When I took a horticulture class the instructor said that when he and his team ran across some bermuda they wanted to know how deep the roots went and they learned it went down 25 feet. It takes a long time to clear the roots so the grass doesn't come back. Even when they thought it was clear it would come back in a few years. They finally got it out after years.
I battled Bermuda grass for years in our backyard. Finally resorted to hand digging and pulling every single root, all the way down as far as they went. And as soon as the slightest hint of green broke the soil surface, I knew where I still had work to do. I dug out every last rhizome and am finally free of it completely. But it took several months of watching it like a hawk. If you don't take it seriously, you'll never be rid of it. Mulching will not do the trick unfortunately.
The area i'm working I actually removed as much as i could by hand and then tilled it really well early on and let it sit long enough for the shoots to come back up but because the ground was still loose i was able to go through and pull anything green out and the whole plant would come out clean. i did that last year and havent seen any since thank god.
That's what I've been doing... Such a process but it will be worth it in the end. Unfortunately the wood chips did not work for me last year, but I do agree it made them weaker.
I was told Muscovy Ducks work wonders! We have Quack Grass everywhere and a local farmer told me that her garden was constantly overrun by the stuff, but then noticed her Muscovy ducks would come in and root up and eat all the little shoots in a freshly tilled plot, and now she has an almost weed-free plot.
Ducks do an excellent job of keeping grass out of strawberry beds, too! They don't eat the strawberry plants, but they pull the grass out of between them.
Just Muscovy's? We have runner ducks with access to the area around but not in the garden. They are a big help with grasshoppers. Maybe I'll till an area in their pen and see what they do.
My take(as a professional working at a nursery) on managing weeds: Fighting weeds with mulching is possible, but it takes a lot of material and a long time, also you are not getting rid of them you are just pausing them. For a few weeds with very resilient and deep roots, there is no other ecological method then digging them out completly, for most weeds though there are other ways to manage them. Something that works quite well especially on small farms and gardens, is using chickens intensivly on the future garden space, this will get rid of most weeds, seeds, pests and prepare the soil to some degree. Another method is to rake them up whenever they start to regrow until the roots have spent all their energy and die, but it is extremly important to never miss even a day while doing this, otherwise the roots will regain energy from the new leaves via photosynthesis. My favortie methode is the thermal method and i don´t mean the typical "buring weeds with a torch", what i am referring to is infra red treatment, basically you are heating the weeds to 60-70 C° (140-160F) for at least a few seconds so that the plant stays intact but the proteins in the cells disintergrate, with this method you can get rid of most weeds permanently after using it a few times, if you have rooftop solar and use all your execess energy from the mid day sun, you can do this in a fully ecological way too. After using one of these methods you should also use a false seed bed, were you make all the remaining weed seeds germinate and then imitiatly kill them when they are seedlings, after that you should make surre to not let weeds bloom next to your beds and establish a barrier between your beds and any grass fields/weedy areas that might make seeds, then you can mulch your beds (with seed free mulch!) and you will spent about no time weeding anymore for the next years.
I dont believe in psychics...but it's been 4 times now that Kevin uploads a video the same day I'm asking myself questions. I just came from 2 hours of weeding.
I did the cardboard, compost with edging. It helps tons. Then for later weeding, I will dig down a bit around the rooted part with my fingers to loosen and get a better grip on the roots and slowly pull and follow along with the rhizome to get the most out. It isn’t perfect, but it helps to leave a little less to grow for next time.
I also live in SoCal and my neighbor has bermuda grass, he told me when it tries to creep into parts of his yard where it is not welcome he sprays it with his own organic diy weed killer. It's made up of vinegar, organic castile soap, and himilayan pink salt (you can google the proportions). Wait for a really sunny day and you have to be careful not to spray on your own plants as they will also dry up and die.
@@For_Cruyff_Sake I think the reasoning behind using castile soap and himilayan salt is for the added benefits. Castile soap is non toxic, natural and helps repel pests, himilayan salt is full of minerals that other plants can use later on. Plus I think he only uses a tbsp of each per spray bottle of vinegar so its really only like a 25 cent difference in price. If you have a lot of weeds then I can see how it would be less cost efficient but as a home gardener with a small space, a few cents is really negligible since you only ever have to treat small areas and 50 cents for a bunch of weed killer is pretty cheap.
I have a mix of Burmuda grass in my yard. It is not so bad. However, I accidentally brought in a small tuff in a rose. It was a way more aggressive strain. Worst mistake ever.
You totally inspired me to get outside and work on removing the ivy the previous owner put in. I removed quite a bit last year from the back yard. This year I'm tackling the front yard. I think the original plan was erosion control because property borders on a seasonal creek. But it is working on world domination.
I LOATHE Bermuda grass! I think that’s what the builder of my house used on my yard 20 years ago. I have tried everything to get rid of it for the 10 years I’ve been here. One year I pulled up every bit of it from the root, in my front yard. It was so satisfying but my yard was filled with ugly holes for several weeks. I put down fresh grass seed and that helped for a season. But the next year the Bermuda was back. I finally gave up fighting it in the front yard. At least my backyard “farm” looks pretty! My front yard is just one giant weed, lol!
I think I've come across that one in Spain before, while walking barefoot. Not a pleasant experience People actually had to carry me to a place without them because they are that bad
I once made the mistake of tilling up a Yucca plant where I was making a new garden. Every little piece of root that was chopped up by the tiller grew a new plant, and I had hundreds of Yucca plants all over the garden.
I dug up several yucca plants successfully years ago. It took literally clearing out a 3 cubic feet (!) of dirt per plant, then sifting the dirt through an old screen door to pull out all the tubers. Some were the size of my fingernail.
There are 3 main types of weed in my garden, goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria), dandelion and wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). I use the mulch or cardboard on the goutweed and dandelion, only 2-3 inches of mulch and weed out/pick anything that penetrates the mulch. I dig up the strawberries and put them in a pot. Looking forward to lots of tiny strawberries this summer! Goutweed and dandelion can be used in salads and the dandelion root can be put in alcohol to make a schnaps.
Look up health benefits of Dandelion. Instead of falling for ChemLawn’s touting it as a weed. Think of them as wildflowers, that even gourmet foodies sell as Premium Salads.
Please do a video about gardening tools and video about seed of the month - where you suggest the best seed to grow for the coming month. EDIT : I just now noticed that you already did a video about gardening tools a month back. I must have somehow missed it. You have a great channel Kevin .
I expect that in California flame weeding is out of the question,but here in Alberta Canada we can use that method as 1 layer of attack. What I’ve personally found effective in my garden is (as you’ve shown) the cardboard,thick mulch method. I’ve also used tarps to starve out weedy areas. It’s very effective,however,one must leave the tarps in place for a relatively long period of time to really ensure that the plants underneath are fully killed. Even after using tarps,the possibility that seeds have survived is likely,so not disturbing the soil is important and maybe favours a layered garden,or no dig style.
I've been using the Charles Dowding approach with cardboard, compost, and woodchips in my front yard where the Bermuda and weeds are crazy. It's made a huge difference, but you made an important point about the depth of mulch, because I used less and the Bermuda is trying to take over again along with other weeds. Definitely will have to cover my walkways as well, this grass is crazy stubborn. Great video as always Kevin!
i converted part of a lawn into a garden bed by flipping the grass and weeds roots up, then covering it with composted manure and branches and topping that of with garden soil. everything grew quite well on it.
