Dear Ruth,
I have Bermuda grass in my yard and it is getting into my garden beds. NOTHING I have tried has worked to get rid of it. What do you suggest?.
Thanks,
Joan — Flat Rock, NC
Dear Joan,
This question is close to my heart. I bought a house a couple of years ago, and the yard is filled—FILLED—with Bermuda grass that the former owner must have purposely seeded into the lawn. For me, Bermuda grass presents a mind-boggling obstacle to pleasurable gardening. Bermuda grass laughs at your thorough weeding job and respects no boundaries. It quickly and ceaselessly overtakes your garden beds without any regard for your prospective harvest. Once you have planted, it is nearly impossible to weed it out without destroying your veggies and flowers.
Although Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) is considered an excellent pasture grass, it is a gardener’s nightmare. This highly invasive grass originated in the eastern hemisphere, was once promoted by the USDA as a high-value forage crop and lawngrass, and is now prevalent in the southeastern and southwestern USA. Bermuda grass is also called wiregrass, couch grass, and devil’s grass (very appropriate nickname!) It reproduces in three ways—by seed, by above-ground vine-like shoots (stolons), and by below-ground shoots (rhizomes). Seeds remain viable in the ground for a couple of years. It is extremely difficult to kill even with multiple applications of strong herbicides.
Gardener Alert
Adjectives in my research described Bermuda grass as evil and tenacious with roots that “go to China.” Texas garden designer Liz Klein likened it to “tiny running bamboo.” It is very devious and sneaks its way into your yard by growing in difficult-to-reach spots—alongside the foundation of your house, mixed into the iris bulbs, and along rock borders. It rebounds at an astonishing rate, and grows straight across your paved driveway without missing a beat.
I have re-weeded areas multiple times, digging down as deep as I could looking for rhizomes, and the grass returned and spread like wildfire, even growing vertically into small shrubs. I have edged my driveway to find 3-foot-long stolons leaping across the pavement 30 days later.
Best Solution
Prevent the grass from achieving photosynthesis by covering it with a barrier. Plain mulch is not adequate to suppress Bermuda grass. In my yard, I used sheet mulching effectively with the long-term plan of doing my entire yard over time.
MATERIALS NEEDED
- Compost
- Cardboard
- Sod Staples
- Mulch
STEPS
- Mow or (better yet) weed-eat the grass area as low as possible, ideally to the ground. Then rake up and remove any grass/rhizomes/stolons.
- Lay down a half-inch layer of compost over the entire area. This will stimulate biological activity.
- Flatten cardboard boxes and leave them together so they will be two layers thick. Appliance boxes are ideal.
- Lay cardboard over the entire area, overlapping box edges at least 6 inches so there is no place for grass to grow through.
- Secure cardboard with a generous number of Sod Staples to help prevent grass penetration.
- Thoroughly wet cardboard all the way through—this is important.
- Cover area with 3 inches of mulch.
- Do NOT allow Bermuda grass to grow on top of mulch. Weed-eat it back.
- Do NOT cut holes in cardboard for planting as that will be a spot that the Bermuda grass could take hold.
- If a seedling pops up weed it out quickly.
- Allow 4–6 months or more before disturbing the area.
- In already planted areas, consider removing the existing plants to a temporary bed during this process. Otherwise it is likely that Bermuda grass will thrive at the base of the existing plants and re-invade your garden bed.
Other Thoughts
- Be extremely vigilant. Learn what Bermuda grass looks like, and do not import any plant material into your yard that contains even a hint of Bermuda grass. It’s not worth it.
- Edge and weed-eat regularly to keep the Bermuda grass confined to the lawn and OUT of your garden beds. If the grass is not yet in your beds, this can be a very effective remedy if done religiously.
- Do not rototill the area. You will break the rhizomes up into small pieces that will create more plants.
- One application of RoundUp (or other herbicide) + ground cloth is not considered a viable long-term solution. Vinegar-based sprays and organic herbicides like BurnOut may temporarily suppress Bermuda grass.
- If you already have Bermuda grass, be aware that eradication is an ongoing and probably a multi-year challenge (Matt Martin, using a very strong herbicide, considered it a 3–4 year endeavor).
- YouTube gardener EcoTechnify found old carpet very useful for suppressing Bermuda grass. He lifted the edges twice a year to keep the grass from growing over the top.
- During the heat of summer when the grass is most actively growing, solarize the area using UV clear plastic adding 2 feet to the area on all sides for good measure. Allow 6 weeks to work.
- When digging out Bermuda grass rhizomes, gardener David Stillwell put the soil through a screen to capture smaller rhizomes.
