Hardiness Zone: 6a
dadudley2 from Columbus, Ohio
A: dadudley2,
Bummer! Unfortunately, accidents happen. I'm sure your girlfriend has a compassionate heart and will eventually find a way to forgive and forget (it wouldn't hurt to mention that it was her compassion that initially attracted you to her). I mean you were just trying to be helpful, right? I imagine you have apologized profusely (several times already), but it would seem that a shopping trip to her favorite nursery-your treat, of course, might also be in order! As for her flowers, what is done, is done. Do what you can to spray off any chemical residue remaining on the flowers and dilute the soil with water. Most herbicides don't last forever, so once you see the extent of the fallout, it should be safe to replant. When replanting, amend the beds with a little new soil just to be on the safe side, and plan on dedicating the day to helping her replant. Your mistake makes a strong argument for avoiding the use of chemicals to treat weeds. Good luck!
Ellen
About The Author: Ellen Brown is our Green Living and Gardening Expert. Click here to ask Ellen a question! Ellen Brown is an environmental writer and photographer and the owner of Sustainable Media, an environmental media company that specializes in helping businesses and organizations promote eco-friendly products and services. Contact her on the web at http://www.sustainable-media.com
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Geeeze, my husband could have written this! He did the very same thing last year to my flowers! Sorry to say, but you are in big trouble boy!! The weed killer will kill off the flowers eventually. It may take awhile, but they will die. You better go get her a gift certificate to her favorite nursery to buy more and vow never to go within 50 feet of her garden again. I now have a restraining order against my husband to not go near or around my flowers again!!
How about bringing her flowers? Not cut flowers, but flowering plants. A box of chocolates couldn't hurt, either.
If I were you. I'd start digging NEW flower beds right away and replant.
Some of them should still live, as flowers are not always weeds. In the meantime, salvage your relationship by putting extra work into her flowers. If some are dying, remove them (ONLY AFTER) you have purchased some other flowers to replace them with, & if at all possible, extend her garden to make it more beautiful. If you leave it nicer than it was previously, I think she will be happy. I would! haha
Unfortunately weed killer also kills flowers. You could try rinsing them with water. Spray the foliage with water and try to spray them off so the water goes outside the bed if possible, then just soak the bed. It may help dilute the weed killer so some of them make it. If they are already dying, it is probably too late. Eat a lot of humble pie and tell her you are sorry and will replace all the plants that die.
You won't want to replant in that bed for a week or two, depending on the kind of weed killer you used. Read the instructions and see how long it lasts.
I work in an office in a small row of terraced houses on a very beautiful tree-lined street in a small town in Ireland. The office is one of 6 houses in a new terrace built to complement the existing Georgian terraces in the area.
My boss, with great forethought planted about 40 creepers of varying types in the gardens and shared laneway, which he has been tending for 5 years now. Some of them are very beautiful indeed.
Last Thursday he accidentally sprayed them all with weed killer thinking he was treating them for black spot.
We await the outcome with bated breath.
When I was a kid I had a desert plants collection growing all in one large shallow dish. It became infested with those horrible white fuzzy scale insects. My dad, who is a botanist (so he should know better!), tried spraying it with Raid. Needless to say it killed most of the plants.
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