Here in Australia, I use something similar to Bermuda grass as my lawn. It's called Couch grass so I'm not sure if it's exactly the same but it look absolutely amazing when it's fully established, mowed and properly looked after. Needs very little maintenance and suppresses all other weeds. Exactly what you want for a lawn.
@@fignewton0000 Ohhhkayy, lol. Perhaps not the most accurate term-- not like one day a year I battle bermuda, then throw up my hands and say "FINE. THIS YARD IS YOURS." (shakes fist)
Hi Kevin,. weeds are nasty but i use the weeds i collected to feed my egg laying chickens. they love it . im also trying the no dig method this year..cheers from UK
Living in S Texas, Bermuda is very common as it more tolerant to the S.Texas heat and minimal rain we get, which is required for turf grasses like St Augustine. I'm trying something different, I'm trying brown Kraft paper made from recycled paper products, using a # 40 weight paper 36" wide and the 720' roll is around $20 found online. At that price you can run it one way and then across the first layer on a bias. A layer should last a year; I saw an ad in a garden and seed catalog listed as brown mulch paper and found it sounds a lot like Brown Kraft Paper. I’ve made some beds using Mr Dowding's cardboard method but making larger beds requires hauling around more cardboard, so I'm trying a combo of the paper and cardboard on smaller beds first for a longer effect and not having to mulch a foot deep to get the Bermuda to surrender sooner in the cultivated beds. If it works well I'll keep you posted!
I put in my first garden this past fall. Raised beds, 10 inches of soil, cardboard layer underneath. I’ve seen Bermuda in one of the beds twice. I dig down as far as I can without disturbing my greens and pull out as much of the root as I can. It’s working so far but summer is coming.
Good for you, Max. I often use "Wheelbarrow words" (those that are often of several syllables more than some people are used to) and am pleased when I find that there are people who reach for their dictionaries to learn what the word means. Far from being "Persnickety", it helps to increase one's vocabulary.
I have a smaller garden at my condo. I use fast food paper bags, cardboard, anything to stop my invaders from getting any sun. No photosynthesis, no weed. I touch up areas with some boiling water. Make some tea, take the extra hot water and spot treat weeds.
Checkout ( no-till gardening) layer down thick layers of either newspaper or just use a few sheets of cardboard put your mulch on that in dirt on top of the mulch anything under it dies won't grow through four a couple Seasons at least and then just keep putting on more Mulch & More dirt
I saw some people make weed tea . They would give kids the task to pick out weed and collect it in the bin . After the bin is full ,they would add water and let is sit for a week . The water is later used as fertilizer and the weeds are thrown in compost
Bermuda grass is EVIL! Good luck! Spent lots of my childhood pulling those evil weeds. Happy to report that they have been completely eradicated from my parents yard. It can be done, just have to keep being persistent.
I didn't have such a large area to work with, but when I went to remove the "Traveling-grass" from the flower bed, I just dug it all out and pulled all the glass, grass and garbage out of the dirt before I put it back. South-side of St. Louis, so it was mostly broken glass and shell casings along with the normal amount of rocks and spilled mortar-mix. I 1/2 filled a 5-gallon bucket with just hard materials then composted the grass back into the lawn with the mower. I probably didn't do it right, but I do enjoy getting my hands dirty from time to time.
Daffodils form a rhizome barrier to most grasses. We don’t have burmuda grass here but the grasses we do have are as pernicious. Ringing the beds with daffs makes really pretty in the spring too. They also say “wakey, wakey Gardener, time to get going”!
We do raises beds and put down card board after we clear the area. We use raised bed blocks then put the board over the cardboard so it hangs out of the bed about 6 inches, which helps with the "creeper" problem. The only weeds we got last year were ones that floated in on the wind.
So it has a name. I honestly never knew what to call this grass. To protect my raised beds I used a combination of dug in edging, weed/grass killer, then wet cardboard, then landscape fabric, then finally a heavy layer of mulch. So far so good. Number one most invasive weed I've ever dealt with. It's super resilient.
I absolutely love the Charles Dowding method. I skip pulling anything up and just lay 2 layers of cardboard and then compost or mulch on top. Cheap and easy and I love how well it works!
That stuff is wonderful for lawns (thanks for identifying it for me, BTW)! Most lawns would be destroyed by things like cars being parked on them for a month, other things laying on them, getting gouged by stuff, etc. But I've seen that fill in blank spots entirely in a matter of a couple of weeks to, in the worst case, a month and a half. The problem happens, as you know, when you want something *other than lawn* to exist! That grass is truly relentless, and I can't see a reasonable way to have anything other than a tall raised garden bed anywhere that it has been planted on purpose. This is one of the reasons I've never gotten either Bermuda or St. Augustine sod or plugs here on my FL property. What's great for landlords (who love thick, zero-maintenance lawns) would be a horror for trying to garden through.
I can definitely see the difference where I mulched and where I didn’t. The only problem is weeds creeped on edges where mulch apparently wasn’t laid out well because of concrete. I spent about $100 when mulch was on sale at Lowe’s and was totally worth it to not have to spend as much time pulling weeds.
For me is Kikuya! But same issues. I have pulled out “runners” (I call them zip-lines) that have been 4-5 feet long and as strong as rope. I worked on better barriers this past year that really helped. The main thing I changed was getting rid of weed cloth that was under the pea gravel and stone “mulch”. It was a nightmare trying to pull up those runners only to have the weed cloth come up with it, then I had to tuck it back under the stones every time.
I dont know if it is a widespread thing outside of the west but there is an immigrant family from china in my area and they did this thing where they covered their entire lawn edge to edge in compost then put a tarp over that when the grass poked through the compost they put another layer on then layed the tarp over that again. they basically forced the grass to go through multiple uses of its stored energy without ever letting it get sun and once it stopped popping through they just planted directly into that compost. sorta 2 birds with one stone because at the end their "lawn" was basically a giant garden bed with 6+ inches deep of compost.
A friend of mine took a mix of walnut skins and leaves and let them compost in a bucket of water. The resulting “tea” is nature’s round up. They sprayed down the future garden area and waited for it to die. Used a stir up hoe to scrape the surface, raked it off, sprayed it again and laid down cardboard followed by a good think layer of compost. First year planted shallow rooted veggies. Second year was able to plant other things with no problem.
Agree, these weeds are crazy 🤦♀️ ! IBut. laughed at 1:57 ‘You’re already kinda screwed’ .🤣..perfectly described it. I don’t know what we have yet though ..got weed barriers.
Fantastic! I try my best to remove as many weeds when preparing new beds, but am a bit weird and I enjoy the ongoing weeding in my veggie garden hahaha. Big love from one fellow green thumb to another from Melbourne, Australia xxxx
Thank you for this video! Great timing as we've moved into a new home (also in SD), and the entire front yard is weeds and about half of the backyard 😫
Bermuda loves wood chips. I have a pile of wood chips probably 6 feet tall, now with Bermuda growing on the top of it. I also had spread an area in my garden with 18-24” of wood chips , and now 2 years later it is a beautiful thick luscious Bermuda grass lawn.
I line the parameter of my garden with thick, black plastic and top with wood chips, then the cardboard and wood chips within the garden - I only use cardboard in the beginning to kill off the established weeds. They die and I simply replenish the mulch each winter. Works great! But the boarder needs to be maintained. Keep your edges trimmed really short all the time so the Bermuda is too weak to creep under or over the boarder.
