[Arid_gardener] Invasive grass

[Dick]

Get a small spraybottle of Roundup and when you see an encroachment, zap it. Just keep it handy as a second line of defense but use it strictly according to directions. I have been warned about it poisoning the soil but I have had no such results using the weed killer with disgression.

You can also install a plastic barrier at least 6 inches deep. Where there are nodes shooting up blades in no no land, dig the soil out to about four inches deep, sift it through 1\4th inch hardware screen and you will get at least 99% of the stolens. I did a 20 year old Burmuda lawn about 15' by 75'.  After ten years, there is no trace of the original grass but, for two or three years, I used a trowel to pop out an ocassional blade or two and the internodes from which they originated.

It involves some work but you can get rid if Bermuda without chemicals.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona Maricopa County
Cooperative Extension
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jackie and Bill Harrell 
  To: arid gardener 
  Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 8:53 PM
  Subject: [Arid_gardener] Invasive grass


  Dear Arid Gardener,

  I have in-the-ground garden beds which have given me problems with invasive burmuda grass.  And I'm really not SURE it comes from outside the beds...often it seems to sprout from right in the middle.  

  Anyway, how do gardens I see in magazines have grass growing right up to the garden bed in a pretty line!!!  Is that a different kind of grass from ours here in Phoenix?  Or do they have a secret?

  Is there a successful way to keep grass from encroaching into the beds?  What works?

                                                                                       Sincerely, Jackie
                                                                                   









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