Renee, it sounds like you are well on your way. I got some cardboard refrigerator boxes and covered my walkways with them. But the Bermuda grass persists, crawls along underneath, and peeks it's head out along the edges. Every now and then I have to move the cardboard, pull up the long runners, and then put it down again.

In my opinion, hoeing Bermuda is counter productive. It's like cutting a head off a dragon and seven more grow on. I have tried Round-up, mulching with grass clippings, covering with cardboard, digging after a rain, and removing the top 2" of the sod.

I don't recommend Roundup if you have other things growing nearby because it can drift. I know some people who "paint" it on with sponge-type paint brushes but that seems like a lot of work to me. Roundup has never worked very well for me on Bermuda. It does die back, but it comes back from the root.

I think about the best way to keep it at bay is to remove the top 2" of the sod and then cover it with something. The rain separates the cardboard into layers and then the wind blows it around, so ideally if you put down cardboard (or your heavy sacks) and then put mulching material on top, that will keep it from blowing around but it will eventually decompose. And the grass will try to send runners across it, so you will have to be vigilant. I have seen Bermuda root itself into carpeting, I kid you not!

I wouldn't waste my good manure on the walkways, but I live in town and I have to beg a friend of a friend for horse manure. If you put anything down on top of the feed bags that grass will grow in, such as dirt, manure, or grass clippings/leaves, the Bermuda will just come in from the edges and grow in it. If you put down boards, you will have slugs and roly-poly's populating on the under side. I weight my cardboard down with a brick here and there, but I haven't found anything suitable for putting on top of the cardboard except more cardboard. I tried landscape fabric, and it didn't hold up to direct sunlight and foot traffic.

I have raised beds, and I mulch inside the raised beds with grass clippings. This has worked well for me except in a couple of ways. 1) Freshly cut grass clippings in a layer more than a couple of inches thick will heat up and even start to smoke. It isn't good to pile fresh grass clippings too closely around your plants or they will suffer. We pile our grass clippings in the corner of the yard and apply it after it has "cooked" some. 2) A too-thin layer of grass clippings will only introduce grass seed. So you have to keep adding layers. In the fall, when everything's done, we till in the grass clippings. 3) If you don't till the grass clippings into the soil in the fall, leaving it on top of the soil, it will not decompose over the winter and you will have lost the opportunity to amend your soil. Plus you will have to remove it all if you are going to direct sow your seed, so you can find something that the seed will germinate in. If, however, you till in the grass clippings in the fall, by spring you will have nicer dirt. And more worms. HOWEVER, if you don't mulch again the following year, you will have to be vigilant in weeding as some of the grass seed survives and will germinate. 4) If you mulch to kill out the weeds, you will also be keeping in some of the moisture. This is a good thing most of the time. However, we've been getting rain about every other day here this spring and I have not started mulching yet this year because I think it will keep things too wet.

I discovered quite a few earthworms while digging out for my iris bed, which puzzled me because the soil is black gumbo. It wads up on everything when it's wet and when it's dry it's like concrete. Yet there were worms in every shovel full. I always thought finding worms in your soil meant you had good dirt, so I was a little puzzled about that.

It sounds like you have a good start on your garden and you have some great resources for manure. I've heard that chicken litter is some of the best manure you can get. Good luck to you. You'll be hearing from many others, I'm sure, there are a lot of people who correspond on this forum that can give you tons of great advice. Me, I'm not an expert, but I've been coming here for over a year now and they have all taught me a lot! --Ilene

The bags will be wonderful for mulching. Do you have scrap hay that you can use to hold it down? Is that the chicken litter? Here in the city I usually use grass clippings and/or leaves. Currently I have been using pulled weeds!

I always recommend Grass B Gone (Ortho) to chemically help control bermuda, but check to see if the label says it is safe to use in a veggie garden. The front of the label says "safe for landscape", but that may or may not include veggies. It is a slow kill, but it does a good job. There are a few other brands that will do the same thing, Ortho is just what I have easily at hand.

Good luck on your garden. I hope it produces bountifully for you!

Lisa

Renee,

I have two answers for you. The first one was my initial thoughts. Then, I asked myself how could you use the manure NOW, instead of composting it all in a compost pile for use NEXT year, That's how I came up with the second answer.

Answer #1: I'd use the bags and cover them with anything available, EXCEPT I wouldn't use manure of any kind if it has not been composted at hot enough temperatures to kill all the bacteria and pathogens. Using manure that is not fully composted can lead to problems like E. coli comtamination. The hot composting processing kills bacteria like E. coli but cold composting doesn't. Also, hot composting kills weed and grass seeds, but manure that has not been fully composted (should be so broken down it is all small particles like soil or humus) will be full of weed and grass seeds, and so will hay and straw. So, be careful how you use the manure.

SECOND ANSWER: I think you COULD put down some of those feed bags, cover them with manure or a manure/litter mixture, put more feed bags on top of the manure, and then put either grass clippings, clean straw or hay (fresh, no weed seeds) or leaves on top of the manure. That second (top) bag and the layer of grass clippings, leaves or hay would keep anything in the manure from "splashing" up onto the plants/veggies when it rains, which is the primary way E. coli and other bacteria travel from the manure to the plants--via soil splash, not root uptake.

Also, be careful using any uncomposted hay or straw that was sprayed with Grazon when it was growing. There was a huge problem several years ago when some commercial compost companies used either hay or straw that had been sprayed heavily (maybe over-sprayed, I'm guessing) with some Grazon product (or something with a different name but the same active ingredients), and the composting process DID NOT break down the Grazon or similar product. People bought the compost, added it to their gardens, and watched all their plants die, presumably from the Grazon or similar product. From what I remember, the soil in those gardens was unusable for a couple of years until all the Grazon and similar products were leached out of the soil. It was quite a big deal (in the organic gardening world) at the time. Some home gardeners had the same problem with hay or straw purchased locally or given to them by local farmers or ranchers. It hasn't been a problem since, so either the Grazon and similar product's formulas have changed, or the commercial composters no longer buy waste hay or straw sprayed with them, or they compost it longer, or something. Most home gardeners like me who are aware that this once was an issue avoid hay and straw sprayed with Grazon and similar products, although I'll use it if it is VERY old hay or straw (3 years or older) because by the time it is that old, there seems to be no chance of any residue being there. And I am not picking on Grazon, which I know is a VERY important and useful product in the agricultural world. I am sure there are other agricultural broadleaf weedkillers that would have the same effect--it is just that at the time I became aware that it was a problem, Grazon was the chemical being implicated by the affected persons. I am not sure if any scientific research backed up the anecdotal stories, but the problem stopped occurring.

Dawn

I use a scuffle hoe to weed areas, like those in between rows of plants, along the sidewalk area, etc. It is GREAT!

Then, follow Dawn's recommendations.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful:

Also, most feed sacks have a plastic layer, between the paper layers. I no longer use them for mulch because I don't like to pick all that fine plastic out of my soil, the following year.

George