My 3 acre yard and surrounding areas are covered with Bermuda grass. I've battled this grass for 20+ years. The best and easiest way is to tarp/cover the area, this will starve and kill the grass. I use 6ft wide commercial weed block. After covering for one season pull up and leave 4to6 foot of weed block border to keep grass out. Make sure you don't shoot grass clippings into area and you will make out just fine. This grass can grow deep under the surface and spread very quickly.Good luck guys.
Hi @Epic Gardening... I have fought bermuda grass for years...I took solace in pulling it on a regular basis. I have used thick layers of cardboard, only to have it resurface again. Last fall, I put down some wood shavings maybe 3" inches thick (which I found big bags for free from a hot tub milling site) and it has kept most of the bermuda grass at bay so far. Hope this helps others with the epic bermuda grass battle :)
Use a digging fork rather than a shovel. You can get down under the root and pull more of it up, rather than slicing it with the shovel blade. You can smother it with tarps and/or mulch, but if you ever want to plant in there again, digging into it even a few years down the road can activate again - ask me how I know. Lol. So, it's best to do the hard work of getting rid of it completely.
Our plot (neglected for many, many years) is always covered in (field) horsetail. It’s horrendous. Super deep roots. But I heard when you just snap the top it dies. And then leave the top as the nutrients are going back into the soil. But it’s a pain in the backside!
Solarization with clear plastic for 4 weeks in hot summer is only way I eradicated bermuda completely. But now it's about regenerating the soil by using those woodchips, compost, fruit trees (for fungal connections), etc.
In the Bay Area (NorCal), our issue is oxalis (aka sour grass). It is a non-native invasive weed that chokes out native plants and spreads in the most insane way. I put down my 15" Birdie beds in our San Francisco backyard last summer with layers of cardboard and mulch at the bottom only to have oxalis start popping up at the surface! I just spent 8 hours sifting the organic soil from one bed to another so I can switch out the 15" Birdies to 30" Birdies. The layers of cardboard are completely intact with just oxalis stems poking through. It is crazy!! Am going to try a bunch of different methods as I install these new beds and lay the old 15" ones in new spots. Came here to look for advice. I will lose my mind if oxalis pops up in the 30" beds. Wish me luck!
Digging out each part by hand is what I had to do and keep doing. Kept at it all growing season and now I'm only fighting the edges where it creates Bermuda highways.
I planted my garden over bermuda grass using cardboard with no pulling, digging or scraping. I just put 6-8" of soil over it and then planted right away. The garden has been great and I have had no problem with the grass growing through. I put cardboard down in the paths between beds and covered with a few inches of wood chips. No problems there either. I did put wood chips over some landscape beds with no cardboard and the bermuda grass just came right through.
I put down cardboard, weed mat and mulch and planted my garden bed through this. Now, 6 months later, the garden bed is more weed grass than plants. The grass found it's way through and has overtaken the bed. I don't know what to do. I'm glad I didn't put expensive plants in because I think I have to abandon the whole project and give into the grass. Here in Australia I think it's called couch grass, but it looks like exactly the same thing. I think the only possible solution is to eliminate all the grass in the area, but my lawn is partly this kind of grass, so it's always going to try and invade any garden beds I make.
Hey Kevin, how are you doing? Are you able to use a weed burner at your home? That's one way to burn off the seeds and then cover it with a thick tarp.
They are inexpensive. I used one to clear my main garden. Be warned, it will also burn up any potassium in your bed and kill microbes. If you go back and amend and innoculate, your soil will recover quickly.
Are they dangerous? Been thinking of getting one for my dad since he’s always spraying with chemicals, but he’s the type of guy that will probably catch himself on fire.
@@rubyoro0 They can be dangerous if used wrong. You are starting a fire outside. You don't want to use it when it's too windy, you want a light breeze. Be sure to have a water hose close by. Some places require that you call ahead of time to see if you can. And have someone there with you. Stay close by afterward for about 30 minutes.
Mulch is definitely the way to go. I use whatever is handy: cardboard, newspapers, thick plastic bags that I get wood shavings in (not porous but kills the weeds.) I have used the plastic bags to cover stumps that were sprouting. After a couple of years, the shoots are totally gone. Also in my raised beds early in the spring I totally cover it with some kind of mulch to suppress any early bird weeds. I can remove as needed when I plant the veggies.
After battling crab grass in our flower bed for 4 years, I dug out the entire bed- (8-12” deep, depending where in the slope it is). I Laid a mid weight cotton fabric (from the fabric store) edge to edge and up the sides of the brickwork in the bed and had fresh soil brought in- then put 4-6” of mulch. This year, I’m happy to say that I haven’t had to pull but a few weeds, and only along back edge did I have to pull 2 small grab grass newbies. Around the front, I have 8” deep bricks where I pour boiling water along them (on the grass side) to keep the crabgrass from creeping back in. In my prior home, the previous owner planted spearmint- I battled that for 14 years, til I finally gave up, covered the entire bed with salt and covered it with black plastic and then mulch and I kept plants in pots on the mulch for a couple years. It worked and the owner now plants directly in the bed without spearmint. Weeds... UGH!
I don't garden anymore because of bermuda grass. It completely took over all my gardens. I spent all day every day for months weeding it out, but it grew faster than I could pull it out, until I didn't have a single plot left.
Same thing happened to me. I have other very invasive weeds along w/ bermuda and all of my beds have been completely destroyed. I spent a lot of time and money only to have my work destroyed. I live on old farm land and it was not maintained and I don't have the money to try to fix it. I am going to try a combo of earthboxes, container gardening and heavy usage of weed cloth to see if that helps this year.
I do similar, but I leave layers of leaves all over during winter. Makes it very easy to remove any new young weeds in the spring after removing the 🍃 🍁.
We dug up the Bermuda grass in our yard to put in an above ground pool, when we lived in So. California.. We put down thick black liner just before setting up the pool with the thickest pool liner they make. Two to three weeks after the pool was filled, my son comes up out of the pool and says, "Hey, Mom! Grass is growing through the bottom of the pool!" We had to drain the pool, do more digging, and put down hard black plastic ... not sheeting, before buying a new liner and setting the pool up again. That stuff is Devil grass and almost impossible to keep out of flower beds and unwanted areas.
Straight White vinegar before sheet mulching and chipping will kill bermuda as well. I don't wet the cardboard to allow the vinegar at full strength to stunt the growth. Dig an edge with a half moon edger so you can maintain a division. Vinegar is not the best for microorganisms but it's definitely a lot better than glyphosate.
I did a combination of sheet mulching and double digging. So I will double dig a spot and instead of getting rid of the sod completely I’ll flip it green side down into the very bottom of my trench. That all gets covered up with soil and then on top of that I lay down a layer of cardboard, I don’t have access to all that mulch. And then on top of that I’ll put down my compost or my garden soil. There are usually two or 3 inches around the planting area, So that even if weeds are trying to get in I’ve got some time before they get my actual garden bed. Doing all that has kept the weeds from growing up in the middle of the bed and just kept them safely at the perimeter. Plus with Bermuda grass I feel no shame in cutting it down as low as possible. After that it’s no till all the way and I will just chop and drop whatever happens to be in the bed as long as it doesn’t have any seeds on it.
