Hi, Tracey. Boy, would I love to visit Australia sometime! Maybe you can put up pictures later in your season - we'll all be garden-starved by then!

I'm by no means the most experienced or best gardener around here but I have fought the grass in the flowerbeds battle. The way I see it, you never really WIN this one. The best you can hope for is to get the upper hand and an acceptable level of control. Grass is always going to pop up here and there.

In the case of a bed that's out of control, I don't try to dig out the roots of the grass. I just pull up it along with as much root as possible (yes, I know there are still roots down there). This can be a BIG job and I've found it needs to be done pretty much in one go or it just never ends. I wish you a nice day with pleasant weather, preferably when the soil is soft so the roots will turn loose easily. Once you have the worst of the grass out of there - all that you can see above ground - put down mulch (a few inches deep). I do this after perennials have appeared so I can leave a tiny bit of space around them. You don't want mulch right up against the stems. One trick I use when mulching a bed with very small plants is to turn small flowerpots or even plastic cups over each plant before dumping on the mulch. When the cups are removed - voila! - each plant sits in its little mulch-free space.

After the mulch is in place you will still have to watch for grass coming up but it should be a bit here and there rather than a weekend-long job. I've found that if I just keep removing the above ground part of the grass, eventually the roots give up to some extent. Oh, there will always be weeds! That is just unavoidable if your garden is outdoors. Birds and the wind will see to spreading seeds and grass and other weeds will creep in underground or with runners. But once you get control it only takes vigilence to keep things looking nice.

I haven't found that planting very thickly really eliminates weeds. It does make them harder to see (don't you hate when sneaky weeds come up right IN the plant you put there?!) but they are still there taking up nutrients and water. And a lot of plants are healthier with a bit of air circulation.

Hope these thoughts help. Luckily, I enjoy weeding (I find it relaxing, actually) because it is always going to be part of gardening.

Tracy, This has been my first full year of gardening so I tried a lot of things. The one thing that worked was newspaper 6-7 sheets thick and placed around the plants up to about 2-3 inches. I also planted closely. For what it's worth it was very cheep and I haven't had a problem yet since last summer. Ofcourse I did place a light layer of mulch over it for appearcence. In fact I've liked it so much I have placed cardboard going down all my paths with pinestraw over it this summer-I had so much grass'weeds in them. It is also a natural product.

Tracey: We have bermuda grass here that would much rather grow in my beds than in the lawn :) I mulch, pull, and at times resort to using a chemical from Ortho that is specifically for grass in flowerbeds. It's not an overnight kill, but it does a better job.

Long term, mulch does make things much easier. The grass will still get in, but will be easier to pull. I'm in the process of trying to mulch a bunch of beds myself, one bag at a time :)

Lisa

Try setting an in ground edger to prevent grass from invading the bed. Use an herbicide like Round Up to kill off the new growth. I'd even allow some grass to grow as big so that the herbicide can effectively be absorved and should travel down the root system and kill off the rest of the grass. Take care not to spray on the surrounding plants. After that continue to remove any new growth, mulch, kill until finally the plant is starved of nutrients and light.

Hi Tracey and welcome to the Cottage! : ) As for cutting back, wait to cut your penstemons back until early spring -- they will do much better and you'll stand a better chance of not losing any of them. I learned this the hard way.

Grass invading beds is a tough one. I have been vigilantly planting a ground cover (you can see pics in the gallery) that has helped tremendously in keeping out the stray grass and weeds. I still have to pull a few blades now and then but nothing like I did when the beds around the lawn were bare between the roses and perennials.

I've also used a very small redwood bark with much success. I use this mostly under my evergreens until the ground cover gets established.

HTH! And don't be a stranger -- we'd love to see pics of your place. : )

Diana

What kind of mulch is best? Do plants reseed through the mulch?

Hi Tracey! I want to Welcome you as well. I use both straw and mulch in my garden. I use straw in the vegie garden and mulch in my perennial borders. You've been given the very best advice that is out there on how to get the problem grass under control. Plants will self seed easily through straw in my experience because the straw will ususally break down during the season. I have to put it on twice during the summer, when I plant and once more before fall. Over winter it pretty much disappears so the seeds do set well through it. It is good for keeping most weeds down to a minimum but the color is somewhat glaring. It really does nicely to help retain moisture. With mulch ( I use Cedar) I just move the mulch aside, around the plants that I want to self seed, around the time that the seeds are ready to drop. I also do that when I sow seeds directly. The seeds sprout and then I push the mulch back in around them. I have to move my mulch aside because I put it on really thickly, 3-4 inches. I too love to weed but I do want to spend some of my time in the garden just enjoying it and not always working so mulch saves time and it also saves on water! I totally agree with Lindakimy that the easiest and most effective way to get control is by hand pulling and then mulching. Often my vegie garden gets away from me between the time it takes to get everything planted and mulched and I just sit down for a few days and hand pull all the weeds away and then add the straw. It's a very satisfying feeling when you get it all done and know that you won't be doing THAT again this year!

Good luck! Looking forward to pictures of your garden when you have the time to post some.

MeMo

Thanks to all of you for the warm welcome and great words of advice. On the weekend I took the plunge and did lots of weeding (which I really don't mind either - just don't have alot of time these days as I work 6 days a week running my business).

I had a delivery of "euky mulch" - shredded eucalyptus and other native mulch, and that has gone on top of pea straw all over the garden. I also mixed in a bit of well rotted sheep manure. Lindakimy, I took your advice on covering the smaller seedlings with pots first - great suggestion!

Will definitely post pictures again once everything comes up again and the garden is in full bloom - around late Oct/Nov I guess. Meanwhile I'm enjoying reading prior postings here, what a great informative and helpful forum!

Tracey