Bermuda is pure evil. It plotted and schemed, patiently waiting in the shadows until that one split second when you turned your back on it and were vulnerable... Then it BIT!

Evil, I say.

I agree with Diane. "Bermuda grass is evil." There's someone here on Garden Web who has that phrase as their User Name and it always cracks me up when I see it.

Jay, you know, every time I say "I don't have that.." or "I've never seen that here....." it immediately pops up, develops, etc. I think it is some kind of a garden curse.

Dawn

I like Bermuda grass, everything has it's place. For me it is the best lawn grass I have, that said, it's also like cancer, it goes everywhere and is almost murder on a garden.

My old garden spot, about a half a mile away was made in solid Bermuda. I kept it beat back with a tiller and a hula hoe. I had a very clean garden but it required a lot of work. This is our third summer in this house ( and Garden). The old garden was allowed to go back to Bermuda( Yes, like I could have stopped it). That is the old home place so I keep it mowed also, just not as often. The old garden is some of the best looking lawn now.

In this part of the country you had better learn to live with Bermuda, or spend a life time of fighting it. I think if you would water it a little it would even grow on top of your house.

I save Bermuda clippings also, but I let the dry in the sun for a day or two and try to mow before it forms seed heads, but we are getting to the time of year where that is almost impossible.

If anybody comes up with a way of keeping it out of you garden, please post and let the rest of us know. Larry

Jay, when you see those little sprouts, would it help if you used a hay fork and turned the mulch in that spot? This might expose the roots and kill it before it gets established. Just and idea.

George

George,
I'll try that. I have been using a trowel and trying to make sure I get everybit of the root. I have several different types of forks around the garden. Will use one of them to make sure I get all of the roots. Bermuda is something I don't need in my garden. Jay

"....grow on top of your house" LOL I love that. I've had oak trees sprout on the roof in some rotted leaves that had composted over time. Every time I water the front lawn I shake my head in wonder at the irony, because of course I'll go to the backyard and pull up as much of the bermuda as I can......

enjoying the slightly cooler days,
Dale

I've had poke salet grow in my guttering. It's almost as bad as bermuda. I pull it from the garden, the flower beds, and I have a pile of dirt from an excavation that looks like a poke salet garden. If it ever goes to seed not only do you get plants everywhere but you have little purple spots on everything where the birds carry them. Nasty stuff.

Jay, and y'all....
Knowing that bermuda is e-vile in a garden, when I bought this place and had started the remodeling project on the inside and exterior, and with an eye to eventually tackling the bermuda ridden "lawn" for a future garden, I solarized a huge area with heavy duty visquane and just left it for a long long time in the summer heat. When the time came to plant garden, I had zero bermuda to deal with. Since then, I have always left a buffer zone between garden and bermuda areas. It has worked very well for me. If I see some bermuda getting into the buffer zone, I get out the tiller and go over it until it gives up, pulling out any sprouts I have loosened with the tiller.

Jay, the WORST time I had with bermuda doing damage was when the DS was doing a lot of lawn work for local folks and came home with a ton of grass clippings. Instead of letting them dry thinly in the paths, I piled them high in and around my melon patch. Bad move. The depth and moisture created a fungus and I lost my entire beautiful cantaloupe crop that year just as it was ready to start being harvested. As you can well imagine, I was sick over it!!!

Back to your problem, the only way I can think of to deal with the bermuda sprouts would be to relocate the pile of grass clippings into a safety zone away from the garden and your fence line, maybe into a compost pile, and then black out the sprouted area with boards, cardboard or anything to keep it from seeing the light of day. One thing bermuda needs is light to grow. Deprived of that, the end result is death and good riddance to it.

Good luck with the dilemma. I feel for ya :(

Barbara

Barbara,
Thanks for the concern. I think I can handle mine the way I am and also using the pitch forks to check for any remaining. You can spray it with Round up and then again in about 4-5 days twice more and kill it out. I prefer not to do that in my garden. Like I said I've done this for several years and got by great. And it is possible it blew in or was carried by birds. I have a neighbor to the south of me that lets his go to seed before he mows some. But I really think it is from seed brought is with the clippings I received. When I pile them on the ends for future use I do stir them some so they dry well. And also I did this last August and Sept and just saw the first sprouts coming about two weeks ago. Like you said even bermuda couldn't survive that long without sunlight I don't think. And also the roots system is small. I just wanted to warn everyone who might of read my statements in the past. I will still use the Bermuda clippings from the recreation but be careful with those that might have seeds in them from other sources. And I know at times it can go to seeds fairly quick. You would think I would learn to never say I've never had a problem. Jay

Jay...you said,

"You would think I would learn to never say I've never had a problem."

Yea, it's kinda like raising kids, isn't it? Famous last words, lol!

But anyways, aren't we glad we have good gardening neighbors on here who sympathize with our problems and aggravations and pitch in to help out with handy hints. It's been a godsend for me, cause boy howdy, I've had a bunch of them! :)

Barbara

I wonder if the next time you get more clippings than you have space for you could mix some manure in with the clippings. I used to get rabbit manure from a neighbor, and I mixed it in with grass clippings (way back before I knew you were supposed to mulch the grass into the lawn). It created a very hot compost pile. I never paid attention to whether it created new bermuda grass, though, and it was a very long time ago. I do, however, remember just how hot that compost pile got.

Sally