SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
leava

need a new bad word

leava
14 years ago

i am not one for cussing but yesterday's session of pulling bermuda roots from the garden bed in the mud made me almost reconsider taking up swearing...........

if anything makes me want to use an herbicide it is this bermuda, it and the johnson grass

leava the organic gardener who wants flamethrowing capacities as superpowers for just one day

Comments (17)

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    14 years ago

    Leava,

    As soon as I saw "need a new bad word", the first words that popped into my head were 'bermuda grass', and 'Johnson grass' wasn't far behind.

    The easiest way to get rid of bermuda grass and Johnson grass is to pack up and move to another state--and be sure to chose a colder zone where bermuda grass won't survive the winter.

    One reason I refer to myself as a 'mostly organic' gardener is that I will use a herbicide on bermuda grass occasionally, although Roundup is not that effective on it anyway. You'll see the above-ground bermuda dying back about a week after spraying the Round-up, but then it comes back within a month or so. Glenda mentioned the other day that Poast works for her, but I've never used it.

    OK, it is spring and here are some other bad words to help get that evil bermuda grass off your mind: hail, tordnado, flash flood, poison ivy, greenbrier, stinging nettle, beggars ticks, snakes and late freeze, late frost and late snowstorm.

    There? Feeling better?

    It isn't easy to be a gardener here, but for some reason, we all keep on keepin' on anyway.

    Dawn

  • owiebrain
    14 years ago

    I feel your pain. Yesterday saw me saying a few choice words as well, over Bermuda and trying to get the tiller going. Argh.

    Diane

  • Related Discussions

    New Word 2003 software is missing lucida calligraphy font I need?

    Q

    Comments (8)
    Mikie - thanks. The font I'm looking for is lucida calligraphy italic. It's interesting that link does suggest that the font is in Office 2003 - which includes Word 2003. But it is not in my Word 2003 - which was part of an Office 2008 suite (I gather they have had different versions of Word 2003 over the 5 years). I'll have to go back to check the free font suppliers. I did see a link to buy it for $20 (which would be worth it to me). Bob414 - I do still have my older computer with Word 2002 (and the lucida calligraphy font). I gave that computer to my daughter, so it's still up and running. How would I get the font from that computer to mine? Being fairly computer illiterate, the only way I can think of is if I can find the .ttf file and attach it in an email to myself and open and install it on the new computer. If that's not right, do you have other suggestions? Thank you both. I was unable to find the information you so quickly provided. Lynn.
    ...See More

    need help...bad rainstorm...wet drywall/insulation new build

    Q

    Comments (9)
    serious mistake in judgement someone really screwed up where was the job foreman--is it the builder himself or someone else does your builder carry insurance on this job everything has to come out that was wet because it is not like water damage in house that is already built where a window was left open and rain came in but about those pix it is difficult to tell how some of that water damage got where it is did some leak from second floor into top of first? why do you have plywood floors on ground floor--is there a basement? I am used to cement slab foundations on first floors is it possible this house is not graded correctly and is getting rain water from ground overflowing into the first floor--that is another problem if that occurred
    ...See More

    new Trane xr15 bad loud noisey needs repair

    Q

    Comments (2)
    when you touch the unit does the sound go away? Sometimes a loose screw on an outside guard might create a vigration and make noise. I had a small but significant noise on my new unit. When I touched a certain area the noise went away. I then tightened the screws in that area some and never had a problem again.
    ...See More

    Good news, good news and bad news.

    Q

    Comments (8)
    One thing, I'd hope you remember--medical science has advanced by leaps and bounds since your dd was a child. I know, even with a procedure my DH had about 5 years ago, and had to have repeated this year, there was vast improvement. I'd be willing to bet that the treatment today is better and hopefully more effective than what you were told many years ago. Wishing your daughter the best. As to your other news--Fantastic, the very best to you and your children.
    ...See More
  • leava
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Dawn,lol yes you are a big help to remind me of all the other reasons to wish Adam had not bitten the apple :)

    It is raining and thundering here so now i am thinking all my peas i planted yesterday are washing to one corner.

    And Diane, there is truth to misery liking company..did you get the tiller started?

    Leava

  • owiebrain
    14 years ago

    Nope, no tiller action. I'll try again once it dries out. I need to get up under it and try to reseat a little doohickey that's leaking gas. Definitely not worth messing with in the mud.

    Diane

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    14 years ago

    Leavea,

    It hasn't rained hard enough here to wash out pea seeds here, though it may have rained hard enough to wash out lettuce and carrot seeds. The lightning did ignite some oil storage tanks north of town though, and the thunder has rumbled on and off since the early morning hours.

    It has rained nonstop since last night but the rain has been so light that I bet we've had only about 3/4" at the most. Since our ground was totally saturated already, though, it all is sitting on the surface of the ground and not soaking it, so it looks like lots of rain has fallen.

    Diane,

    I'm glad it isn't just me. I have the hardest time getting tillers, string trimmers, lawn mowers, etc. to start, and then Tim just looks at them and they practically start on their own.