- Do NOT add any part of Bermuda grass to your compost pile or leave it in your yard. It needs zero encouragement to re-take your yard.
- Manures should be composted to the proper heat to kill any Bermuda grass seeds before applying to your garden.
- Check out University of California’s Integrated Pest Management Information.
Readers, if you have a solution that has proved effective for a minimum of one year, please share! And Joan, I sincerely wish you great success with this job.
Thanks for writing,
Ruth
Ask Ruth © 2018 Ruth Gonzalez & Organic Growers School
Author: Ruth Gonzalez
Ruth Gonzalez is a former market farmer, gardener, and local food advocate who wants to see organic farms proliferate and organic gardens in every yard. She also served on the Organic Growers School Board of Directors. In her job at Reems Creek Nursery, Ruth offers advice on all sorts of gardening questions, and benefits daily from the wisdom of local gardeners.
When I moved to my place 12 years ago one of my neighbors told me that my place had been worked hard by a previous owner…. lots of inputs and lots of yield. He said, “ only problem is that girl, you have yourself some Bermuda”. After years of regeneration, I still have some Bermuda… major amounts. All that weeding, all that digging, all that burning, all that feeding to goats…. has not seemed to make much of an overall dent. The only beat back that I have found is to do the heavy cardboard layers that extend beyond the perimeters of a planned raised bed, build the raised bed, fill with soil that has been made in the compost/chicken yard, mulch HEAVILY around the perimeter of the bed…extending over the layer of cardboard and then pull all the runners that seem to “come up for air” around the cardboard. Any plantings that are out in the open and not in beds are just frequently weeded with the abandonment of any idea of ultimate completion of the task. I have heard of and plan to try at some point the concept of digging a 6 inch wide trench around landscape beds and filling the trench with gravel. Then, plant within the trenched area. Has anyone tried this? Best of luck to us all. On a positive note, the rhizomes seem to make a very effective treatment for kidney stones when dried and made in to tea.
Ruth, great article, I recognize your passion on this subject.
I’ve spent more of my energies fighting another garden invader, mugwort, but I have Bermuda grass in the lawn and am engaged in an ongoing battle at the borders. I actually find it emotionally therapeutic when I’m stressed out to dig Bermuda grass roots after rain and the ground has been softened so I can go deep. When I wish to convert another patch of lawn to garden, I’ve had success overlapping, by a foot or so, large scraps of metal roofing remaining from my last roof job some years ago, leaving them in place 3-6 months, held in place by stones. It is important not to walk on them when it rains, as they get very slippery, and the edges are crazy sharp and must be handled with tough gloves. I’m also careful to anchor them down sufficiently during and between uses to keep them from blowing in big winds.
On a farm scale till or disc multiple times in spring over a one month period preferably during a drought or period of little rain when the bermudagrass normally emerges. Final tillage should be shallow and done as soon as the soil is barely dry enough to do the tillage after a rain. Then plant a cover crop of sudex and cowpeas into moisture at a high rate. Mow the cover crop to 12” every time it reaches 4’ all through summer. Mow to ground in September then till and plant a winter cover crop of ryegrass. Bermudagrass should be gone the next year.
Hi Shawn! Love the idea. It is hard to imagine a cover crop of any kind out-competing Bermuda grass. May I inquire whether you yourself have accomplished this successfully on property you have lived on for at least 2 1/2 to 3 years after the “treatment”? Bermuda grass seeds are viable for 2 years in the ground. Also curious about the amount of Bermuda grass you were dealing with. Was it pasture planted in Bermuda grass?
Hi Ellen! I like the idea of using metal roofing. That should have similar results as the cardboard or the carpet.
I love that you find weeding Bermuda grass therapeutic. I wish I could have that attitude. For me it is the opposite of therapeutic. At the beginning I thought my thorough weeding job was sufficient. Nope. Just a temporary setback for mean ole Bermuda grass! It is in every part of my yard, and after re-weeding the same area multiple times without any permanent result, it puts a serious damper on my gardening plans.
Hi Alisa! I feel your pain since I am in a similar situation. As far as the gravel barrier, I suspect the Bermuda grass will grow right through the gravel – just as easily as it grows halfway across my concrete driveway. And the gravel will just make it harder to weed out because you can’t dig through gravel. Maybe you should give the carpet idea a try…here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSYB7XOthk
Key thoughts: Bermuda grass doesn’t like shade, it likes sunshine. So anything we can do to create shade ie. cardboard, carpet, Ellen’s metal roofing (see below) should be somewhat helpful. And I think you would have to raise the carpet every 1-2 weeks to keep the Bermuda grass from jumping across the carpet (not twice a season like he mentions in the video).
