Common bermuda which spreads by seeds blowing through the air may be winding up in your flower beds. You can use a pre-emergent in those beds. Spotlight is one that's popular with landscapers. You may have to order it online.
If it's a hybrid bermuda and it's creeping it's very difficult to control without a physical barrier. Of course it would be incredibly expensive to drive sheet metal into the ground along your property. Edging/concrete curbs alone aren't a long term solution.
You can spray bermuda with roundup and it will go away temporarily.

Quirky - I am not sure if it is common bermuda or a hybrid. I do know that it seems to spread via underground rhizomes (creeping?). Pulling them up is unsuccessful - never get the underground part as it breaks at the soil surface.

You mentioned a physical barrier is necessary for the creeping. I have about 25 feet of property boundary that is affected. Have you heard of backer board being used for an deep edging? Also thinking about red brick on end, but the rhizomes would surely get through the cracks unless I mortared them. Whew! Doesn't seem like an easy solution.

Thanks for the tip on Spotlight pre-emergent. I have some round-up on-hand and will try that too.

As to the question of Bermuda getting into your SA, shouldnÂt be a problem if you use proper mowing techniques. Raise your cutting height as high as your mower will go and leave it there. When SA is kept tall it will over run and choke out the Bermuda.

As for Bermuda getting onto your flower beds is another question altogether. Short answer is you will have a life long battle if it has shown up. Hand pulling religiously will be the most effective. Problem is Bermuda can set roots as deep as 20-feet. No amount of pulling, herbicides, or barriers is going to stop it. Best you can do is keeping it in check.

Texas-weed - Thank you for responding. I do mow at the highest setting, but the problem with this area is the SA tends to get sparse (full sun all day with restricted water). So..the bermuda is taking a hold.

I never knew the roots went down as far as 20 feet! Ugh. As you stated, sounds like no barrier will work. My garden bed currently has ferns, which are not stopping the Bermuda and looks a mess.

Is there a drought tolerant groundcover out there that could out-compete the Bermuda? I don't want to plant the beds with SA due to water restrictions.

Thanks for any input!

but the problem with this area is the SA tends to get sparse (full sun all day with restricted water). So..the bermuda is taking a hold.

Well that is the only way Bermuda will out compete SA. Unfortunately I do not know of any turf or ground cover more drought tolerant than Bermuda, it is king of heat and dry conditions, and does even better in hot and wet conditions. Sorry I think your only defense is more water.

It is a losing battle to fight bermuda in a SA lawn, or in almost any lawn.

Texas-weed, no matter what lawn mower and what setting you use, you can almost never completely choke out bermuda. In a SA/bermuda lawn, SA will dominate, but bermuda is the toughest grass and it will survive.

To control bermuda, you'll have to have a barrier deep in the ground. I'm not sure how deep, but may be 1.5 feet. Borrow some technics from bamboo forum.

I'll just leave it alone. Not worth the time and $$.....

I talked to Pennington Seed sales rep about killing bermuda. I don't have any proof, but here's what she recommended:

Green Light, Bermuda Killer
Turflon Ester
Vantage

I'd be curious if anyone has had any experience with any of these.

Barry

I have to beg to differ also as I have seen bermuda invade a St frankenstein lawn with good cultural practices. I really have to wonder if what you've identified as bermuda is not infact bahia. I say this because bermuda runners are very easy to pull up (in my opinion) whereas bahia can't even be pulled out of the ground and it's a much more offensive weed than bermuda, though noxious you can only see it up close.
Please describe what you're looking at or post a picture.

Oh and to determine if it's worthwhile to trench and install some kind of wall or footing, you should first establish for certain where the grass is coming from. If by seed then it will do you no good. The only thing it's going to help with is encroachment from the edges.

I have never heard bermuda runners or rhizomes are easy to pull out. The strong root system can be 5 feet deep. If you pull the top one foot, more will come up. Seeds will get it even worse.

Controlling bermuda has been discussed so many times. Search the forum. If your neighbor has bermuda, you are out of hope. You will be bermudalized!

Bermuda turf does look better than SA.

