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How to get rid of established grass?

DTOM420

Member
How do you get rid of established grass to make a new garden? I’m wanting to build a new garden in a spot on our property that currently has established Bermuda and Jiggs grass on it. I really don’t want to spray Roundup to kill the grass but I’d like to use my native soil in this garden and grow in the ground. My other gardens are containers/raised beds and a couple spots that didn’t have grass growing already. Any advice would be appreciated. I have 5 months to get the garden ready to plant so I really need to get started here.
 

Ibechillin

Masochist Educator
depending on how large the area is of course...just covering the grass with black plastic will kill the shit out of it all. You could even cut holes out of the plastic to plant into and leave most of the sheet down as weed barrier too.
 

Safe Gardener

Active member
When I bought my house I waited a year to figure out what part of the yard got the best sun exposure the next spring is ran the rototiller over the grass untill it was turned up to nice soft dirt. Put up a dear fence and planted my starters. Grass has not been an issue at all and four years later I get tons of vegies each season.
 
Black or clear tarps will kill 10-14 days for best results. Good heavy duty clear works the best for us melts the grass away in almost a day.
 

dufous

Well-known member
No dig. Mow it down short. Cover with paper or cardboard.

Top with six inches of compost.

See Charles Dowding and other No Dig method advocates on you tube.
 

redlaser

Active member
Veteran
Cut it low and cover with clear plastic, process will work best in full sun situations. Partially shaded areas will be unsuccessful.
I’d leave it several weeks, pull back and strip dead sod, and re apply plastic 2-3 more times if you have the time.

Bermuda spreads by stolons and seeds, so don’t expect it all to be killed first year. Even if you could elimate stolons, seeds will persist for years.
 

Drewsif

Member
Till it and rake out the Bermuda runners. Get one of those adjustable rakea to make life easy. If youre not adding aeration you're gonna have to till it anyway. Even if you are adding aeration, like leaf compost, buckwheat hulls, etc you got to get them in somehow. Then get a bag of Wallace wow mycorrhizae and brew some lactic acid bacteria.
 

troutman

Seed Whore
Don't use herbicides. Just make rows and plant away.

Cover the grass in-between the rows with something to kill the grass.
 

DTOM420

Member
depending on how large the area is of course...just covering the grass with black plastic will kill the shit out of it all. You could even cut holes out of the plastic to plant into and leave most of the sheet down as weed barrier too.

Will the plastic work in winter? We had an early freeze a couple days ago but now it’s back into the low 50’s at night and upper 60’s/low 70’s in the day. I was thinking that’s make the grass dormant and wasn’t sure plastic would work. You think it would?

When I bought my house I waited a year to figure out what part of the yard got the best sun exposure the next spring is ran the rototiller over the grass untill it was turned up to nice soft dirt. Put up a dear fence and planted my starters. Grass has not been an issue at all and four years later I get tons of vegies each season.

It’s not going to be huge and I have a disc on a tractor but I PUT this grass in by tilling the soil, throwing runners that had been cut a couple hours earlier and disking them into the soil. So, just discing or rototilling will only spread this grass.
 

Ibechillin

Masochist Educator
Did some searching, the clear plastic (people opt for clear more than black it seems) needs warmth like in spring to solarize (cook) the roots completely to prevent regeneration from root bits, but seems the most effective in preventing re growth next to grass killers.

Bermuda grass is really aggressive from what i read, and people mention even after solarizing aggressive grasses disturbing lower than the top 3 inches of the soil could dig up seeds that werent cooked completely.
 

DTOM420

Member
Are you growing now? If not, wait until Spring. :tiphat:

No sir, I’m not. But I was wanting to turn up the soil, amend it, get the beds laid out and let the soil cure under a crop of green manure...until mid March. So, by that time, all I really need to do is plant. I guess I’ll try the plastic down for a a few weeks; and then I’ll probably just dig up the top 4-6 inches (where the beds will be) with a shovel or maybe the tractor bucket. Maybe that’ll eliminate most of it. I’ll keep the plastic in place on the walkways.


Did some searching, the clear plastic (people opt for clear more than black it seems) needs warmth like in spring to solarize (cook) the roots completely to prevent regeneration from root bits, but seems the most effective in preventing re growth next to grass killers.

Bermuda grass is really aggressive from what i read, and people mention even after solarizing aggressive grasses disturbing lower than the top 3 inches of the soil could dig up seeds that werent cooked completely.

Thanks for looking into it. That was my understanding also. Bermuda grass is one of the few grasses that does well here and it’s not terribly water hungry to stay alive. It’ll sure turn brown in the summer heat, if you don’t water it but at any point you can start watering and a couple weeks later it’ll be green! Lol. The resilience is pretty useful unless you want to put in a garden. Most folks just spray glyphosphate but I don’t want to do that. My neighbors would think I’m stupid. Lmao!
 

Lrus007

Well-known member
Veteran
till it then plant winter rye. when rye is 1' tall
till it in. then replant rye and repeat a few times.
it will kill off the other grass seed.
Lrus007
 

St. Phatty

Active member
I have several stands of super thick growing grass in my front yard.

I end up throwing a 4x8 foot lattice on top of it. It gives the pets a place to hide, that's always only a few feet away. Since they have to live with hawks forever circling over-head.

The pets hang out & play on the front lawn, then run to the lattices or into the bushes when the hawks start circling.
 

Veggia farmer

Well-known member
PIGS! they eat everything and will till the top inches. How big area? The problem of being a pig farmer is NOT get rid of the established grass, also know as pasture…
 
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