crabgrass

I have what I beleve is crabgrass in my garden my friend calls it wiregrass it looks like wire running on the ground it spreads fast is hard to pull and comes back really fast after weeding how do I get rid of it its in my vegetable garden the garden has red clay soil and rocky and the groundis hard I HAVE EVEN TRIED WEEDKILLER.

Sounds like the Bermuda grass we have here. It is a perpetual struggle. Pull the runners as they invade, and dig out as much of the roots when you have time and moist enough soil to get them out instead of just breaking them off.

Some can be smothered with a newspaper or cardboard lasagna garden.

I posted about crabrass in the invasives forum but haven't heard back from anyone. This stuff is awful. Our yard had been pretty untended for years when we moved in here. Plus we have a field full of noxious weeds next door (new construction, and now the house is vacant and they never landscaped), and the farmer across the street seems to always let his field go to weeds in the spring before plowing it under. So crabrass is a major fight for me, as well.

I don't remember my crabgrass having wirey runners, though. It spreads out in a big round, flat, blob and goes to seed. I think there's a different variety that spreads by runners, though.

Here's what my crabgrass looks like (I didn't take this picture, though).

Here's a seedling. I try very hard to catch mine in the seedling stage and dig it out. It's very bad to let it bloom and go to seed because then it spreads like crazy. Here's a seedling:

Scotts with Halts applied when the forsinthias bloom works GREAT. I had NO crabgrass last year. Now if they'd just figure out how to kill Creeping Charlie (ground Ivy) they make BILLIONS....There is NO WAY to kill that stuff short of using a blow torch.

Here you go.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_403738_403738

Sounds like one of the Bermuda type grasses. Lots of folks in Virginia and the Carolinas call it wire grass because the stolens are tough and wiry and will push their way through most anything, even an asphalt driveway. Really bad in a potato patch as they grow through the potatoes. The old folks use to say that the only way to get rid of it was to die and leave it. But I have found that it does not like shade, take away the sunlight and it quits.

Crabgrass dies every year by the time winter comes. I have battled with crabgrass when I bought a house three years ago that had a neglected yard. When fall came I tried removing as much crabgrass as possible, raked, and seeded. When spring time came, I reseeded again and put down scotts product crabgrass preventer, the one made for new seeding. They also make the regular one, but if you are seeding it will kill the new seed. TOMMY says to apply the crabgrass preventer by the time the forsythias have are blooming and that is what I do. For the flower beds I apply preen. Now i am into my fourth season at the house and I can say thanks to my hard work of pulling as much crabgrass as possible and scott's products I can say I am crabgrass free. Good luck!

If you are indeed battling crabgrass, which does not fit your description, it is an annual grass and can be controlled with a pre- emergence ( sprout inhibitor) type herbicide. Scott's is a good brand, but everybody and his half brother makes one. Some are certified organic and some are not if that matters to you.

I have god-awful grass here, too - same situation as the first poster. I call the crawling stuff crabgrass, 'cus that's what we called it in Calif., but I do think they call it something else here.

No matter, my yard is so bad I've thought about killing the whole thing & starting over; renting a sod shearer to just cut the top layer off; and/or just bulldozing the whole yard (about an acre). My problem is, when I think of doing that, I also think of the horrible red, clay mess I'd have in my yard while I regrow a new one, and that thought's even worse than the crabgrass itself.

So I focus on building new flower beds and ignore the ugly grass. lol I know I'm going to have to tackle it at some point, tho, 'cus I hate it.

I've recently started using boiling water around the edges of my deck, and I LOVE it! I saw the suggestion here somewhere, and it completely kills everything. But it wouldn't work on a large scale basis.

Crabgrass is no big deal, if that is all you have. It is an annual which seeds like crazy, so you do have to prevent the seed from sprouting each year. But there are a lot of organic and non-organic herbicides on the market. Crabgrass goes down the first frost, has a standard root system and will be nonexistent in late winter, early spring. If you dig something up and it has live roots between November and April, it is not crabgrass.