Achang89-

Come down here and see for your self. My st aug lawn looks better than ALL bermuda lawns in this subdivision. It's SO GREEN AND 100% coverage which no bermuda lawns here can even touch. Oh yeah, I water them much less often than them....

When bermuda gets into a flower bed by seed, it's a single plant. I've noticed more so with the common bermuda that the runners will creep out from this single plant over the ground and even over sidewalks. It's very easy to yank out if you catch it within maybe 3 weeks... im guessing. If it's spreading by a neighboring lawn you can't pull it out... it's too late and the only thing left to do is kill it all.

I will post a picture tonight when I get home. Thank you all for your input so far.

Lou, nothing personal. In general, SA is coarse, ligher green, but tolerate shade.

Remember this thread "Lawn yellowing (pic)"
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg1013571018548.html

I had both of them before, but none right now.

OK, not having luck downloading pics to this site from the camera. Any advice?

Did it! The stolons are very long, several feet as they wind through the shrubs and ferns. The flower head doesn't appear to be bermuda or bahia. Any ideas?
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It is not Bermuda, try Quack grass or Meadow grass.

I agree It's not bermuda.
Actually looks a little like kentucky bluegrass LOL. I have no idea. And you're right it doesn't really look like bahia either.

Looks like highway grass. Anyway, weed wack the weed and lay a weed barrier fabric over it and cover with mulch (pine bark, pine straw, etc). This would be for your bedding area.

Kinda looks like young barnyyard grass. Goto weedalert.com and check it. Very good site for ID'ing weeds.

I have tall fescue lawn. Had lawn aerated and overseeded last fall. Looked just fine with a little bermuda here and there. Well the story changes. This summer we have had hardly any rain with 106 degree temperatures. My grass was looking very bad so I had a sprinkler sytem installed July 3rd but it was too late. Where the new grass died bermuda took over and especially in the places that were trenched for the sprinkler. Also crabgrass galore. So bad I fired the company that had been keeping up my lawn. Found out they were useing too week of a chemical solution for the square footage so it did not control crabgrass.

I am completely killing out my lawn with roundup and reseeding. I know that roundup will kill the existing bermuda but will not do a permenant job.

I saw a product at Lowes called Bermudagrass and crabgrass killer by BAYER Chemical. It says that you can use in on fescue and bluegrass but not bermuda, or other bermuda grass type grasses such as centepede or st. augustine. It is not suppose to hurt ornamental plants or other plants except Junipers at a few other types.

It says that it will control bermuda and to completely kill it you will have to apply it monthly starting when bermuda greens and 1 or 2 seasons it will KILL it out. It is applied by hooking the container to a water hose so this would be easy.

Has anyone tried this? I don't think it has been on the market for too long because at one time Bayer said they did not have anything that would kill it.

Advise.
Thanks

I'm on my 16th application of grass killer for bermuda (I'm spot treating at this point) and it still keeps coming back. But I really do think I'm making progress!!!

I personally think it's useless to waste time and money spraying stuff to supress bermuda every month. There's just so much of it around here that it's going to get in the fescue no matter what.

The bermuda spreads very quickly so if you have even a little it could wind up forming sod in stressed fescue in a very short period of time. In N.Ga, you are probably too late in the season to kill it with roundup but you could dig it out.

Here's my experience with Bermuda. The previous owner didn't put a barrier when he had sod installed and now half of the front yard was soon taken over. The stolons, above the ground, are easy to pull up, but usually are a very long, rope like, root that can be pulled for a few feet.

I took out an old ranch style fencing recently and the posts ran down a few feet. I looked down and saw a mess of roots, rhizomes, at least 2-3 feet down.

Devil grass!

Yep, and if those fence holes would have been 12-13' deep you still probably would have seen those roots. That is some meana$$ grass to get rid of. Been trying for 4 years, and I dont think I've even dented it.

Bermuda should be banned from residence lawn...

Somehow it ended up right in the middle of the st augustine lawn. It wasn't even bermuda lawn to begain with. Just bare ground when I first moved into. It must have traveled underground for 20 feet before showing up in that spot!

Devil grass....