Did the cover crop work?
Would love to know as we have bought a house to rennovate where the “garden” is really three acreas of rough land and forgotten beds that has been left for decades. It is along a woodland edge (also ours), with farmland/ sheep either side. The garden/grassland has only ever been mown, (so no beds beds now…you can just find stones where a couple of flower beds once were). The scale means we often let some areas of grass grow to about six inches to a foot. The land is uneven, some sloping, bramble, lots of couch grass,creeping buttercup, loads of dock, thistle etc. (Also just to make life difficult some lovely primroses!) We would like to cultivate it/ design a garden, make some flower beds, veg and fuit gardn, but don’t feel we can start until we get rid of the field weeds. …they are so strong and fast growing, they would quickly gobble up anything we put in. Would a cover crop be a good way to start when working on this scale? Would you recommend pesticides….ie is it possible to do this organically? Any tips would be wonderful:-) We also get deer and ticks….so would like to dissuade those as well. Prepared to take the long, patient road if one day I can have a garden free of these pesky bullies!
Hi Liz,
I have not personally tried cover-cropping as a way to squeeze out Bermuda grass (couch grass), but my gut instinct is that cover cropping by itself would not be successful (if others have accomplished this successfully, please speak up!). Bermuda grass is stronger than most cover crops and that is why one of its nicknames is Devil Grass. I think cover-cropping would be successful in areas that do not have Bermuda grass.
I would re-read the ideas in the above article and make an action plan to retake a small area of your property. Leave sheet mulch or carpet down 4-6 months minimum and confirm with your eyes whether the Bermuda grass is dead before planting anything, I like the idea of using carpet as a more “permanent” barrier around the border of the new garden area – even though it is ugly. Keep the surrounding area mowed and all weeds cut back before they set seed. Weed-eating the perimeter of your area weekly would be extremely helpful in keeping the Bermuda grass outside your potential garden area. Herbicide usage is addressed in the article, and some herbicides are even stronger than Roundup. Even with herbicides, it is still tough to kill Bermuda grass. I personally have not had the heart to use Roundup. Regular mowing will help reduce tick habitat. Deer prevention usually requires a really good fence (goggle deer fencing), but there are some OMRI-Approved Deer Repellents like DeFence(TM) by Havahart and Plantskydd(R) Repellent that some gardeners find successful. Start small and do well maintaining that area before enlarging your garden area. Best of luck! – Ruth
Thanks Ruth, much appreciated. I will have to put a local small ad up for old carpets:-)
I honestly feel that only a 8 week period of dolarization with 2 mm Uv clear plastic will eradicate the devil grass in my garden area. So I am doing that now between my raised beds and a 2 foot area all around. There will be no tilling just a good a good taking and cardboard layer down for new additional garden beds going in fall of 2018. But once solarized wondering if I can put down 20 year premium landscaped barrier fabric and landscape timbers and about 4 inches of pea gravel in between and around beds with landscape timbers holding it in, or will it be a constant spray kill scenario?
I’m in Phoenix. I started my solarization with 2mm clear in June, an left it 3 months through the end of August. Plastic over the edges of the raise beds, draped down to the ground, held in place with logs & stones. Bermuda started to sprout again almost immediately after I removed the plastic and watered the soil. I’m thinking maybe next summer I’ll dig out a hollow in the middle of the garden beds, pack with dead wood and start a bonfire.
I want to plant an herb garden in an area of my mother in laws back yard in Phoenix as-it’s currently covered in long grass and Bermuda grass. Do I need to wait the 6 months before I start actually topping it with soil and planting? If I wait too long to weed it’ll be too hot for outside work and if I wait too long to seed, it’ll be too hot for the new plants to grow? Am I looking at a longer plan than I thought? Originally I was hoping to start planting in late winter/early spring. Any suggestions? Thanks for the great article!
Cardboard and mulch is effective….. temporarily. As soon The cardboard has completely decomposed Bermuda will start creeping in from the borders again. Ugh! I hate Bermuda!!!!
The only thing I have found that is effective is to first create a barrier. Dig a trench 2 feet deep around your garden area, fill it with concrete and pour a 3 foot sidewalk around that. This creates an effective barrier against Bermuda as long as you weed eat the sidewalk. We are doing this for a vegetable garden area. For a smaller flower bed you can also dig a trench, and build up a wall 6 inches on top of the trench. This can be a concrete wall, brick and mortar or limestone and mortar. You must use mortar, or Bermuda will sneak through the cracks if you don’t. You still need to weed eat religiously because the Bermuda quickly climbs over the 6 inches, but this has proven to be effective for several years.
