I want to start several new beds, however the back yard is burmuda. I have read that roundup and sod cutter is the best way? Have you had any experience with getting rid of burmuda that you can share? What worked best for you?
Burmuda grass? How do I get rid of it?
In the Master Gardener training I just completed we were told that using Roundup (or another product containing glyphosate) is the best way to control burmuda grass. Multiple applications may be needed. I have a problem with burmuda grass trying to take over part of my yard and growing into beds. Roundup helps keep it in check in the beds but it keeps coming back because it is growing in the yard mixed with the other good grass that I don't want to kill.
Try to kill off the bermuda grass completely before starting your beds or you will always have a problem. It is the most invasive grass in my area that I've seen.
I have started several new island beds in my backyard that is a Burmuda grass yard. I made the beds using the lasagna raised bed method and it basically smothered the grass underneath. To choke out the burmuda in the rest of the yard, I'm sowing new grass seeds. A mixture of one pound of centipede and carpet grass with 25 pounds of sand for each broadcast. I use a spreader to broadcast the seed sand mixture. It should take about 3 years to fully choke out the burmuda grass but this is my plan. My brother did the same and he now has a beautiful burmuda grass-free yard.
I have never heard of any grass or plant choking out bermuda grass? Now that it has been awhile since the original posting I would like to know if this worked? It would have never bet on it! I have seen bermuda come back from just about any torture. I thought you could never get rid of it.
I'm so sorry, it's not Bermuda grass, it's bahaia grass in my yard that I'm trying to choke out.. DH corrected me.
I would love to have more beds and had/have plans for them. But burmuda grass is the reason that I keep putting it off and certainly the reason I continue to do container gardening in that area. The thought of fighting it forever just turns me off.
ghia....good luck and let us know how things go.
When I have taken out Bermuda I would hit it with Round up, then dig it out, then plant. It seems to always come back but if you plant your beds thickly like I do (cottage garden) bermuda doesn't do well in shade and you can keep the occasional sprigs pulled out when you water. But I never completely get rid of it.
I just had a customer looking to buy Bermuda grass seed yesterday. He owns some shovels, a nice truck with his name on it, has business cards, and there fore is a "landscaper." This same customer brought in a foundation design last weekend that had 3 deciduous shrubs and 2 leyland cypress. Hmm, bare sticks in the winter, 100 foot trees, and a lawn full of a grass the rest of us are trying to eradicate. Wonder how much the poor home owner is paying for this expert service? What a shame there are no requirements to call oneself a landscaper, or landscape designer, or landscape architect for that matter.
This message was edited Jun 27, 2007 6:54 PM
I think there's only a couple states that don't regulate landscape architects. Vermont is one. It's open season for the other trades you mentioned most places.
Resin (I think) said the original Leyland Cypress trees are still growing after a hundred years or so... 150' and climbing!
Back to grasses, I have a real hard time identifying grasses... can't tell if it's 'Bermuda' or some other kind.
REGULATE! That is the word I was looking for that was stuck in the recesses of my mind. Darn those senior moments (also known as brain farts) anyway!
Thanks claypa.
Bermuda Grass, Yuck! My whole back yard is Bermuda Grass. I call Bermuda Grass my Mortal Enemy and I rise to the challenge of getting rid of it. What I did and this took forever is I would dig up the first 6" or more with the shovel and throw out the grass, when I dug I would find my Mortal Enemy hiding about a foot down in the dirt and I would dig it up and throw it out. My one garden bed gets it every once in a while and it is easy to dig up, I try to catch it as soon as I see it. Now since I mention that my Mortal Enemy has taken up all of the lawn I started to dig up my whole lawn. Since I have done that I have created a path which I will put flagstone down this summer. Eventually I will get rid of the whole lawn and put down new grass or sod, but untill then I just keep digging. This has been an on going project for 6 months, but I will not let my Mortal Enemy win. Now my only problem I have is my neighbors Bermuda Grass. He is creeping through our fence and I can't dig him up because he is on his side of the fence. I am not sure what to do with this problem, except, hop the fence and start digging. lol
Green Light grass killer and Ortho Grass B Gone will both kill bermuda grass. They won't permanently get rid of it if it's coming in from his lawn, but at least you can manage the stuff that gets in your garden that way. I've had better luck with it than I have with Roundup. Only trouble is it takes a week or two to work, so you spray it and think it hasn't done anything, but then all of a sudden a week or so later it'll turn brown and die.
Bermuda is commonly grown where we live because it's supposedly so tough. Knowing this, hubby and I planted Bermuda on our 5-acre lawn because we needed to establish something quickly in order to hold the soil. Our yard had been bulldozed down by 15-20 feet in order to build our house so we had NO topsoil. The Bermuda has failed to thrive except around all my newly planted trees where the ground was improved and I added fertilizer. We've been here five years now and, in the last three years, have discovered a new type of grass growing that is crowding out all the weeds AND the Bermuda! I looked it up and found that it's centipede. It will grow in poor soil, doesn't do well with too much nitrogen, and does indeed crowd out everything in it's path. I've started giving it a light application of 6-24-24 every spring and it's doing a great job of continuing to crowd out everything, including the Bermuda :-} We didn't plant it so I guess it's a gift from all my resident birds I feed.
Centipede is wonderful grass. I'd love for what little I have of it to choke out the Bermuda. I do water the lawn just out front of it to indice it to grow town the watering line. That seems to help it spread faster, trying to reach the water.