I purchased a home last year. The owner's said that before they put the house up for sale they used a year long weed killer in the backyard flower beds because they had never planted anything there and it was full of weeds. They didn't want to worry about weeding while they were trying to sell the house.

Everything I planted in those areas this spring (a year later) has either died or not grown at all. If the weed killer was only supposed to last a year why am I still having problems? There are also no weeds growing in a good portion of the areas they said they put the weed killer. Did they apply too much and it is still not out of the soil?

I have placed some new top soil on top of the old soil in some of the beds. What can I do to get rid of this faster or be able to plant annuals and perennials? Is there hope for next year?

The weed killer not only killed the weeds, but it also killed the soil. The beneficial fungus, bacteria, mycorrhiza, earth worms, and everything else were killed. Good that you have placed top soil on top of the old. Compost material is also very good. Please do not till these into the old soil. Soon you will have a living soil in which your plants will thrive!

We rented out our home for a number of years. The management company didn't want to deal with weeds so they used a permanent weed killer on the entire property. It killed many of the existing plantings, and even years later we can't grow anything in the contaminated soil. When I want to plant now, we have to dig out and discard the old soil, and add new. That's the only way anything will grow well. Sometimes things grow in the contaminated soil, but they are stunted and never do well. Even things that grow easily in the area are stunted or die.

Is there any way you can find out exactly what product was used?