Hi Kevin, I’ve had aweful bindweed, ivy, dandelion and thick, tuber weeds to deal with. I’ve used Charles Dowding’s approach: layers of cardboard and wood chip. In addition, a solution of white vinegar, sea salt and some dish soap, mixed well and sprayed on to bindweed, ivy and stubborn weed tubers in dry, sunny weather worked well. Great video!
I got rid of an area of bermuda grass last year by putting clear plastic on top of it and letting the sun scorch it for about a month. Yes, I did harm the soil life underneath, but it was an area I planned to use with raised beds, so I added life back in. I also put a 10 inch. deep barrier around the area because bermuda does find ways in, covered everything with a layer of cardboard, just to ensure any seeds, leftover rhizomes wouldn't have a chance to see the light, and put my raised beds on top with mulch around them for walkways. Heading into year 2 and haven't seen any sign of bermuda in my beds, so I'm hopeful this worked.
I installed a deep barrier to exclude my Bermuda grass. I sort of cheated to get rid of the grass in my garden. I put on a waterproof glove and then I put on a cotton glove over that. Then I dipped my thumb and index finger into properly diluted Roundup and wet the Bermuda runners and NOTING ELSE. I just used a tiny fraction of what would've been used by spraying but did get exceptional coverage on the grass without contaminating the soil and avoided overspray altogether. As bad as Bermuda is, it doesn't even hold a candle to bamboo. I use a propane torch on the less invasive weeds. It really helps to have deep, loose soil. I took care of a neighbor's garden as a kid. I tried getting rid of nutsedge by tilling it. It came back 20 times worse.
Hello from Brazil. That looks a lot like grass that we use here in lawns. It can creep into a lot of undesired places, like all the way up into a pot on the ground. What I do is dig it out with the roots, but when the soil is hard and dry, like you showed, I try to wet it up so its easier to dig. Turn it almost into mud. Ando don’t go pulling it out all at once. Try to see if you can follow the shoots to take them all out.
Put a black or whatever color tarp down under the mulch & or under your grow bags, even under your raised beds or the grass will try to penetrate through the holes in your planer pots seeking the water. Do this in the sections of your yard that will be last to plant & smother those weeds for at least a few months. Then when you go to remove the mulch from the top of the soil mulch won't be tangled in the grass and the yellow roots of the Bermuda grass easier to expose to remove. I have used the tarp method on grasses and bindweed. But with bindweed that can grow in and through deep mulch, every root must be removed or it will return to choke plants & even trees :-o.
Kevin, the crappy lawn we have on our curb got infested by Bermuda. Probably also has so much thatch that there's just no way to save the lawn. You had me in the opening shot.
This is my arch enemy. The only thing I've done that works is cardboard with a heavy layer of compost or mulch. If you're in a temperate climate do it in the fall
My plan this year is to completely dig up my 8+ year old bulb garden (an 8'x4' bed) and redo it from scratch. Between Bermuda grass and dollar weed, I'm amazed I get any flowers at all!
In Australia it is called couch grass. (pronounced cooch) Also known by gardeners as devil grass. Dad always said that you could put a 10 foot barrier down & it will still come up the other side.
Newspaper, then cardboard, then compost and mulch\woodchip is what I do, but eventually the Bermuda grass comes back from any roots left in ground. It seriously slows it down though.
i would put a 3 layer cardboard evrywhere over the whole property at ones, then over it the mulch. When u want a new gardenbed, scratch the mulch aside, one layer cardboard again, then the 6 inch compost and on the path between again havy mulch. With only mulch, the gras comes back like in the video.
If you are watching from Australia, we call it couch grass, and it's a pain in the behind! I prefer Blue Couch for my lawn, and it's a little easier to get it out. The best time to remove it seems to be after a good amount of rain, when the soil is moist.
I have a mixture of Bermuda and st augustine grasses, and they are the worst! I’m getting rid of them by smothering them with cardboard covered by a layer of wood chip mulch. It’s working well so far, but that stuff is very resilient and persistent. I can see why people who want lawns like it so much.
That soil looks great composted under your mulch pile. I tried the natural industrial strength vinegar with salt etc as a foliar spray but it is not effective considering large yard requirements. Also in doing so consider salt and vinegar penetrating soil is no good for plants wanting to keep in that same soil.
I have this along with some similar types of grass here in aus, they are a bitch to dig up. I have been clearing grass in sections of my yard with the pitch fork etc. I have another patch covered with tarps and cardboard to kill it off before i dig more up. Then i intend to try and create some kind of barrier or even a ditch around the beds so i can grab it before it makes its way into the vege patch. Until i cut down my trees and have them mulched.
@@ilenastarbreeze4978 i don't own the property so i was probably going to go with rocks, if i owned the place all the grass would be coming up and i would be completely re landscapes
When I took a horticulture class the instructor said that when he and his team ran across some bermuda they wanted to know how deep the roots went and they learned it went down 25 feet. It takes a long time to clear the roots so the grass doesn't come back. Even when they thought it was clear it would come back in a few years. They finally got it out after years.
I battled Bermuda grass for years in our backyard. Finally resorted to hand digging and pulling every single root, all the way down as far as they went. And as soon as the slightest hint of green broke the soil surface, I knew where I still had work to do. I dug out every last rhizome and am finally free of it completely. But it took several months of watching it like a hawk. If you don't take it seriously, you'll never be rid of it. Mulching will not do the trick unfortunately.
funny, that is what I am actually doing. Been about a week tackling bit by bit.
... well maybe 24” will do 😏 ... but you’re right, I’ve had 10” on top and damn grass will still find a way to the top 🥴
The area i'm working I actually removed as much as i could by hand and then tilled it really well early on and let it sit long enough for the shoots to come back up but because the ground was still loose i was able to go through and pull anything green out and the whole plant would come out clean. i did that last year and havent seen any since thank god.
That's what I've been doing... Such a process but it will be worth it in the end. Unfortunately the wood chips did not work for me last year, but I do agree it made them weaker.
Yep, I ended up digging it out as well!
I was told Muscovy Ducks work wonders! We have Quack Grass everywhere and a local farmer told me that her garden was constantly overrun by the stuff, but then noticed her Muscovy ducks would come in and root up and eat all the little shoots in a freshly tilled plot, and now she has an almost weed-free plot.
Oh no way!
Ducks also love eating slugs.
Ducks do an excellent job of keeping grass out of strawberry beds, too! They don't eat the strawberry plants, but they pull the grass out of between them.
@@epicgardening Yes way, lol!
Just Muscovy's? We have runner ducks with access to the area around but not in the garden. They are a big help with grasshoppers. Maybe I'll till an area in their pen and see what they do.
My take(as a professional working at a nursery) on managing weeds:
Fighting weeds with mulching is possible, but it takes a lot of material and a long time, also you are not getting rid of them you are just pausing them.
For a few weeds with very resilient and deep roots, there is no other ecological method then digging them out completly, for most weeds though there are other ways to manage them.
Something that works quite well especially on small farms and gardens, is using chickens intensivly on the future garden space, this will get rid of most weeds, seeds, pests and prepare the soil to some degree. Another method is to rake them up whenever they start to regrow until the roots have spent all their energy and die, but it is extremly important to never miss even a day while doing this, otherwise the roots will regain energy from the new leaves via photosynthesis. My favortie methode is the thermal method and i don´t mean the typical "buring weeds with a torch", what i am referring to is infra red treatment, basically you are heating the weeds to 60-70 C° (140-160F) for at least a few seconds so that the plant stays intact but the proteins in the cells disintergrate, with this method you can get rid of most weeds permanently after using it a few times, if you have rooftop solar and use all your execess energy from the mid day sun, you can do this in a fully ecological way too.
