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Posted: Aug/30/2008 11:11 AM PST
I was doing a lot of traveling this summer (and being lazy when I wasn't) so my side garden got overrun with grass. I've tried digging some up with a garden rake, and it's tough going and I know I'm not getting all the roots. I think it may be crabgrass, thought I'm not sure, but is there an easier way to get rid of all the grass and ensure it won't come back easily? ( I was even thinking of adding lawn fertilizer w/ crabgrass control, but if this is regular grass, that could mate the situation worse). I'd like to prepare the garden for some fall planting in anticipation of the spring. I'm adding a photo to show you what it looks like  As you can see, this is going to be a very daunting task as this is but a small slice of the entire side garden. Any suggestions or tips for cleaning it up would be great.
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Posted: Aug/30/2008 11:19 AM PST
We had to get rid of large areas of grass in our yard for new gardens. We scalped the area with the weed eater as short as possible. Then covered it with clear heavy painters plastic for about two weeks. It doesn't look pretty but it killed everything and the grass and weeds have stayed gone for over one month. Much easier to rake out now. Karen |
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Posted: Aug/30/2008 11:42 AM PST
How about cutting it low with the weedeater then layering newspapers and mulch on it? |
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Posted: Aug/30/2008 1:54 PM PST
Both good ideas. Newspapers sounds more practical for me, though. I ended up digging a lot of it out (gosh I'm tired) but I may still want to cover the area for a while to make sure everything is cleared out. Thanks for the ideas! |
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Posted: Aug/30/2008 4:26 PM PST
You might want to add one more idea to the two above. Cut it as low as you can, then hit it hard with some round up weed/grass killer then use the newspaper and mulch. Good Luck. We all have to start new garden beds every season. Linda B |
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Posted: Aug/31/2008 2:48 AM PST
Yep,covering the patch up with newspapers,plastic, mulch etc. sure works.I however would give it a good tilling first and pull out and rake all the roots you can first.When you are ready to plant,mulch between the rows to keep any dormant weed seeds from taking hold.I hate hate hate and double hate grass in my garden. |
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Posted: Aug/31/2008 4:16 AM PST
There is a product called Post that kills ONLY grass. I keep threatening my husband that I will order a helicopter full of it and have it dumped over all twelve acres ~ I HATE GRASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Posted: Aug/31/2008 5:29 AM PST
I never even heard of that product before, cool stuff  My suggestion would be to remove all the plants you want to keep, and prepare the bed from scratch again. That way you don't have to worry about damaging your plants. The crabgrass control only prevents seeds from germinating, it won't kill the existing stuff. That's what I am going to have to do in my one bed- it's been taken over by bermuda grass because I never properly prepared it in the first place. My main method of grass control in garden beds is to use a high-quality hand cultivator. I bought mine at Home Depot- it has a very beefy wood handle with orange rubber grip, and the cultivator part is made of a very thick high strength steel. One side is 3 prongs, the other is cutting like. What I do is use the prongs to loosen the grass roots, then pull the clump out. It even works well with bermuda grass with a bit more effort. I have yet to bend it even a little bit after 3 years of use. It's the first tool I go for for practically any digging, weeding job I have just discovered a GREAT way to prepare a bed- I have been cultivating out the grass for 2 new beds in a part of the yard that apparantly was where the gravel driveway used to be. So after I cleared the grass out, I've been digging up shovelfuls of dirt and rock and screening them through 1/2 inch hardware cloth. The resulting product is gravel-free (except for the pea-sized stuff), root free, and unbelievably fine. It would be perfect for starting seeds! I have never been able to get this sort of consistency with my tiller. Now I just need to add compost... |
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Posted: Aug/31/2008 9:51 AM PST
Wow... Lots of great ideas. I spend a lot of time manually digging git all out, looks great, but there's still a lot of 'cleanup' that needs to be done. Perhaps a combination of the newspaper, mulching and screening is a perfect solution (if I want to go nuts, which I kind of do). Thanks everyone for the great ideas. |
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Posted: Aug/31/2008 11:47 AM PST
I think a combo would be perfect
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