I know, I know, it sounds like a lot of work and it is expensive, but i have tried everything. This it is the ONLY long-term solution if you have Bermuda on your property.
Great post. As we are planning to lay our new turf in our backyard, our turf supplier recommends Sapphire Buffalo grass for our yard which is best to grow in both shade and sunlight with less maintenance, I prefer Sapphire Buffalo turf. Here I got ideas of Bermuda turf to use for the various purpose and soil types. Thanks for Sharing.
I happened upon this article in an effort to make sure this stuff never comes back!!! We just sod cut our entire front yard because it was so choked with bermuda grass (in Northern Utah where it’s considered an invasive weed). It was so bad in parts that it actually choked out the sod cutter, which was at full depth. Now, I’m working on the edges and tearing anything else up before we go back to laying down fresh sod and planting flowers around the edge of our property.
Thanks for the this advice!
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading what everyone has been saying about getting rid if couch grass, or Bermuda grass as you call it over here. I was brought up in UK where I learnt much of what I know about gardening, and couch grass was always a potential bugbear over there. However, as far as I know it was never planted in lawns deliberately so I am appalled to learn that that happens here in California. I don’t have the luxury of having my own garden nowadays, but in between travels I do have the pleasure of helping my son with his garden – unfortunately he hasn’t totally inherited his Dad’s enthusiasm for gardening and would rather be out surfing or on the beach with the my grandkids. My initial project was to help build a couple of raised beds for vegetables and our first effort was a disaster – the couch grass just laughed at the cardboard mat we placed under the beds . So this year I have deep dug the complete area tearing out every scrap of couch grass and sieving as much of the soil as possible to remove all traces of the rhizomes, rebuilt the raised beds with an inner lining of that black cloth that allows moisture in but supposedly will keep weeds out – we’ll see if that works next year! I also created a wooden border along the edge of the nearby lawn and am pleased to see that the couch grass doesn’t seem to want to go under it and only wants to send out those damned tendrils over it which, if I catch them quick enough, are fairly easy to nip off before they take hold on the other side. So now that I also have been given the keys to the lawn mower (!!) I am continuing the fight into the rest of the garden. The coronavirus pandemic has prevented travel and given me more time in the garden this year, so there are some benefits from it I guess!!
Cardboard and mulch – my bermuda grass seems to like the extra ‘fertilizer’ – it grows under, over, and through it.
One thing that has been effective: I installed two rain gardens. Dug out the top layer of soil completely and removed it to a different area. The rain garden hasn’t seemed to have the problem with bermuda since, except along the very edges. But I don’t think it was the digging. I think it was the extreme moisture. I’ve found some things that sort of look like rotted bermuda rhizomes at times. So… can you drown bermuda? If so, I’d gladly flood the whole yard one section at a time.
I’ve read all the articles on this page and have come to the conclusion that you can’t kill Bermuda grass period. I have it all over my lawn and coming through the cracks everywhere. It’s coming out of the ground from under my Koi pond, though I had to admit it took about 20 years to do so. Now though it is staying with a vengeance. For my yard about 20+ years ago I dug a 2 foot deep swimming pool filled it with about 4″ of lye than filled it with a lot of sterilized soil, rolled it and laid sod. That lasted a good 10-15 years. But it is all back with a vengeance again. So just started to cultivate it as lawn and keep stimming it every week. I’m seriously thinking of about a 20-30% solution of sulphuric or hydrochloric acid. Maybe not. Thinking of selling and moving to where it does not grow. I don’t remember ever seeing it in Australia. Paspalem was the worst we had a sticky, tall, grass, weed, that stuck to your socks, shoes, pants, etc. That may be the best place to go for now. It’s ,moments like these you need Mintees.
Glad you enjoyed Richie!
Thanks for sharing your experience, and good luck! I think maybe of us would agree that the coronavirus has allowed for more time in the garden!
I’m really devastated to hear all this. Ive been cultivating a native lawn-mimosa grass and due to family changes I becamw reaponaible for mowing, let it slide and the nezt time I tried to keep after it, had this obnoxious grass that seems to be spreading all over and really givea my non automated mower a problem! The native stuff cuts beautifully. Seems like from above the only solution is to cover my entire lawn in cardboard mulch metal roofing and chemicals for several years!! Sorry Im not going to do that. Dang this stinks. Even half a year….my dog needs to go out back my house will be a mess from bare patches of dirt blowing and getting wet a d the dog and i traipsing it in. I wouldnt mind the stuff if the mower would get through it but it lays flat and really doesnt look attractive even when mowed. in other words it stays lo g its just really flat. Im disheartened.
