It’s Time To Garden! Can You Apply Too Much Preen?

Can You Apply Too Much Preen? — Weed Con­trol Facts March 21st is the first day of spring on the cal­en­dar, but ded­i­cat­ed gar­den­ers turn their thoughts to dig­ging and plant­i­ng long before the first warm breeze hits their area. Some are already start­ing seeds for new plants and veg­gies in indoor trays, count­ing down the weeks until the soil is just the right tem­per­a­ture for new shoots. No mat­ter what zone you live in – gar­den­ing lin­go for loca­tion – the onset of spring is a day worth celebrating. March 21st her­alds warmer tem­per­a­tures just about every­where, and noth­ing says “spring” more thor­ough­ly than a pack­et of new seeds pur­chased at your favourite nurs­ery. Yes, indeed, the time is almost here for prepar­ing gar­den beds for exist­ing and new plants of every vari­ety. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, that also means deal­ing with every gar­den­er’s neme­sis – the pro­lif­er­a­tion of weeds. Weeds are the bane of every gar­den­er’s exis­tence. They are unsight­ly and seem to spread quick­ly and take over beds that are home to beau­ti­ful blooms and fab­u­lous veggies. Ded­i­cat­ed gar­den­ers can find them­selves bent over beds three or four times a week, yank­ing and pulling up roots to try to get ahead of weeds. It’s an ardu­ous task that can seem end­less, par­tic­u­lar­ly when sum­mer is in full swing and your plants are lush and bountiful. How should you deal with these unwant­ed invaders? An excel­lent prod­uct that is every gar­den­er’s best friend is Preen, an all-nat­ur­al her­bi­cide that stops weeds before they grow. In this arti­cle, we offer tips on using Preen in your gar­den and explain how to make sure that you don’t over­do it. Although Preen is made sole­ly from nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents, mean­ing it’s not tox­ic or dan­ger­ous, there are steps you should fol­low to make sure it is at its most effec­tive and that kids and pets don’t track it into the house.

What is Preen?

Accord­ing to com­pa­ny lit­er­a­ture, Preen isn’t a weed killer; it’s a weed “pre­ven­ter.” It stops weeds from grow­ing before they have a chance to spread through ger­mi­na­tion. It is made of corn gluten and is safe for pets and chil­dren. There is one caveat, how­ev­er: once you’ve sprin­kled Preen on the soil or mulch and damp­ened it to cre­ate a weed bar­ri­er, keep every­one out of the gar­den until it dries. That means keep­ing your dog and cat (and chil­dren, if they like dig­ging!) inside until the beds are no longer moist, usu­al­ly in about 30 min­utes. Oth­er­wise, paws may cause break­age in the new bar­ri­er, allow­ing weeds to poke through and grow. And those same paws might drag bits of Preen (and dirt) into the house and onto your fresh­ly cleaned floors and car­pets. No one wants that, espe­cial­ly after a few days of spring clean­ing!

Preen Products To Choose From:

The com­pa­ny has three dif­fer­ent weed pre­ven­tion prod­ucts, each designed for a slight­ly dif­fer­ent type of land­scape. Here is a brief overview of each to help you deter­mine which is right for your gar­den­ing needs.

1- Preen Extended Control Weed Preventer

The advan­tage of this prod­uct is its dura­bil­i­ty – it lasts as long as six months. It’s designed for use in peren­ni­al flower gar­dens con­tain­ing as many as 600 plants. It’s also safe to use around trees, shrubs, ground­cov­ers, and even rock gardens.

2- Preen Garden Weed Preventer

This prod­uct works for up to three months. It can be used for around 200 estab­lished plants, includ­ing flow­ers, veg­eta­bles, trees and shrubs.

3- Preen Lawn Weed Control

This prod­uct is made specif­i­cal­ly for lawns. It pre­vents more than 200 broad-leaf lawn weeds, includ­ing chick­weed and knotweed.

How Do You Use Preen?

Preen is extreme­ly easy to dis­trib­ute. You sprin­kle it around the pre­pared, dry beds, close to but not on top of the stems and leaves of exist­ing plants. Next, you water the area until it’s damp. You can use Preen around flow­ers, shrubs, trees, herbs and veg­etable plants of all kinds. Once Preen is spread even­ly around the gar­den, you can say farewell to weeds for about three months. No more back­break­ing labour for almost the whole sum­mer season! You should­n’t use Preen around aquat­ic gar­dens con­tain­ing water­falls, ponds and foun­tains with koi, frogs or oth­er aquat­ic life. Although you can use Preen at any time of year, it’s most effec­tive if you spread it in ear­ly spring, when new or exist­ing plants are about two inch­es tall. You’ll only need to repair the weed bar­ri­er Preen cre­ates if Fluffy or Fido digs into the gar­den and dis­rupts it. A quick patch job with a lit­tle sprin­kle of Preen, and voila! The weed bar­ri­er is as good as new.

