Pre emergent weed killer

I just tore out my front lawn for the purpose of putting in low water use plants.
I took up about 1 inch of soil after taking up the grass with a sod cutter.
I'm concerned about weeds coming up through the decomposed granite and mulch that I will put down. I've had limited success with weedcloth. Is there a herbicide that will kill pre emergent grass and weeds, but will allow me to plant within 7 - 10 days?

My wife saw something at Walmart call Preen Weed Preventer that looks promising, but it has a list of plants that it is considered safe around...not all the plants I will use are on the list.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

do you know what kind of grass it was? was it something like Bermuda that grows low and spreads with runners? or was it a clumping type grass?

Mitch

Hi,
I know it was Marathon II, which I looked up and it is a tall fescue. we did have some crabgrass and various types of weeds.
Thanks,

I'm not an expert, but I've removed a lot of grass in my yard. I've never used a pre-emergent and usually I have no problem. I've been told that the best way to do it is remove the grass, then leave the soil bare and water it real well for about 1-2 weeks then see what seeds germinate then kill them - THEN put down your Mulch and plant your plants. The idea is that you can identify the real problem areas when you have access to them and remove them. It takes a little while longer but it seems to really help.

Also one of my favorite gardening experts, Ron Vanderhoff from Roger's Gardens, wrote an article about organic weed suppression using corn gluten here www.themulch.com/lawn/now-is-the-time-to...vent-weeds-naturally

I hope this helps.

Thanks, I'll read up on corn gluten.

Would you give us a little update sometime, like what you found out, what you ultimately used and how it worked for you? That would be cool.

thanks!