After using one of these methods you should also use a false seed bed, were you make all the remaining weed seeds germinate and then imitiatly kill them when they are seedlings, after that you should make surre to not let weeds bloom next to your beds and establish a barrier between your beds and any grass fields/weedy areas that might make seeds, then you can mulch your beds (with seed free mulch!) and you will spent about no time weeding anymore for the next years.
I dont believe in psychics...but it's been 4 times now that Kevin uploads a video the same day I'm asking myself questions. I just came from 2 hours of weeding.
I'm always watching
You reminded me of when you dream of a person that you haven’t seen in years and all of a sudden you see them.
Eva, you'll have to schedule your work load to begin one day later than originally planned.
I did the cardboard, compost with edging. It helps tons. Then for later weeding, I will dig down a bit around the rooted part with my fingers to loosen and get a better grip on the roots and slowly pull and follow along with the rhizome to get the most out. It isn’t perfect, but it helps to leave a little less to grow for next time.
I also live in SoCal and my neighbor has bermuda grass, he told me when it tries to creep into parts of his yard where it is not welcome he sprays it with his own organic diy weed killer. It's made up of vinegar, organic castile soap, and himilayan pink salt (you can google the proportions). Wait for a really sunny day and you have to be careful not to spray on your own plants as they will also dry up and die.
Yes that can work!,
So fancy, I just use the gallon of vinegar, squirt couple squirts of dawn dish soap and a cup of regular salt. Why are you wasting Himalayan salt 😆
@@For_Cruyff_Sake I think the reasoning behind using castile soap and himilayan salt is for the added benefits. Castile soap is non toxic, natural and helps repel pests, himilayan salt is full of minerals that other plants can use later on. Plus I think he only uses a tbsp of each per spray bottle of vinegar so its really only like a 25 cent difference in price. If you have a lot of weeds then I can see how it would be less cost efficient but as a home gardener with a small space, a few cents is really negligible since you only ever have to treat small areas and 50 cents for a bunch of weed killer is pretty cheap.
That sounds like what we use on blackberries except with orange oil instead of the salt. Salt stays in the soil so I would avoid it.
Do you know if they used regular white vinegar from the grocery or the concetrated kind from a home & garden store?
i like using a pitchfork for weeds. it leaves most of the root intact and just loosens the soil so its easier to pull the whole weed in one shot
This is what works for me too.
I have bermuda grass in our yard and it literally never dies no matter how much I neglect it so it is nice sometimes!
🤣🤣 so true.
Indeed ,it is an effortless lawn , grows slow ,needs less water
I have a mix of Burmuda grass in my yard. It is not so bad. However, I accidentally brought in a small tuff in a rose. It was a way more aggressive strain. Worst mistake ever.
You totally inspired me to get outside and work on removing the ivy the previous owner put in. I removed quite a bit last year from the back yard. This year I'm tackling the front yard. I think the original plan was erosion control because property borders on a seasonal creek. But it is working on world domination.
I LOATHE Bermuda grass! I think that’s what the builder of my house used on my yard 20 years ago. I have tried everything to get rid of it for the 10 years I’ve been here. One year I pulled up every bit of it from the root, in my front yard. It was so satisfying but my yard was filled with ugly holes for several weeks. I put down fresh grass seed and that helped for a season. But the next year the Bermuda was back. I finally gave up fighting it in the front yard. At least my backyard “farm” looks pretty! My front yard is just one giant weed, lol!
The war against the weeds... imagine that bermuda grass with thorns, welcome to central Portugal.
Sounds horrible!
In SC we have a weed- I forget the name but some kind of nettle...Bermuda and thorns basically... risomes, tubers...ugh!
That’s kind of how blackberries grow here in the Pacific Northwest. Brambles.
That sounds challenging
I think I've come across that one in Spain before, while walking barefoot. Not a pleasant experience
People actually had to carry me to a place without them because they are that bad
I once made the mistake of tilling up a Yucca plant where I was making a new garden. Every little piece of root that was chopped up by the tiller grew a new plant, and I had hundreds of Yucca plants all over the garden.
Whatttt. Getting rid of a yucca plant, man was this comment good timing.
I dug up several yucca plants successfully years ago. It took literally clearing out a 3 cubic feet (!) of dirt per plant, then sifting the dirt through an old screen door to pull out all the tubers. Some were the size of my fingernail.
😂😂😂🤣🤣
Just spent all Sunday morning in my flower bed trying to dig up the dang Bermuda grass! It’s going to outlive me I’m afraid🤣
There are 3 main types of weed in my garden, goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria), dandelion and wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). I use the mulch or cardboard on the goutweed and dandelion, only 2-3 inches of mulch and weed out/pick anything that penetrates the mulch. I dig up the strawberries and put them in a pot. Looking forward to lots of tiny strawberries this summer! Goutweed and dandelion can be used in salads and the dandelion root can be put in alcohol to make a schnaps.
Dandelion is edible.
Look up health benefits of Dandelion. Instead of falling for ChemLawn’s touting it as a weed. Think of them as wildflowers, that even gourmet foodies sell as Premium Salads.
Lucky weeds to have
Will it attracts termites using wet cardboard?
I did the cardboard method. single layer then 4 inches of compost for the bed and 2 layers and 2 inches mulch chips for walkways and it really work.
Please do a video about gardening tools and video about seed of the month - where you suggest the best seed to grow for the coming month.
EDIT : I just now noticed that you already did a video about gardening tools a month back. I must have somehow missed it. You have a great channel Kevin .
I expect that in California flame weeding is out of the question,but here in Alberta Canada we can use that method as 1 layer of attack. What I’ve personally found effective in my garden is (as you’ve shown) the cardboard,thick mulch method. I’ve also used tarps to starve out weedy areas. It’s very effective,however,one must leave the tarps in place for a relatively long period of time to really ensure that the plants underneath are fully killed. Even after using tarps,the possibility that seeds have survived is likely,so not disturbing the soil is important and maybe favours a layered garden,or no dig style.
Flame weeding is possible in small doses!
I've been using the Charles Dowding approach with cardboard, compost, and woodchips in my front yard where the Bermuda and weeds are crazy. It's made a huge difference, but you made an important point about the depth of mulch, because I used less and the Bermuda is trying to take over again along with other weeds. Definitely will have to cover my walkways as well, this grass is crazy stubborn. Great video as always Kevin!
Yup less than two feet and it comes through, it's crazy
i converted part of a lawn into a garden bed by flipping the grass and weeds roots up, then covering it with composted manure and branches and topping that of with garden soil.
everything grew quite well on it.
Here in Australia, I use something similar to Bermuda grass as my lawn. It's called Couch grass so I'm not sure if it's exactly the same but it look absolutely amazing when it's fully established, mowed and properly looked after. Needs very little maintenance and suppresses all other weeds. Exactly what you want for a lawn.
Insta-liking cuz I literally spent an hour fighting with bermuda this morning. A TUG OF WAR I LOSE ANNUALLY.
