Plowing is the same thing as tilling, and both can turn up "weed" seeds that might germinate. Your mother did what many of us do with "weeds" if we don't gather them up and compost them, although there are thos neat freaks that cannot bear to see this kind of messy garden and have this strong need to throw away those "weeds" and the nutrients the took from the soil and which you will need to replace.

You want to use a weed killer after a pre-emergent? That's fine. Just follow the bottle instructions and you're good to go, and make sure the weeds you're killing are a) sprouted, b) actively growing, and c) killed by the weed killer you're applying. Seriously, you'd be surprised. :-)

I have lemon balm and a few sites state that lemon balm tea works better than any sleeping pill. I agree, Lemon Balm tea is very delicious (10 times better than mint tea) and it calms and wipes away any worries plus makes me fall asleep immediately. However it gets invasive now since we have tons of rain this year. The plus is the roots are shallow, I can kill a big clump of Lemon Balm in less than 10 min. The hardest weed to kill is Canadian thistle, the roots are very deep, reaching down to sub-clay layer. Here's a excerpt from below link: "Weeds tells a story. Cockle Burr grows in the deficiency of the availability of the mineral silver. Bull Thistle grows in the deficiency of available zinc. Musk or Canada Thistles grow in the deficiency of available phosphorus, and Leafy Spurge grows in the deficiency of the available nickel. Every mineral has a job. Without the proper level of available Calcium, these other trace minerals will not be available to the plant. It is easy to react to symptoms (like weeds) instead of dealing with the problems causing the symptoms." https://www.ag-usa.net/Calcium%20-%20%20Is%20your%20soil%20trying%20to%20tell%20you%20something.htm From Straw: Shamrock (yellow Wood Sorrel) gets very invasive after 2 decades of high-rain. When I first moved here in 2001, the new topsoil was very alkaline at pH 8 and there's no shamrock. But as we get lots of rain, the top soil becomes more acidic and there's an explosion of Shamrock. As I dig holes for roses, I take the bottom soil (very alkaline at below 2 feet) and throw on top where I want to suppress the weeds. Yellow Wood Sorrel is indicative of high magnesium and low calcium, which corresponds to my soil test.

"isnt hosta a species name .. if so.. why in the world would you pluralize it ..." Of anyone I would have though you, ken, would know this......or maybe you just mistyped. Hosta is a genus name and is legitimately pluralized by adding an "s"......just as one does with any of a zillion other genus names. From Wikipedia: "Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name gibōshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants." Sometimes ken's attempt at humor comes off badly. I am assuming that is the case with the previous remarks.