grass in the garden

My garden is reclaimed lawn and every year there is a particular problem with the lawn trying to reclaim the area

does anyone have any information or tips on how to prevent or control this. Hand pulling is getting me no where.

Would covering the garden with landscape cloth be the answer? Or would a pre-emergent help?

What type of lawn grass are you dealing with? And does it come back from seed formed elsewhere or from runners or stolons?

I use a border of clipped grass around the garden as a mulch and weed barrier; it's been pretty effective. I use grass clippings inside the garden as well.

Not sure what kind of grass but it is using runners - I try to avoid letting anything seed in there.

I have to deal with St. Augustine from the neighbor's yard, some bermuda and worst of all, Johnson grass. All of them travel by runners/stolons. Pulling the Jg isn't very helpful because the stolons grow down as well as up and outward, and if even a small joint of root remains the foliage comes back with a vengeance. I use my string trimmer to cut off the foliage right at ground level, then attack the bermuda roots with a hoe. I expose and take out clumps of Jg roots, then carefully pour white vinegar onto spots where I suspect deeper stolons may be hiding. I use pickling vinegar for its 9% acidity, being careful not to use very much and create a pH problem. The system is not foolproof because I don't always catch the deeper stolons, but I seem to be gaining better control year by year.

As for landscape cover, I don't know...but it might just be a blanket for the stolons to snooze under. Worth a try. Isn't pre-emergent primarily for seeds?

I am not sure what a pre-emergent is used for

A pre-emergent is a chemical (usually, though there are organic materials with pre-emergant properties) used to kill a seed before it germinates. It won't help your grasses that are spreading by runners, as you have told us.

Perhaps a physical barrier such as a shallow trench around the garden that you regularly keep trimmed with a lawn edger might help keep the grass from re-entering the garden

Landscape fabric will be very difficult for you to work with in a vegetable garden. Maintaining a thick mulch on the garden bed will go a long way towards smothering the grasses.

Wayne

i have unsuccessfully tried two things:

burying thin metal flanges around the edge to prevent runners from coming in.

planting sunflowers as a border

the sunflowers look better and worked about 50% better...

I tried a thick mulch but it did not phase it.

Cover crops like buckwheat are suppposed to be good for pushing out the invaders.

ah zep that would require rain to germinate things - had a shower friday but not a drop prior or since

Geez, roxroe, what's going on in your neck of the woods??? Never heard of such a drought in that area!

not sure - just wonder when the "beautiful day" syndrome will end.

How long since you dug out the grass to make the garden? I'm not sure this will
help but here's my experience.

I've got a lot of "reclaimed lawn" gardens. I have problems with the grass coming
back the first year and some the second year but by the third year, its mostly just
coming in from the edges. I spend a number of back breaking days each spring to edge
all my beds. By creating a v-shape edge, the grass doesn't encrouge too badly in one
year. (Of course I still get grass-weeds in the beds but not too bad. Mulch helps there.)

Tam

well that must be it then - I am only on my second year. Not patient enough - as usual

thanks for the info

You have my sympathy. Here there is a terrific problem with invasive crabgrass. It seems like a losing battle but every year I keep trying. Right now it's waist high out there and I'm ignoring it until later in the Fall. Then I hope to borrow some kind of flame thrower and burn the area off. Good luck.

hmmm fire - now that is an idea

Vinegar works only on green parts of plants. There has been talk in my area of using vinegar on weeds in the winter since the grass is brown. If you are planting a vegetable garden maybe you could spray with vinegar before planting. Vinegar won't hurt the seeds and is beneficial to the soil. Otherwise get some good gloves, a knee pad and pull, pull, pull.

what I did end up doing was taking the beds and redigging them. It has taken weeks and I go out each night after work and toil at it. Taking the top 10 inches of good topsoil then taking about 12 inches of the clay underneath out and using elsewhere. The process revealed the invaders and I was able to sift out the runners etc.

You are one ambitious gardener roxroe! I'm sure it'll really make a big
difference for you next year. Its awful to be fighting weeds instead of
fine-tuning your plantings! You'll have to post a pic next spring!
Tam

I have Quack Grass bordering one of my gardens. My grandpa used to say that you could hang an 1/8" piece of Quack Grass root on a fence post for 20 years and it would still start growing if a turkey buzzard deficated on it.

Cardboard covered with grass clippings has worked well for me. It will work for about 2 years, and then you need to replace the cardboard and add more clippings. The key is to make the border edge wide enough. 18"-24" would be a minimum. I tried more narrow bands and then the grass crept underneath.

Alyssum is a pretty good competitor too. It shades out the grass if you really plant it thick (I mean thick as dogs hair).

Just raise up your garden and cover the grass area with news papers before you pile dirt on it and Voila no more grass. A thick slab of news paper will kill the grass under and then be gone next year. Like this.

I was reading about that method on another thread - just might work. Have to subscribe to a newspaper

If your town has a recycling center, you may have access to all the free newspaper you need. I hope it works. I have a similar problem with rampant crabgrass and white dutch clover. I bought a flame torch and I hope that will help. A VERY thick layer of wheat straw also smothers growth, but it has to be thick and you have to be vigilant for those grass blades creeping out and reaching for the sunlight and taking hold whenever you turn your back. I have read about a pre-emergent called WOW from Garden's Alive but I am skeptical if it would really work and it's expensive too.

I don't think it works on grass - just weeds. Have you ever used gardening paper? I saw it offered in Gurney's

No, I've never seen or heard of it but I don't really spend much time perusing the Gurney catalog, but I maybe I should reconsider. A very long time ago I ordered something called chufa grass from them, after reading their rave description about it's good points. My father-in law warned me not to plant it but I thought knew better. It turned out to be extremely invasive, very aggressive. It took over about a quarter of an acre, and the shoots were like small spears, growing right through potato tubers. I don't live there now but it's still thriving, mowed short into a lawn. The area is still totally unusable for cultivation. I digress, but after that, I have beeen very wary of items that Gurney promotes.

thanks for the warning but gardening paper is probably not invasive could be worthless though

Well the point of paper is to have a raised bed over it. that definatly will work. I have used it all over my lawn where quack grass thrived. No appearance after being covered. It grows in poor soil where no other grass would have a chance. Improve the soil and spray round up and plant or sod over it 3 weeks later.

I checked out the gardening paper at Gurney's and it is probably a good product. Soferdig has had good results with paper and it's free. That's good enough for me. As for me, I am going to stay with the wheat grass and my torch but I am thinking about 10 mil black plastic. Plastic is so ugly and environmentally unsound, but on the other hand, it is supposed to be labor saving and keeps areas totally weed free, so that has to be good. Keep us updated.

This message was edited Mar 10, 2006 7:48 AM

newspaper alone won't work well for me this far south--try some really wet cardboard then heavy mulch--just will have to wait till next season to plant there.....or 4 months later down here! lol

I agree with dmj1218. Cardboard is just as effective and safe, but it is a whole lot easier to work with than newspapers.

Newspapers work well only if you can keep them on the ground long enough to cover. Of course, the wind seems to blow here every day.

I have really bad quack grass, so I have been redigging all of my beds, first making a v-trench around it that can be cultivated occasionally to keep the creepers out...
Also use cardboard or tarps to smother unused areas for a year or two until I need them. Then I make a v-trench around the area (pile the dirt from the trench inward to make a raised bed.) and dig up the area with a spading fork.

the vtrench is a good idea - I will try that - very little invasive grass this year but the edges are still a lot of work.