Lol "annually"
@@fignewton0000 Ohhhkayy, lol. Perhaps not the most accurate term-- not like one day a year I battle bermuda, then throw up my hands and say "FINE. THIS YARD IS YOURS." (shakes fist)
Hi Kevin,. weeds are nasty but i use the weeds i collected to feed my egg laying chickens. they love it . im also trying the no dig method this year..cheers from UK
Living in S Texas, Bermuda is very common as it more tolerant to the S.Texas heat and minimal rain we get, which is required for turf grasses like St Augustine. I'm trying something different, I'm trying brown Kraft paper made from recycled paper products, using a # 40 weight paper 36" wide and the 720' roll is around $20 found online. At that price you can run it one way and then across the first layer on a bias. A layer should last a year; I saw an ad in a garden and seed catalog listed as brown mulch paper and found it sounds a lot like Brown Kraft Paper. I’ve made some beds using Mr Dowding's cardboard method but making larger beds requires hauling around more cardboard, so I'm trying a combo of the paper and cardboard on smaller beds first for a longer effect and not having to mulch a foot deep to get the Bermuda to surrender sooner in the cultivated beds. If it works well I'll keep you posted!
The battle of the weeds ain't no joke. You got to take the good with the bad when it comes to gardening I've learned. Great tips as always. 👍🌱😀🌻🌼
really helpful video bro
I put in my first garden this past fall. Raised beds, 10 inches of soil, cardboard layer underneath. I’ve seen Bermuda in one of the beds twice. I dig down as far as I can without disturbing my greens and pull out as much of the root as I can. It’s working so far but summer is coming.
the word of the day is “unbeknownst”
The word of the day is "Persnickety"
Good for you, Max.
I often use "Wheelbarrow words" (those that are often of several syllables more than some people are used to) and am pleased when I find that there are people who reach for their dictionaries to learn what the word means. Far from being "Persnickety", it helps to increase one's vocabulary.
I love that word!
😂
I have a smaller garden at my condo. I use fast food paper bags, cardboard, anything to stop my invaders from getting any sun. No photosynthesis, no weed. I touch up areas with some boiling water. Make some tea, take the extra hot water and spot treat weeds.
BERMUDA GRASS!!! Yes, my neighbors let it run rampant in their yard and it’s grown under into mine 😭 thank you for this video
Checkout ( no-till gardening) layer down thick layers of either newspaper or just use a few sheets of cardboard put your mulch on that in dirt on top of the mulch anything under it dies won't grow through four a couple Seasons at least and then just keep putting on more Mulch & More dirt
We dug and sifted the whole garden. Next year still as much quack grass! This is why we went to raised beds.
I saw some people make weed tea . They would give kids the task to pick out weed and collect it in the bin . After the bin is full ,they would add water and let is sit for a week . The water is later used as fertilizer and the weeds are thrown in compost
I live in the UK and we have bindweed which seems pretty similar - takes over everything!!
Bermuda grass is EVIL! Good luck! Spent lots of my childhood pulling those evil weeds. Happy to report that they have been completely eradicated from my parents yard. It can be done, just have to keep being persistent.
Totally agree...multi year project!
It isn't evil, it just exists. There is no maliciousness there at all.
@@looksirdroids9134 maybe they're more right than they realize.... it's about actually taking them on
My grandfather called it devil grass.
@@kristydoman3434 LOL. My mom said it used to be called that too. Very appropriate.
If I'm preparing a new area, I dig and sift through 1/2" hardware cloth. Lot of work but it gets most of the roots and large rocks
I didn't have such a large area to work with, but when I went to remove the "Traveling-grass" from the flower bed, I just dug it all out and pulled all the glass, grass and garbage out of the dirt before I put it back. South-side of St. Louis, so it was mostly broken glass and shell casings along with the normal amount of rocks and spilled mortar-mix. I 1/2 filled a 5-gallon bucket with just hard materials then composted the grass back into the lawn with the mower. I probably didn't do it right, but I do enjoy getting my hands dirty from time to time.
Daffodils form a rhizome barrier to most grasses. We don’t have burmuda grass here but the grasses we do have are as pernicious. Ringing the beds with daffs makes really pretty in the spring too. They also say “wakey, wakey Gardener, time to get going”!
In Wisconsin we have Crab grass & Quack grass that are gnarly! Especially Quack grass - which looks similar to Bermuda grass
We do raises beds and put down card board after we clear the area. We use raised bed blocks then put the board over the cardboard so it hangs out of the bed about 6 inches, which helps with the "creeper" problem. The only weeds we got last year were ones that floated in on the wind.
So it has a name. I honestly never knew what to call this grass. To protect my raised beds I used a combination of dug in edging, weed/grass killer, then wet cardboard, then landscape fabric, then finally a heavy layer of mulch. So far so good. Number one most invasive weed I've ever dealt with. It's super resilient.
I absolutely love the Charles Dowding method. I skip pulling anything up and just lay 2 layers of cardboard and then compost or mulch on top. Cheap and easy and I love how well it works!
That stuff is wonderful for lawns (thanks for identifying it for me, BTW)! Most lawns would be destroyed by things like cars being parked on them for a month, other things laying on them, getting gouged by stuff, etc. But I've seen that fill in blank spots entirely in a matter of a couple of weeks to, in the worst case, a month and a half.
The problem happens, as you know, when you want something *other than lawn* to exist! That grass is truly relentless, and I can't see a reasonable way to have anything other than a tall raised garden bed anywhere that it has been planted on purpose. This is one of the reasons I've never gotten either Bermuda or St. Augustine sod or plugs here on my FL property. What's great for landlords (who love thick, zero-maintenance lawns) would be a horror for trying to garden through.
I can definitely see the difference where I mulched and where I didn’t. The only problem is weeds creeped on edges where mulch apparently wasn’t laid out well because of concrete. I spent about $100 when mulch was on sale at Lowe’s and was totally worth it to not have to spend as much time pulling weeds.
For me is Kikuya! But same issues. I have pulled out “runners” (I call them zip-lines) that have been 4-5 feet long and as strong as rope. I worked on better barriers this past year that really helped. The main thing I changed was getting rid of weed cloth that was under the pea gravel and stone “mulch”. It was a nightmare trying to pull up those runners only to have the weed cloth come up with it, then I had to tuck it back under the stones every time.
I dont know if it is a widespread thing outside of the west but there is an immigrant family from china in my area and they did this thing where they covered their entire lawn edge to edge in compost then put a tarp over that when the grass poked through the compost they put another layer on then layed the tarp over that again. they basically forced the grass to go through multiple uses of its stored energy without ever letting it get sun and once it stopped popping through they just planted directly into that compost. sorta 2 birds with one stone because at the end their "lawn" was basically a giant garden bed with 6+ inches deep of compost.
Yeah that's a genius move
Your videos are always the best and they are so helpfull thankyou so much. 💛
Glad to hear!
A friend of mine took a mix of walnut skins and leaves and let them compost in a bucket of water. The resulting “tea” is nature’s round up. They sprayed down the future garden area and waited for it to die. Used a stir up hoe to scrape the surface, raked it off, sprayed it again and laid down cardboard followed by a good think layer of compost. First year planted shallow rooted veggies. Second year was able to plant other things with no problem.
Agree, these weeds are crazy 🤦♀️ ! IBut. laughed at 1:57 ‘You’re already kinda screwed’ .🤣..perfectly described it. I don’t know what we have yet though ..got weed barriers.