    With all this mud, who can rototill anyway?

    We need SUNSHINE!

    Dawn

  • susanlynne48
    14 years ago

    I'm wondering if the best way to deal with BG is to just smother it?? I've been thinking about just digging some holes to plant in - my soil is pretty good in this location - good black dirt - adding some manure, planting and then just covering the area around the plant within about a 2-3' radius, with landscape fabric, newspapers, or whatever, mulching over it, and getting on with the rest of my life instead of stewing over the darned GB! I tried the Roundup 3X's (once a week for 3 weeks) and what did it do? It grew back! So, rather than fighting with it, why not just suffocate or otherwise asphyxiate it ala CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

    Whoever thought Bermuda Grass was a good idea (rhetorically speaking)?

    Susan

  • owiebrain
    14 years ago

    Even smothering BG doesn't work -- unless you completely smother three counties in radius. And, even then, it will find its way back by the next year.

    The tiller, however, I WILL conquer. I refuse to be bested by a machine. If it was just normal starting, it wouldn't be a problem but it the first of the season upkeep & starting I'm doing. Hubby never got it properly stored last year, instead letting it sit in the elements behind the wellhouse all year. I didn't know or I'd have nagged him into action or put it away myself.

    Anyway, yesterday, I had to take the little fuel bowl off of the bottom to knock the rust out and get the fuel flowing, then it wouldn't reseat right so the gas just pours out all over. Once the mud dries a bit, I'll have to get back out there to clear out the intake and steel wool the bowl and it housing so I can get it seated & sealed properly. Then who knows what else will go wrong??

    Diane

  • oldbusy1
    14 years ago

    sounds like you have a techumse engine on the tiller. those things can be a pain sometimes. i need to do some work on one of my tillers also, the cord dont want to return after pulling it, so i have to help it wind back up. just one of those things i hav'nt got a round to it.

    I'd like to expand my garden but the only area i can is saturated with a heavy stand of bermuda. i actually cut and bale it.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    14 years ago

    Susan, My brother tried smothering it with black plastic. He cut several holes in the black plastic and planted vines, shrubs and perennials and then put a couple of inches of white marble chips on top of the black plastic. It didn't work. The grass came up through the planting holes where it was impossible to remove because the rhizomes had grown into/through the root balls of his ornamental plants. After about 5 years he shoveled off all that rock, lifted the plastic and found big, fat, pale yellowish-white bermuda grass rhizomes growing right on top of (and underneath) the soil's surface.

    With landscape fabric, if you buy the woven kind that looks sort of like felt, and if you mulch it with several inches of mulch, you'll have somewhat better success. However, the bermuda still will grow into the mulch and if you don't remove it promptly, it will root down through the landscape fabric and grow into the soil below. It also will creep in under the edges of the fabric and come up through the planting holes.

    The only bermuda grass removal methods that have worked for me are to dig it out and to aggressively dig out on about a weekly basis every little bit that tries to resprout or to shade it out by planting trees and shrubs that will eventually get large enough to starve it of sunlight or to interplant plugs of St. Augustine into it and let the St. Augustine crowd it out.

    The same agricultural geniuses who thought planting kudzu was a great idea probably also brought us bermuda grass as a pasture grass for cattle.

    Diane, Good luck with the cranky tiller.

    Busyone, I think that's how we ended up with so much bermuda here....it was planted for grazing and for haying. Everyone here cuts it and bales it too along with their native pasture grasses.

    When we bought our place, it was a portion of an old farm that hadn't been farmed in over 20 years so the pastures had seemingly reverted to a beautiful mix of native grasses and wildflowers. There was no sign of bermuda grass anywhere. One of the 'old ranchers' who lived nearby told me that he remembered there being "a good stand of bermuda" on our land in the 1970s and maybe even into the early 1980s. He told us (in 1997 when we bought thd land) that once we started mowing the pastures, the bermuda probably would return. It did. He was excited for us because we would have an "instant lawn" when the builder finished building the house. I was not excited at all.

    Dawn

  • gldno1
    14 years ago

    Dawn, I don't think it was me on the Poast. I have used Gly-4 (generic roundup) and some tri something that is supposed to be safe on everything but grass. It was way too expensive and did not work.

    I keep glyphosphate on hand and use it too.

    I have so much cheat and henbit and Bermuda that I am considering spaying entire beds! They have thrived on our coldest winter.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    14 years ago

    Sorry, Glenda, I thought it was you. Now I can't find where I read that either.

    Our henbit started blooming back in the fall! Usually, you know, it sprouts in late Novemeber and stays teeny-tiny and low to the ground and you hardly notice it is there. Then, it starts enlarging in Jan. and blooms in Feb. This year, it sprouted early, grew and bloomed in the fall. I guess the really cold spell when we went down to 6 degrees froze it back and it all disappeared. It only started sprouting again about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and hasn't bloomed yet at our house, which means it is 'late'. It is blooming at some places in town though.

