Wild flower Bed gone bad...Help Please!?

Question

Two years ago I started a wild flower & annual seed bed that was just beautiful. I prepped and did all the right things with the thought that it would seed itself and I would spread annual seeds every year. The first two years it worked great and was beautiful! This year however, I have more crab grass then I have flowers. I knew I would have weeds, but as the flowers grew and bloomed, you could not even notice. Not the case this year. It seems as though the crab grass won over seed germination....Here is my issue...I have a large amount of perennials that are doing great so I don't want to till it up and start over. Is there a product I can use to kill the crab grass and not harm the annuals and perennials? If not could someone tell me how to do large areas that seed themselves? Or...how to create a prairie look that has no crab grass..Ha!

Answer 1

you got a problem-lol-best thing to do is spot spray crabgrass you can get to easy-next soak ground-hand pull the others-you will disturb other plants but they will rebound fast-or-weed kill it all and start over-once it all dies let it sit respray all new growth for a few months

Answer 2

I don't like using chemicals.  I use boiling water when the ground is dry.  Kill the roots before they spread anymore.  Good Luck!

Answer 3

Absolutely-  they have ton of weed killers that won't hurt the flowers.  Go to your local home depot, lowes, whatever and ask for help

Answer 4

You can get a herbicide tha targets only grasses, but it may kill some of your more delecate plans.  If the crab grass is the first up in spring or last to die in the fall.  You can use a general erbicide on it while everything else is dormant.  Just make sure it is not contain an emerent also or it will kill the shoots as they germinate.  

I learned this from my father in raspberry and strawberry patches.  We use Roundup (it targets any green plant growing) before the strawberries and rashberries start growing while the grass is just greening up and it keeps them clear without loosing them.  The Roundup goes inert when it hits the ground and won't hurt the seeds or domant canes.