So starting this journey at the worst time of the year. I have dug up 30 feet of flower bed of the house I bought last year. I was adamant about pulling the weeds out but noticed one type that never came with a root. Then Imelda happened & we flooded. The flower bed was getting overgrown which was the plan. Figured the stalk wasn’t strong enough to carry the root out. After pulling 3 stalks with no root I got a spade to see where the root was. No root. Long runs of tentacles spread through the whole flower bed. The flower bed is 3 landscaping bricks high with a “sidewalk” to the front door & another flower bed between the sidewalk & the house. So my plan is to dig up all that I find, put the heavy grade landscape contractor mesh down, & put in new topsoil. Will this be effective long term?
I have had success with completely extirpating the plants by the roots. It was a lot of work until I happened upon a grub hoe with a six inch blade. It rips up the sod with minimal effort and has the ability to dig deep enough to completely remove the roots. Everything else I tried only works temporarily.
Once we finally get the bed made, is there anything besides concrete as a barrier to keep it out of the garden. From what I am reading here, there is not. I’m craving a garden, but won’t fight bermuda for the rest of my life to have it. Weeding bermuda brings out the worst in me.
I live in Arizona, and have had a long relationship with Bermuda grass. We are currently in a rental home, and I was hoping to find a non-chemical way to get rid of it, as it’s poking through the weed barrier. Grass lovers love planting this stuff here because it never dies, even if you don’t water it. It just goes dormant for months and then springs back to life in the next rain or watering.
The only things that I have found to kill it for good is 1) spray it with glyphosate 🙁 while it is actively growing (so it pulls the weed killer all the way to the roots) and 2) Agricultural termites. In our last home (in Tucson) we had a bunch of these guys in our yard due to an irrigation leak attracting them, and they went to town on all the grass. They build these mud tubes and eat every last bite of the grass and it never comes back! We fixed the leak, they finished off the grass and we never saw them again. And no, they will not infest your home. So if you could find a way to get those little buddies in your yard or garden bed they might do all the hard work for you! Not sure what else they might eat though.
CHICKENS! Chickens completely eliminated the Bermuda grass in my front yard and it has not come back. 10 years now. This was even in spaces between rock edging. Everyone said it wouldn’t work but it did. It was the work of about 8 chickens in 4 months time. Of course they will also destroy seedlings but usually not established plants.
I have a 5 acre garden in Tuscany and you’ve never seen Bermuda grass like it grows here. The only thing that has ever worked is completely digging up the area to be planted and meticulously sifting the soil for rhizomes then mulching heavily. So far this has been fairly successful. You have to be a dedicated (obsessive?) gardener and very very patient!
I have Bermuda grass in my perrenial garden where I have birds of paradise, oramental grasses, etc., where some of the bermuda grasses comes out of ornamental grass roots as well as working their way along the ground.
I have used 6mm black poly with 3 inch mulch on top. This did not kill the stranglers on the ground & also made them grow stronger in the ornamental grass/root system.
I am contemplating on using a propane torch to burn off the stranglers on the ground with hopes that it will also choke the bermuda grasses in my ornamental grass root system.
Anyone have any luck on this method?
I never pull Bermuda.
I use roundup and water frequently to encourage growth.
I use Roundup on the new growth.
I’ve found rhizomes 3 feet deep.
It takes about 2 years to get rid of Bermuda.
I don’t use Roundup on other weeds, they will go away when you put a lawn in.
You can’t have a gardener mow your lawn. They will drop little pieces of Bermuda and reinfect your yard.
Its worked for me in 3 houses over the last 40 years.
I have a question concerning compost and Bermuda grass. We have lived on our 2.5 acres for over 25 years, but over the past 5 years the Bermuda grass has marched across our property and invaded our vegetable garden. After multiple attempts to eradicate it (except chemicals) similar to those mentioned above, I gave up. I covered the entire area with heavy duty landscaper cloth and yard staples similar to what a local farmer friend uses as a walkway/outside floor for his farm shop. I bought multiple galvanized aluminum 18″ high oval bottomless raised planters (County Line and Tartar carry them), plopped them on top of the landscape fabric, added an extra bottom of super heavy weed barrier, and trucked in a topsoil/compost mix for our veggies. I also used the galvanized 18″ water trough version and drilled a few drainage holes in the bottom. My question is about compost that contains yard waste including Bermuda grass waste. We compost it with our horse manure, chicken manure and yard waste. I have a garden area far away from the Bermuda infected lawn that I have covered with black plastic for 2 years (never had Bermuda grass in it, just stinging nettle that escaped a planter I was growing it in). I am planning on planting a perennial garden with bee and butterfly plants as well in that space. I would love to use our own compost in it but am terrified of introducing any tiny piece or seed of Bermuda grass. Am I better off buying a compost/topsoil mix from a landscaping supply where I have no idea what is in it, or using our own compost that I’ve tractor-turned for a year and crossing my fingers that no seed or small piece survived the composting?