    Our spring bloomers are late and slow to bloom this year, but I don't mind. My plum trees were trying to bloom most of February and every time they buds were right on the verge of opening, we either had snow or a night in the low 20s and that slowed them down. Now, the buds are fat and ready to go and I expect blossoms any day now, especially since our forecast high for today is 74 degrees. Oddly, the redbuds aren't even thinking about blooming and normally they'd be about to bloom too.

    The weird Winter weather is giving us a weird period of awakening here, in terms of the plants. My heavily mulched garden beds don't have many weeds but the pathways have tons of them....because the pathway mulch is only grass clippings and it all has decomposed into compost. From the roadway, it looks like I have a really flourishing veggie garden that has narrow rows of green veggies and very wide paths. Unfortunately, what I actually have is mostly bare wide veggie beds that are well-mulched and mostly unplanted, and bright green pathways that need to be weeded. I can't weed them now because it is too wet...as in standing puddles of water in the pathways.

    I noticed on Sunday that the bermuda grass that regularly invades my garden by creeping under the fence and crawling across the top of the mulch is already greening up! I am not ready for that bermuda grass to green up. I am going to try to dig it out of the western end of the veggie garden today because that's where my heavy clay meets the odd band of sugar sand, so I ought to be able to work in that sandier soil.

    I truly hate bermuda grass.

    I did notice that in the pathways along with the winter grass and winter weeds there are some self-sown chamomile, lemon balm, catnip and other volunteers, so I'll dig them out of the pathways and put them up into beds someplace.
    Dawn

  • susanlynne48
    14 years ago

    My henbit has not bloomed as of yet, Dawn, but the dandelions are beginning to put out flowers! I leave them throughout the yard because sometimes they, and usually the henbit are the best early nectar plants for the Monarchs on their spring migration north.

    I don't have much space in which to get rid of the bermuda grass, just about 500 sf., but that's enough, bound on all four sides by the driveway, sidewalk, another driveway for neighbors, and the curb. If I could just get rid of that, it would be smooth sailing, or planting. I am not able to dig a lot anymore with the back issues and all, although as recently as last year, I dug a new bed close to the house and I continue to dig large holes for shrubs and plants. I refuse to be idle in the garden!

    Susan

  • OklaMoni
    14 years ago

    Well, I am not sure of a bad word worthy of the Bermuda Grass. Like everyone here, I hate it.

    I usually round up spray an area in the fall, way before it goes dormant. Then spray a second and a third time, hoping to kill it all.

    Next I dig it out over the winter, which for snow reasons, never happened this last winter.

    But, I have started my BG digging out removal process for this year. Had to, I bought those plants in New Mexico, that needed to get in the ground. Only one didn't go where there was BG before.

    When my kids where little, I would use Green Beans as "cuss words", with is sort of funny, as the letters are reversed from Bermuda Grass. :)

    Moni

  • klo1
    14 years ago

    Another one that hates burmuda grass! I have managed to get most of it out of my very small garden, that used to be a flower bed, by constant weeding for several years. Now if I could just get it out of the fence line I would be a happy camper. The other thing I hate is nutsedge, I almost think it's worse that burmuda! You can dig to china and still not get those nuts dug up. Hate, hate, hate that stuff!

    Ok, got that off my chest! Good weeding everyone.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    14 years ago

    Klo1,

    And the good news is.....I got all the nutsedge out of my roughly 60' x 80' veggie garden in only 4 years. It WAS; miserable because I was digging in clay, but I did it. Last year, a little bit popped up in the garden for the first time in five years, but it was only 3 clumps and I dug it right out. I've never had to dig so deep just to remove nutsedge. In order to dig out the nutsedge originally, I sometimes had to dig down between six and nine inches to get every single nutlet whereas back in black clay in Texas, I could usually dig out the nutsedge at only 4 or 5" down.

    The three clumps that popped up last year weren't too deep....I found what I hope were the deeplest nutlets about 5" down. If those weren't the deepest nutlets, I'll know it in a month or two when the nutsedge pops up.

    Susan, I have dandelions up and blooming and the henbit appears to be getting ready to bloom. I wish the perennials and reseeding annuals were popping up out of the ground as well as the weeds are. It was 75 degrees here today, so the plants should really start going crazy although I don't think we'll be that warm again for at least a week.

    Dawn

  • klo1
    14 years ago

    Dawn, I have had to dig down to 12" to get some of those nutlets but I have sandy soil with a clay base. I think they go down as far as they can to get away from me! I have got most of them out of the garden, the rest I just mow.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    14 years ago

    Klo, I don't think I could dig down 12" in our clay because the farther down you go, the harder it gets....and it starts out hard to begin with. We have one band of sandy soil. It isn't very big, maybe about 25' wide at its widest point, but everything grows so well in it. I wish I had more sand, and wish you had less nutsedge.

    Dawn

Sponsored
MAC Design + Build
Average rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars18 Reviews
Loudon County Full-Service Design/Build Firm & Kitchen Remodeler