced beds stepping up her steep back yard to the highway above her filled with cherished iris, peonies, daylilies, columbine and assorted other perennials that she had grown for years. As her arthritis worsened, the grass and perennial weeds took over. She could not care for it herself, and, though she hired several people over the years, none of them ever made much difference. The problem was finally so bad, that the only alternative was to lift and move the perennials to a holding area while the grass and weeds were sprayed and killed with glyphosate. After the appropriate wait and carefully cleaning any grass or weed roots out of the perennials' root balls, they were replanted. Both of these projects require only one time use of the chemical. Glyphosate becomes inert as an herbicide as soon as it dries. In only days, it has broken down into harmless components in the soil. Use it with extreme caution as it will kill any green, growing thing that it contacts while wet, yours or your neighbors.
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