I find out that the best way to eliminate Bermuda grass is by using two or more methods in a year period. I solarize in hot Texas summer, apply round up to the ones that still alive and put thick cardboard and mulch on top. Wait at least 6 months before making holes on cardboard to plant. Even then, I have to constantly check the areas over the next two years. I hope someday something come out that really eradicate these grass completely. Thank you for the information provided here.
Zoysia grass will choke out Bermuda. You’ll have a similar issue, but it grows much slower and with a shallower root system. It’s not as drought tolerant either. It can be invasive, so you will want a long term plan to contain it, but it grows so thick the Bermuda can’t compete, and it’s easier to keep it out of your flower beds.
I am an organic gardener and I have effectively killed Bermuda by stapling black plastic over it for two years.
I asked my stepdad (who is a farmer) once how to get rid of the Bermuda grass in our beds, and he told me, “die and leave it behind.” Hahaha. I heard tales from a friend, who knew a guy who had a friend (you know those kind of stories) of a fella who cut trenches in his grow beds and lined it with coal and wood chips and such, then set fire to it and watched it all day, stoking and keeping them going. It sterilizes everything. Apparently he also used to “cook” his soil in a burn barrel to kill all the dormant weeds and seefs, though I can’t remember how at the moment.
I’m in Arizona and I got rid of my Bermuda grass by cutting it down low. Then during our summer, hottest part of the year, I covered it entirely with a black tarp. Left the tarp on until this spring. We then dug up 2 to 4 inches of the dead roots. It’s been hot this month and so far we have not seen Bermuda grass pop up.
First I vent:
In MD, Bermuda Grass is eeeeevil! It’s a survivor which is why it was marketed as a no-care lawn and pasture grass. In pastures I guess the animals chomp it short.
The Rhizomes are like hardened little grass spears. Pulling Bermuda grass stimulates it to grow. It grows in segments that separate and Round up only kills the growing bits at the ends. Supposedly, using Roundup in the fall l when the grass is pulling food for the winter down into the roots, works well. I’ve not tried it. The ends of the runners and rhizomes are pointy and hard like a spear. It also only grows really well in the hot weather and makes the yard look pale and dead until it wakes up.
My solutions:
Layers of newspaper thicker than your husband thinks they should be, then layers of cardboard, and then concrete sheets that extend past the raised gardens you plop on top. Make the walls of the raised garden of really thick timber, lined with garden fabric. It works for a while but the Bermuda Grass senses the good soil and if you squint you can see the runners salivating while tying little bibs under their chins. Make no mistake, the grass is making roots under all this, but it can’t poke through.Weed whack the edges as often as humanly possible.
Line every in ground garden with concrete. Period. It will try to get through, but, make the barrier thick enough to stymie it. It has to be completely encased. I tried to do this around the mailbox by the street and although I couldn’t penetrate the compressed earth next to the road, the Bermuda grass could. I swear it chuckles evilly as it bats aside all efforts.
I dislike herbicides, I prefer organic, but I found something (Ormeck?) that worked in that area (never where you eat what comes out of the garden) but, I couldn’t bring myself to use more than once and it eventually came back except where an even more invasive weed out performs it.
It never grows strongly in shade. It grows, just, not well. It doesn’t love heavy clay, or perhaps that’s what it evolved to grow in. It didn’t seem to like my Lemon Bee Balm which is an invasive spreader as well, but at least is smells like lemon when you pull it.
These are such wonderful suggestions! Thank you for sharing your tips on managing Bermuda Grass, they’re very helpful.
