I was just wondering what the best way to weed a garden/flower bed is. I'm pretty new at the gardening thing. Every couple weeks, my front flower bed (which at this point only has azaleas, rhodos, cornus alba (I think) and viburnum tinus) grows an unbroken carpet of tiny weeds everywhere. It's my own fault, since a year or two ago, I didn't get to them before they went to seed, so now I probably have millions of little weed seeds in there. Right now, I just hoe over them lightly (they come loose immediately) and then pick out as many as I can to put in the yard waste pick-up. Is there something else I should be doing? I have thought of digging up the entire bed and replacing with new soil (since I am not a fan of the viburnum or the cornus, due to their out-of-control growth during the summer, and my azaleas are pretty sick looking anyway), but before I do that, I thought I'd just check to see if there were some other solution a little less drastic. Any thoughts? Or am I doomed to have a weed bed forever? Thanks!
pull the weedlets as soon as you can - to keep them from growing and going to seed. some spread by roots and any little piece left can regrow, so, for them, it's a matter of continuing to yank them each year and/or carefully digging them out so you get all the roots. i generally grab them when they're small and then put down a thick layer of mulch. i prefer licorice root mulch - any kind will do, really, to keep the weeds from taking over as well as to hold moisture in the soil. the thing with mulch is that you need to leave some free space between the mulch and the base of the plant...at least an inch and more like two inches. that keeps fungus, etc, from doing damage to the plants. it's usually dark enough at the base of the plants that weeds rarely grow and, if any do, you can just yank 'em. you may still get some weeds growing through the mulch...and even some growing IN it...just yank as you see them. in spring, turn last years left over/partly decomposed mulch over into the soil and add a new layer.