The Company Suggests Following These Four Steps

- First, Remove Any Existing Weeds In Your Garden

Remem­ber, Preen is not made to kill weeds that have already sprout­ed. It’s made to stop weeds before they have a chance to ger­mi­nate and spread. Exist­ing weeds must be pulled the old-fash­ioned way!

- Sprinkle

Shake the con­tain­er of Preen around the gar­den, using only the pre­scribed amount in every area.

- Integrate

Mix the Preen into the soil or mulch using a rake or sim­i­lar gar­den tool.

- Water The Garden

Unless rain is immi­nent, water the gar­den once the Preen is thor­ough­ly dis­trib­uted through­out the soil or mulch. Soak it just enough that it will dry in about 30 minutes.

Can You Use Too Much Preen?

The answer is: No. Preen is all-nat­ur­al and non-tox­ic; it’s not the end of the world if you sprin­kle a lit­tle too much on the gar­den. How­ev­er, keep in mind that wast­ing any prod­uct, even if it’s not harm­ful to chil­dren and pets, isn’t wise. It’s a waste of mon­ey and effort! Even though it’s not going to dam­age the soil if you scat­ter a lit­tle more than the rec­om­mend­ed amount, doing so too often can over­whelm foliage, roots and flow­ers. Don’t use Preen more fre­quent­ly than the com­pa­ny recommends. Read the instruc­tions care­ful­ly, and you won’t go wrong. The instruc­tions on each con­tain­er explain how much Preen to use per square footage, so fol­low the guide­lines, and the weeds will be a dis­tant mem­o­ry. One more caveat: Preen does­n’t kill weeds that have already sprouted. You’ll have to pull those when you’re prepar­ing the beds. But once your gar­den is ready, spread Preen and watch plants, flow­ers, herbs, and veg­eta­bles thrive weed-free!

Why Should You Choose Preen Over Other Herbicides?

Get­ting rid of weeds is a con­stant chal­lenge fac­ing all gar­den­ers. Just when you think you’ve pulled every last one, a crop of unsight­ly weeds pops up the fol­low­ing day amidst your beau­ti­ful orna­men­tal blooms or stalks of snow peas! The beau­ty of Preen is that once you’ve pre­pared your gar­den and sprin­kled it over the mulch or soil, that’s it for sev­er­al months. Preen does­n’t kill exist­ing weeds – that’s impor­tant to remem­ber. But when you’ve cleared those out of your gar­den and rid the soil of as many weeds as you pos­si­bly can by yank­ing them out by the roots, the gar­den is ready for Preen. It is clas­si­fied as a “pre-emer­gent her­bi­cide,” which means it kills the weeds’ seeds in their tracks. They can’t ger­mi­nate and, there­fore, can’t spread. Your veg­eta­bles don’t get crowd­ed out by unsight­ly weeds. Ugly, wispy weeds don’t over­shad­ow your blooms. Depend­ing on which Preen prod­uct you use, you’ll get as much as six months free from pulling weeds in your garden.

In Summary

Spring is the sea­son of end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties, renew­al, growth, and change in our land­scapes. There may be noth­ing bet­ter – or more reward­ing – than dig­ging deep in the soil to get it ready for the fruits and veg­eta­bles, and flow­ers that will soon offer beau­ty through­out the grow­ing sea­son. Whether you plant food for fam­i­ly din­ners like car­rots, peas and pota­toes, or you pre­fer the pret­ty blooms of orna­men­tal flow­ers, get­ting the gar­den in prime con­di­tion is cru­cial come spring. Using Preen can help make your gar­den not only beau­ti­ful but more pro­duc­tive. When weeds aren’t tak­ing up space, there is more room for the boun­ty of veg­eta­bles and the visu­al appeal of flowers. Sprin­kling Preen on your soil or mulch in ear­ly spring is the most effec­tive way to block weeds from mul­ti­ply­ing and tak­ing up pre­cious space. Weeds look ter­ri­ble and have the capac­i­ty to choke the roots of flow­ers, trees, shrubs and oth­er plants you’ve worked hard to cul­ti­vate. And once the ground has the bar­ri­er Preen cre­ates, you can look for­ward to three months (or more!) of no weeds. Be sure you use Preen accord­ing to the con­tain­er’s direc­tions so you don’t waste the prod­uct by putting too much in the gar­den or using it too often. Keep the kids and pets away while it dries, and in no time, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the visu­al appeal and boun­ty of your gor­geous garden!

Preen FAQs Video