I’ve got a space in my backyard approx 1/16 of an acre that I’m converting to vegetable gardens. However, the majority of that area is primarily the dreaded Bermuda. I’d tried thick cardboard under my raised beds but that was a joke, it came up so thick within two months and was entangled in all my veggie roots so there was no way to keep it pulled back. Now that I’m planting such a large area in ground I’m trying a new tactic and praying it holds it back. Last summer I bought two big rolls of black 6mm plastic and have had it battened down with paver bricks. It’s killed everything down to soil, except the Bermuda rhizomes are still in the ground and anywhere the plastic had blown back it’s already trying to resprout. I just rented a tiny excavator for the weekend and am going to scrape back the top 4 inches or so and use the (luscious topsoil) to grade a couple projects down in the woods and a new chicken pen. As upset as I am about losing my topsoil and partially compacting the ground with the little tractor, I just want to try and weaken this stuff as much as possible before I go putting plants in the ground. I’ll be bringing in a couple trucks of compost and once spread I’ll be cutting down the plastic I used into strips for plastic mulch down all my rows, then some wood chips down the “isles” where the plastic mulch is going to have an open seam in order to get access to my drip lines and such under each row. I’m hoping this fares well, otherwise I’m just going to have to toss my hands and try my luck just planting straight into the stuff and try to use it as a type of living mulch under my plants haha…
We had no bermuda grass in my north fl area before hurricane micheal , all of the dirt .potting soil we needed after that had to come from alabama. Now it has taken over everything, it has come thru my metalscreen under plastic which is under cardboard 3 layers thick, which is under 4 inches of mulch.I just pulled a 35 ft runner last week .I have even completely dug up flower beds solarized for 6 mos and results -yuk. I quit am going to put the runners into pigtails with pink bows.
However, there are some downsides to using an organic weed killer. One of the most common concerns is the chemicals found in regular garden weed killers.
I’d be most concerned about the left over root systems of the Bermuda grass since that is how they usually spread. The roots can survive high compost temperatures, so to be sure I might outsource compost this year and continue to compost your pile, maybe covering with a black tarp. You could also check to see if there are any live looking roots, and place a small pile in an area on a tarp to monitor if it grows. Good luck!
You could try lining beds with thick plastic or grow in containers.
Hi Chris,
That sounds like a good plan. I would opt for more heavy duty landscape fabric instead of mesh since if there are any roots left, they will grow through the mesh. Good luck!
In Kansas I had pretty good success with an old sliding glass door laid down on the grass for a week or so in the summer heat. Cooks it good. Flip it over for the next section.
We have our chickens in a large fenced yard. Within four months, they tripped it of just about every bit of green…except the wild tansy, go figure. And they dug down and ate up all the roots of whatever was there including Bermuda grass. Now that we have moved them into another yard for the winter under trees where we piled weeds from the vegetable and flower gardens rather then put them into the compost….they also got big piles of leaf litter to dig through and piles of wood chips to play in. Interestingly, the old yard showed no signs of growing back the Bermuda grass, so we are shedding it with a mix of rye and orchard grass since part of it runs through our apple orchard. Thinking seriously of moving them to the area where I want to expand my veg garden and let them clear it for me.
Hi Ruth,
In regards to the 4 tillage operations in May followed by sudex and cowpea cover crop I did farm that field for 3 years after the treatment and it’s still in production. The process eliminated ~99% of the bermudagrass. I’m sure we had some bermudagrass seeds germinate in the following years from the seed bank but the field was under a planting regime that included cultivation, tillage and no-till with a crimper so the tillage in the mix probably prevented the bermudagrass from getting established again. It did creep in from the edges and those areas required more work.
Hi Ruth I am planting a Apple tree for my mom (it is a secret so i cant ask her) in a paper cup and i need help for making it grow i have no idea how to.
Hey there, that’s a very sweet surprise! I’m sure she will love it.
Here is some info from the farmers almanac on growing apples from seed:
Apple seeds are genetically different from their parent tree, which means that things like tree size, hardiness, and fruit quality will differ (and will usually be poorer). So, if you plant a Honeycrisp seed, you won’t end up with Honeycrisp apples. Plus, it can take 8-10 years for an apple seedling to grow big enough to produce apples, so you may end up waiting awhile!
Nevertheless, growing an apple seedling can still be a fun experiment. Here’s how to plant apple seeds: Apple seeds need to be exposed to cool, moist conditions before they are ready to germinate and grow. Sow them outdoors 1/2 inch deep in the fall and the natural seasonal cycle will take care of the seed’s chilling needs for you. Alternatively, place the seeds in moistened sand in a plastic container and keep the container in the fridge for 3 to 4 months. Then, sow them outdoors 1/2 inch deep once the threat of frost has passed. Once the seedling emerges, be sure to keep it well watered and protected from pests.
Hi all. I live in Austin Texas and have been fighting bermuda grass since I moved into my house and started working on my pollinator-friendly native plant garden. I spent a day digging it up by hand, removing as much as I could (hard work!) and then put in a lot of native groundcover (frog fruit and horseherb- lots of little plants rather than seeds). The horseherb managed to take hold and win the battle against the bermuda grass! Good luck everyone!
