Darn grass problem

AS most of you know, I was away all last summer and most of the fall, so am trying to get things straightened out here.

All sorts of travellers end up growing on my roof garden because of the birds, raccoons and squirrels (last fall they even 'planted' some poor kid's marbles, for Pete's sake!!), but a big problem I see already is this strange grass that seems to grow in big humpy clumps. Being as I only have about 5 inches of lightweight soil up there, I'm wondering what the best way would be to get rid of that stuff as the humps appear to be seriously trying to take over the roof.

I've tried pulling it out and can't so it must have quite the root system. I can't use a tool to dig it out because I don't want to risk damaging the underlying membranes covering the roof and it seems to grow deep.

Any thoughts that would avoid my having to use chemical killers?
TIA,
~marilyn

Good morning Marilyn :)

If your soil is only 5" deep and you can`t pull the weed, you might already have damage to your roof membrane (some weed roots are pretty strong and long and will penetrade about anything).

My advice would be to losen up the soil and remove the soil around the weed and investigate how deep the roots really are and to make sure it didn`t damage the membrane. Maybe after losening the soil you will be able to pull the weed out.

Or you can pour boiling water from a kettle or vinegar over the weeds on a sunny day. That might get it of it. Those two methods I read about but never actually tried them out.

Another way would be with "roundup" (you can get it at Canadian Tire) and it works for sure. It is not a chemical killer and you will find some information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup

Hope this helps you a bit and good luck with the weed battle :)

Thea

Vinegar works. We use it all the time in our chips and dust driveway to get rid of the weeds. It may take a day or two to see any results, and you might think it's not working, but then everything just turns brown and shrivels up. Make sure you get right at pulling them out then or they will regenerate - I have no idea how!

Fingers crossed that you have no damage to the membrane.

--Ginny

Thanks Ginny for the info on the vinegar. Costco here I come!!! lol
I get these weeds in my interlock driveway, and I tried "scraping" the green weeds out with a tool from Lee Valley, but all that’s scraped is my knuckles and fingernails afterwards...lol

So I shall give the vinegar a try and THEN use the tool once it is shriveled up.
See if that works :)

Thea

I read recently that TURNIP SEED will wipe out quack grass! I imagine you'd have to plant it pretty thickly. Anyone know of a cheap source of bulk turnip seeds? The article specified quack grass but I would think it would work with all grasses. ?? I thought I'd sow it around the borders of my various beds, to keep all the wild grasses from sneaking in. Has anyone tried this?

Thanks ladies.

I had never heard of using vinegar, so that might be something to try.

I hope to blazes that it hasn't somehow breached the root barrier - I should excavate one like Thea says just to make sure.

I'll let you know how it goes.
ttyl,
~marilyn

Re vinegar--It's terrific for places you can't weed. In the vegetable garden I've found it kills the above-ground grass, and down a few inches, but those pesky deep roots just keep producing. And you have to be careful because remember it's an acid, and lowers your soil pH so if your soil is already on the low side, a lot of vinegar could make it lower.

I found the source of that turnip seed tip--it was in "allotment.org.uk:"

" Henry's Garden Hints & Tips 1

Guides to growing vegetables, hints & tips to help you get more from your plot from forum member mkhenry

Couch Grass aka Twitch Grass or Scutch, Wickens, Quick (Agropyron repens)

If wish to clear Couch Grass from your plot completely, plant the troubled area with turnip seed

The two will not mix and the couch will wither back and die. Even if you have cleared the grass it may come back if you have not removed every single root. So to keep it at bay give this a try. I promise you it will work. A lot of allotment plot holders know this trick, but a great many others may not have heard of it. "

Well, the vinegar works well - all the biggest grass humps are brown now.

I've gotten some more "pinks" planted, and some allysium too - I'm going to try and keep what I'm planting up there to small stuff. The guy who originally did the work and laid the garden planted some things that are just too tall for the space - Maltese Crosses and Silver Dollars for instance.
The strawberries seem to be coming up well, and there are masses of Forget-me-nots which have never been there before, I don't think, and haven't a clue where they've come from.
Nothing seems to have breached the root barrier (Thank you, God!) but those grass humps have a huge, bunchy root system that is really hard to get out.

Erynne is running to Costco this evening to get some vinegar to use on her chip and dust and gravel driveway ;)

Thanks Ginny for mentioning it.

Erynne

Any time - glad I could be of service ;-)