Evil Has Arrived

The quack grass is breaking through the mulch early.

The folks who owned my home before me must have cultivated the stuff. Nothing stops it. It will one day take over the world.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Any wise ones here have a secret way of killing it off?

Blessings on your garden,
Elf

are you talking about a wiry perennial grass that goes down several inches and pops up and is so hard to get all out?
Got it too and have no magic cure. I have to use a shovel to loosen the deep roots for a chance of pulling it all. Or I hit the top w Roundup , like along the driveway, and hope.
Just read a hint, to put Roundup in a stamp licker bottle for application in tight spots.

This message was edited May 6, 2007 7:47 PM

When I'm forced to use Round-up, or other similar product in a tight space, I use a small plastic milk container with the bottom cut off. I put the open bottom over the weed, and squirt Round-up down the much smaller opening at the top.

This message was edited May 8, 2007 2:26 PM

You can use a paintbrush to paint it on too.

Quackgrass is awful stuff, Elf. No mulch seems to stop it here, it just roots along under the mulch until it gets to a spot where it can pop out. I put down black plastic with large rocks and wood mulch over it trying to get rid of it around one of my garden beds. Within a year or two, it was popping up either side of the plastic mulch. I think Roundup, probably multiple applications, will be the only way to get rid of it.

Thank you, folks.

Last year I put down commercial grade, 20 year landscape fabric and 4-6 inches of mulch, and it comes right up though.

I rad somewhere on the net (later, of course) that it will plow it's way right through concrete when it's desparate for light.

I love the milk gallon jug idea. I've been trying to decide what to use. That will work.

I don't think that I can paint it. There is just too much. I bought a back pack sprayer on ebay, so I'm ready to bring out the big stuff. I wish that there was something other than chemicals available.

Blessing on your garden!
Elf

somebody on anothe r thread says they kill things with vinegar, but I seriously doubt that for quackgrass at least.

I'm buring border wood or metal around all my beds. Quack grass is amazing. You pull it, and it brings up five pounds of earth. Sticks its spears through four layers of newspaper. Lives happily under black plastic for two seasons.

I pull it and pull it and pull it. I want an organic way to get it out of the yard, but I haven't found it yet.