Fantastic! I try my best to remove as many weeds when preparing new beds, but am a bit weird and I enjoy the ongoing weeding in my veggie garden hahaha. Big love from one fellow green thumb to another from Melbourne, Australia xxxx
Sounds great! Big lovw
Thank you for this video! Great timing as we've moved into a new home (also in SD), and the entire front yard is weeds and about half of the backyard 😫
This is great info but what if it’s in your garden beds already?
Bermuda loves wood chips. I have a pile of wood chips probably 6 feet tall, now with Bermuda growing on the top of it. I also had spread an area in my garden with 18-24” of wood chips , and now 2 years later it is a beautiful thick luscious Bermuda grass lawn.
I line the parameter of my garden with thick, black plastic and top with wood chips, then the cardboard and wood chips within the garden - I only use cardboard in the beginning to kill off the established weeds. They die and I simply replenish the mulch each winter. Works great! But the boarder needs to be maintained. Keep your edges trimmed really short all the time so the Bermuda is too weak to creep under or over the boarder.
My 3 acre yard and surrounding areas are covered with Bermuda grass. I've battled this grass for 20+ years. The best and easiest way is to tarp/cover the area, this will starve and kill the grass. I use 6ft wide commercial weed block. After covering for one season pull up and leave 4to6 foot of weed block border to keep grass out. Make sure you don't shoot grass clippings into area and you will make out just fine. This grass can grow deep under the surface and spread very quickly.Good luck guys.
2:12 look at the fence 😎 that shot looks really awesome
Hi @Epic Gardening... I have fought bermuda grass for years...I took solace in pulling it on a regular basis. I have used thick layers of cardboard, only to have it resurface again. Last fall, I put down some wood shavings maybe 3" inches thick (which I found big bags for free from a hot tub milling site) and it has kept most of the bermuda grass at bay so far. Hope this helps others with the epic bermuda grass battle :)
Use a digging fork rather than a shovel. You can get down under the root and pull more of it up, rather than slicing it with the shovel blade. You can smother it with tarps and/or mulch, but if you ever want to plant in there again, digging into it even a few years down the road can activate again - ask me how I know. Lol. So, it's best to do the hard work of getting rid of it completely.
Great tips Kevin, and Thank you very much for all of your hard work on your Epic videos.
This is all we have in our southern lawn. Well, Bermuda and crabgrass.
Our plot (neglected for many, many years) is always covered in (field) horsetail. It’s horrendous. Super deep roots. But I heard when you just snap the top it dies. And then leave the top as the nutrients are going back into the soil. But it’s a pain in the backside!
Solarization with clear plastic for 4 weeks in hot summer is only way I eradicated bermuda completely. But now it's about regenerating the soil by using those woodchips, compost, fruit trees (for fungal connections), etc.
In the Bay Area (NorCal), our issue is oxalis (aka sour grass). It is a non-native invasive weed that chokes out native plants and spreads in the most insane way. I put down my 15" Birdie beds in our San Francisco backyard last summer with layers of cardboard and mulch at the bottom only to have oxalis start popping up at the surface! I just spent 8 hours sifting the organic soil from one bed to another so I can switch out the 15" Birdies to 30" Birdies. The layers of cardboard are completely intact with just oxalis stems poking through. It is crazy!! Am going to try a bunch of different methods as I install these new beds and lay the old 15" ones in new spots. Came here to look for advice. I will lose my mind if oxalis pops up in the 30" beds. Wish me luck!
Digging out each part by hand is what I had to do and keep doing. Kept at it all growing season and now I'm only fighting the edges where it creates Bermuda highways.
I planted my garden over bermuda grass using cardboard with no pulling, digging or scraping. I just put 6-8" of soil over it and then planted right away. The garden has been great and I have had no problem with the grass growing through. I put cardboard down in the paths between beds and covered with a few inches of wood chips. No problems there either. I did put wood chips over some landscape beds with no cardboard and the bermuda grass just came right through.
I put down cardboard, weed mat and mulch and planted my garden bed through this. Now, 6 months later, the garden bed is more weed grass than plants. The grass found it's way through and has overtaken the bed. I don't know what to do. I'm glad I didn't put expensive plants in because I think I have to abandon the whole project and give into the grass. Here in Australia I think it's called couch grass, but it looks like exactly the same thing. I think the only possible solution is to eliminate all the grass in the area, but my lawn is partly this kind of grass, so it's always going to try and invade any garden beds I make.
Bermuda is the nastiest. You can dig literally for days. And a week later it's back.
Hey Kevin, how are you doing? Are you able to use a weed burner at your home? That's one way to burn off the seeds and then cover it with a thick tarp.
Yup I want a flame weeder!
They are inexpensive. I used one to clear my main garden. Be warned, it will also burn up any potassium in your bed and kill microbes. If you go back and amend and innoculate, your soil will recover quickly.
Are they dangerous? Been thinking of getting one for my dad since he’s always spraying with chemicals, but he’s the type of guy that will probably catch himself on fire.
@@rubyoro0 They can be dangerous if used wrong. You are starting a fire outside. You don't want to use it when it's too windy, you want a light breeze. Be sure to have a water hose close by. Some places require that you call ahead of time to see if you can. And have someone there with you. Stay close by afterward for about 30 minutes.
@@lunatick1969 Oh never mind then.
Mulch is definitely the way to go. I use whatever is handy: cardboard, newspapers, thick plastic bags that I get wood shavings in (not porous but kills the weeds.) I have used the plastic bags to cover stumps that were sprouting. After a couple of years, the shoots are totally gone. Also in my raised beds early in the spring I totally cover it with some kind of mulch to suppress any early bird weeds. I can remove as needed when I plant the veggies.
After battling crab grass in our flower bed for 4 years, I dug out the entire bed- (8-12” deep, depending where in the slope it is). I Laid a mid weight cotton fabric (from the fabric store) edge to edge and up the sides of the brickwork in the bed and had fresh soil brought in- then put 4-6” of mulch. This year, I’m happy to say that I haven’t had to pull but a few weeds, and only along back edge did I have to pull 2 small grab grass newbies. Around the front, I have 8” deep bricks where I pour boiling water along them (on the grass side) to keep the crabgrass from creeping back in. In my prior home, the previous owner planted spearmint- I battled that for 14 years, til I finally gave up, covered the entire bed with salt and covered it with black plastic and then mulch and I kept plants in pots on the mulch for a couple years. It worked and the owner now plants directly in the bed without spearmint. Weeds... UGH!
Halp, I've been pulling grass all day. So glad I came across your video!
I don't garden anymore because of bermuda grass. It completely took over all my gardens. I spent all day every day for months weeding it out, but it grew faster than I could pull it out, until I didn't have a single plot left.
Same thing happened to me. I have other very invasive weeds along w/ bermuda and all of my beds have been completely destroyed. I spent a lot of time and money only to have my work destroyed. I live on old farm land and it was not maintained and I don't have the money to try to fix it. I am going to try a combo of earthboxes, container gardening and heavy usage of weed cloth to see if that helps this year.
I do similar, but I leave layers of leaves all over during winter.
Makes it very easy to remove any new young weeds in the spring after removing the 🍃 🍁.
Don't worry! We all make mistakes. Gardening is a learn by mistakes process.
