removing the grass by hand NOT possible....NEED ADVICE

I live in Mexico, Zone 11. Although I am certainly not a gardener, I seem to be able to make things grow, even in Canada, where I am originally from.

I planted my first (and last) garden in Mexico, about six months ago. It has done well, even though it has not seen a rainy season yet. Unknown to me, my builder, in addition to putting all the rocks and left over junk into my two garden beds, also added soil that he had taken from the lake front. It is becoming apparent that it is full of grass and other weeds. It is the grass that I am concerned with, as the other weeds are large enough to remove manually.

I have been able to keep up with removing the grass by hand, but after a couple of preliminary rainfalls, it has become obvious that I I am going to be swamped with grass. The rainy season starts next month. Please, what can I do? My garden is on either side of a 100 foot driveway, on a very steep slope. I put down lava rock to help retain what soil I have from being washed away during the torrential downpours we will get each night for 6 months. Is there a type of herbicide that I can use to kill the grass, without harming my other plants? In case it matters, my plants include blue sky vines, Angels' Trumpets, various cacti, lantanas, jasmines, palms, several hibiscus, bougainvilleas
, geraniums, papaya trees, frangipani tree, Texas ranger, and more.

Also it is somewhat dangerous to put my hands into my garden as we have scorpions and many poisonous spiders. I cannot grab the grass with gloves on.

I have spent a great deal of time making and maintaining this garden during the dry season.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Penny

I don't know what's available in Mexico, but here they do sell herbicides that specifically kill grass but not other sorts of plants (although if you have things like ornamental grasses, bamboo, etc it'll kill those too, but the plants you mention above should be OK). Personally I'd still be a little careful applying it around the other plants, but it's not supposed to damage them. It will probably also help to apply some pre-emergent herbicide in case there are still seeds in the ground that haven't germinated yet. Corn gluten is an organic pre-emergent, but there are other sorts as well up here, again I have no idea what would be available there. If you're getting into rainy season, I'd make the pre-emergent the first priority because there are probably a million more seeds in there waiting to germinate. You will need to reapply periodically since the rains will wash it out.

Hi Ajijic and welcome to DG. If you choose to use an herbicide, any of your trees that have bark should be O.K. but be careful around those that have shallow feeder roots. For your smaller plants, place large trash bags over them before you spray around them. I always leave the bags on for about 15 minutes afterward just to make real sure any spray that may be airborne has had plenty of time to settle.

Thank you for your kind responses. I will check out the availability here for the products you mention. You are right in assuming that it is often difficult to impossible to get things here. I am, however, going back to Canada shortly. If all else fails I will check things out there. Easier, as they speak English in Canada. But I agree it should be soon. I don't want to come back to a mess of grass. My garden has and is a learning experience, and is often the only thing that keeps me centered in this crazy (but beautiful) place! I may not know much about them, but I love my plants.

Whereabouts in Mexico is Ajijic? I spent a fair amount of time in central Mexico (Queretaro/Guanajuato states) a few years ago, it's really gorgeous there and in most (but not all!) of the towns I visited around there, there were a fair number of people who spoke English, but often you had to ask them if they spoke English, otherwise they were more comfortable with Spanish so they would talk in Spanish unless you asked. Do you have a Walmart near you somewhere? That's where I always went when I was looking for things that were the most similar to US products, they still won't have everything but that might be a good place to start (funny thing is I hate shopping at Walmart up here, but in Mexico I loved it! LOL)

Ecrane3

Ajijic is one of several villages in the Lake Chapala area, which is just south of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. I actually live between villages in one of many gated communities,. Mine is on the side of a mountain. We have the second best climate in the world here according to National Geographic. Lake Chapala is nestled in a mountain basin at 5000 feet elevation. The climate does not have high humidity so plant rot is almost unheard of. You can literally chop off a chunk of almost any plant, sick it in the poorest soil, and it will grow. I have seen beautiful plants growing out of cracked concrete. Didn't believe it until I saw it. Of course, we also have lots of plant vendors. It is a paradise for plants.

I know what you mean by Walmart. I have been in the one in Queratero. Our nearest Walmarts are in Guadlajara, about a 45 minute scary drive. Since Guadalajara is a large city of 6 million, we can find many things there. Hopefully, we are going into the city this week to Home Depot where I will look for the items that were suggested for my grass problem.

I have researched most of my plants on Dave's Garden, in order to identify them, learn and put into practice the advice.

Again, thank you!!!

So where's the best climate if you're second? I've never been to your area of Mexico but it sounds beautiful, I'll have to put it on my list of places to visit! Right now my favorite place in Mexico is San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, haven't been there in about 6 years but would love to go back one of these days!

People often recommend smothering grass with a thick layer of newspaper, cardboard, or another biodegradable material that weeds can't easily seed into. You can dig/cut small holes through the covering and plant into soil below these holes. Over a couple of seasons, the material breaks down, and in theory the grass is dead by then.

I've never actually done this, so I'd recommend doing a web search for more details. If you Google for

"smother grass" newspaper

that seems to bring up a number of hits.

Burnet

Burnet

Thank you for the response. However, I don't think this would be practical in my case as my garden is covered in lava rocks to keep the soil from washing away during the heavy rains. I would have to remove all the rocks, and replace them later. Too big a job. I have heard of people doing this on level, smooth ground with success. ground

Ecrane

The best climate in the world, according to National Geographic is Nairobi. Not for us. I have been to San Miguel. It is architecturally very beautiful, but I disliked it so much that I wouldn't go back. We were however, looking at it from a different perspective than just a visit. We were looking for a place to live. There are many other small towns and cities that are just as interesting and beautiful, without the attitude, and much less expensive. Check out Morelia, Michoacan. That is where my heart is in Mexico.

I've visited Morelia too, it was very beautiful as well, but I haven't spent nearly as much time there as I have in San Miguel and Queretaro so I don't know it nearly as well. For now I'm just looking for places to visit--once I retire I might think about moving down there, but that's quite a few years away still!

I have a problem with Blue Star Creeper. It is a very pretty ground cover that blooms in the late spring and early summer. My problem is that I have wild grasses growing in it and actually squeezing the Blue Star out. It is impossible to pull the grass out without pulling the Blue Star out with it. It won't be long and I will have to mow it. I live in the Seattle Washington area.
Does anyone know of a product the will just kill the grass and not the ground cover?
Tom