I am in Central Texas, about an hour and a half from you, Felicia. My struggle with Bermuda is in my vegetable garden. I have spent SO MUCH TIME this week, weeding out the Bermuda that I had covered with cardboard, wet down, covered with 6-8 inches of wood chips. I have a pretty large area that I covered with 6 ml black plastic sheeting a couple of weeks ago (to extend the garden) and I was going to let that cook in the blasted Texas heat for the summer, then was planning on doing the same thing for a larger, fall garden. I’m feeling a bit disheartened and wary that I will spend my farm time forever weeding. My only hope is that I had not covered the initial garden with black plastic sheeting; I had only mowed it down very close before I lay down cardboard. I want to plant a cover crop but, since fall gardening here has been more successful than spring gardening, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to put a cover crop in before any really cold weather sets in, as I’m assuming the garden will still be producing. Always a learning curve…
Bermuda grass will always win. You have to remove 100% of the rhizome which can grow 6” deep. Leave one single nut and it will sprout again. Herbicides, tilling, cardboard, solarize matting, black matting to starve for over a year, 1’ deep mulch all do not last long. It steals all the nutrients you add to your plants and will defeat all efforts. It was designed this way. Just grow the grass and enjoy potted plants. You’ll save a lot of time and money. First hand experience.
We bought a new house in Tennessee almost two years ago. The entire yard is laid with Bermuda grass sod. Most of the houses in our neighborhood have the same. I don’t think there is any good way to totally get rid of the stuff. I fought a patch of it in two different gardens in Maryland for decades. Never got rid of it. So, it’s one of those things you just end up accepting. Just plan to consistently weed this stuff for the rest of your life. That’s kind of where I am.
Hi! I have bermuda grass, and I feel your pain about wanting to start new garden beds here and there…it is about impossible to eradicate. But, in the spring, 2 yrs ago, I decided I wanted to start a strip of ground between our main sidewalk entrance and a ramp we built for my Mom. I thought it out, and decided, after having fought bermuda grass in my vegetable garden for years, that I would just dig all the soil out to a depth where I saw no more bermuda grass, runners or any tiny piece! I took all the soil out to about 6-7 inches deep….put it all into huge pots to use somewhere that needed to be filled in…in the pasture or yard where we already have bermuda growing. I replaced the soil in that dug out area, and It took me all summer to dig the area out! I planted it with a couple different ground covers, and perennial flowers, like coneflower and blanket flowers, and annuals like petunias, and zinnias. I planted several coral bells and a lilac bush, and lavender. After I planted, I put an expensive, but good, broad spectrum preemergence herbicide called T/12.5 G Quali-Pro brand. I did NOT have a bit of bermuda grass, nor other weeds. It is going on 2 yrs now, and I have not made another application of the herbicide yet, but pulled what little weeds I had by hand…which wasn’t too difficult at all. I want to start on the other side of the sidewalk, and I intend pulling what weeds I can, by hand, including the bermuda and crabgrass, among other weeds. I’m getting pretty good at knowing their names now! I have a lot of creeping charlie, and in the winter, the normal quack grass and henbit, etc. I feel very satisfied with the perennial bed that I dug out, but I am 75 yrs old, and not going to dig another whole bed like I did 2-1/2 years ago! But, I will pull by hand, and I believe I will be using the fabric I used in my veggie garden this year to cover the new flower bed. I will also use the pre-emergence herbicide as needed to suppress the devil grass (bermuda) I hope this helps someone to realize just how much work it takes to enjoy a small area without bermuda grass, and I wish everyone the best in their endeavors! Pam Sykes
I have raised bed veggie gardens, we used local horse manure compost to help fill them initially. Seemed like a great idea as we could get it for free, and the folks we got it from use it in their garden to much success.
It was a bad idea. These horses were pastured on bermuda and guess what- rhyzomes make it though their digestive tract just fine. Now my 3 raised beds are bermuda territory.
I’m gutted, I don’t know what to do. I try to keep it weeded down but 30 seconds later its back, waist high and totally covering smaller plants like peppers, draping over the cages.
Its started to move across the gravel area surrounding them, and has now advanced some 15+ feet into areas that aren’t even watered, despite the weather hitting over 110 degrees. You’d think it’d dry out and die. NOPE, NOT BERMUDA.
We didn’t really know what was happening when it first came on, and my husband whacked it with a weed eater, throwing little runner shoots everywhere.
I think we are doomed. All I wanted was a place to grow my tomatoes. Sheesh.