We dug up the Bermuda grass in our yard to put in an above ground pool, when we lived in So. California.. We put down thick black liner just before setting up the pool with the thickest pool liner they make. Two to three weeks after the pool was filled, my son comes up out of the pool and says, "Hey, Mom! Grass is growing through the bottom of the pool!"
We had to drain the pool, do more digging, and put down hard black plastic ... not sheeting, before buying a new liner and setting the pool up again.
That stuff is Devil grass and almost impossible to keep out of flower beds and unwanted areas.
Wow what a beautiful flower garden
you must sift out all the root sift it through a milk crate and you will be amazed at the harvest.or get geese
Great video. I've used the tarp method, if you have the time it really works. Thanks again!
Straight White vinegar before sheet mulching and chipping will kill bermuda as well. I don't wet the cardboard to allow the vinegar at full strength to stunt the growth. Dig an edge with a half moon edger so you can maintain a division. Vinegar is not the best for microorganisms but it's definitely a lot better than glyphosate.
I did a combination of sheet mulching and double digging. So I will double dig a spot and instead of getting rid of the sod completely I’ll flip it green side down into the very bottom of my trench. That all gets covered up with soil and then on top of that I lay down a layer of cardboard, I don’t have access to all that mulch. And then on top of that I’ll put down my compost or my garden soil. There are usually two or 3 inches around the planting area, So that even if weeds are trying to get in I’ve got some time before they get my actual garden bed. Doing all that has kept the weeds from growing up in the middle of the bed and just kept them safely at the perimeter. Plus with Bermuda grass I feel no shame in cutting it down as low as possible. After that it’s no till all the way and I will just chop and drop whatever happens to be in the bed as long as it doesn’t have any seeds on it.
Really well made video you make everything so clear. Thanks man
Glad it helped!
Hi Kevin, I’ve had aweful bindweed, ivy, dandelion and thick, tuber weeds to deal with. I’ve used Charles Dowding’s approach: layers of cardboard and wood chip. In addition, a solution of white vinegar, sea salt and some dish soap, mixed well and sprayed on to bindweed, ivy and stubborn weed tubers in dry, sunny weather worked well. Great video!
I got rid of an area of bermuda grass last year by putting clear plastic on top of it and letting the sun scorch it for about a month. Yes, I did harm the soil life underneath, but it was an area I planned to use with raised beds, so I added life back in. I also put a 10 inch. deep barrier around the area because bermuda does find ways in, covered everything with a layer of cardboard, just to ensure any seeds, leftover rhizomes wouldn't have a chance to see the light, and put my raised beds on top with mulch around them for walkways. Heading into year 2 and haven't seen any sign of bermuda in my beds, so I'm hopeful this worked.
Yeah! Solarizing is another fantastic way.
I installed a deep barrier to exclude my Bermuda grass. I sort of cheated to get rid of the grass in my garden. I put on a waterproof glove and then I put on a cotton glove over that. Then I dipped my thumb and index finger into properly diluted Roundup and wet the Bermuda runners and NOTING ELSE. I just used a tiny fraction of what would've been used by spraying but did get exceptional coverage on the grass without contaminating the soil and avoided overspray altogether.
As bad as Bermuda is, it doesn't even hold a candle to bamboo.
I use a propane torch on the less invasive weeds. It really helps to have deep, loose soil.
I took care of a neighbor's garden as a kid. I tried getting rid of nutsedge by tilling it. It came back 20 times worse.
Hello from Brazil.
That looks a lot like grass that we use here in lawns. It can creep into a lot of undesired places, like all the way up into a pot on the ground.
What I do is dig it out with the roots, but when the soil is hard and dry, like you showed, I try to wet it up so its easier to dig. Turn it almost into mud. Ando don’t go pulling it out all at once. Try to see if you can follow the shoots to take them all out.
dig a ditch around your garden and put a barrier of grass clippings or rocks to stop it from growing into your garden
Put a black or whatever color tarp down under the mulch & or under your grow bags, even under your raised beds or the grass will try to penetrate through the holes in your planer pots seeking the water. Do this in the sections of your yard that will be last to plant & smother those weeds for at least a few months. Then when you go to remove the mulch from the top of the soil mulch won't be tangled in the grass and the yellow roots of the Bermuda grass easier to expose to remove. I have used the tarp method on grasses and bindweed. But with bindweed that can grow in and through deep mulch, every root must be removed or it will return to choke plants & even trees
:-o.
Kevin, the crappy lawn we have on our curb got infested by Bermuda. Probably also has so much thatch that there's just no way to save the lawn. You had me in the opening shot.
This is my arch enemy. The only thing I've done that works is cardboard with a heavy layer of compost or mulch. If you're in a temperate climate do it in the fall
My plan this year is to completely dig up my 8+ year old bulb garden (an 8'x4' bed) and redo it from scratch. Between Bermuda grass and dollar weed, I'm amazed I get any flowers at all!
Nice video 👍
In Australia it is called couch grass. (pronounced cooch) Also known by gardeners as devil grass. Dad always said that you could put a 10 foot barrier down & it will still come up the other side.
I'm planning to cover one of my tricky areas with with a few layers of newsprint, wet it, and cover it with mulch
Newspaper, then cardboard, then compost and mulch\woodchip is what I do, but eventually the Bermuda grass comes back from any roots left in ground. It seriously slows it down though.
i would put a 3 layer cardboard evrywhere over the whole property at ones, then over it the mulch. When u want a new gardenbed, scratch the mulch aside, one layer cardboard again, then the 6 inch compost and on the path between again havy mulch. With only mulch, the gras comes back like in the video.
You should totally get a drone like Charles Dowding. I would love to see your property the way he shows Homeacres.
If you only want the occasional drone image, it may be better to get someone else to do it.
On the list!
If you are watching from Australia, we call it couch grass, and it's a pain in the behind! I prefer Blue Couch for my lawn, and it's a little easier to get it out. The best time to remove it seems to be after a good amount of rain, when the soil is moist.
I have a mixture of Bermuda and st augustine grasses, and they are the worst! I’m getting rid of them by smothering them with cardboard covered by a layer of wood chip mulch. It’s working well so far, but that stuff is very resilient and persistent. I can see why people who want lawns like it so much.
try using a garden claw hammer when digging-up those roots 🤔 ... you’ll get a deeper penetration especially in a clay soil 🤠
That soil looks great composted under your mulch pile. I tried the natural industrial strength vinegar with salt etc as a foliar spray but it is not effective considering large yard requirements. Also in doing so consider salt and vinegar penetrating soil is no good for plants wanting to keep in that same soil.
I have this along with some similar types of grass here in aus, they are a bitch to dig up. I have been clearing grass in sections of my yard with the pitch fork etc. I have another patch covered with tarps and cardboard to kill it off before i dig more up. Then i intend to try and create some kind of barrier or even a ditch around the beds so i can grab it before it makes its way into the vege patch. Until i cut down my trees and have them mulched.
maybe digging down a trench and putting concrete or something theyu cant grow through down that way they cant cross even by going under?
@@ilenastarbreeze4978 i don't own the property so i was probably going to go with rocks, if i owned the place all the grass would be coming up and i would be completely re landscapes
@@MatthewSherriff85 ah makes sense!
Line your parameter with thick black plastic and top with mulch to hide it. Keep the grass trimmed really short around that. Works great!!
@@ArmindaHeart thanks for the tip, i am fairly new to it and still trying to figure everything out