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Tennessee Gardening

What the heck is it????????????????

16 years ago

I just moved to Tennessee from Michigan.I did a lot of gardening up north but when I came here my front landscape was already done. I moved into a subdivision in Spring Hill.

I am finding this grass like weed(or is it grass)vining through my landscape. It has a root system that is almost indistructable. I pull and pull and I know I still haven't gotten it all so I know it will be back.This is the second time in three months I have had to pull this monster out of the landscaping.

What the heck is it and how do I control it.

Help me --pulling out weeds and hair in Tennessee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Comments (6)

catbird
16 years ago
It sounds like it's probably bermuda grass, which is an attractive, fine-bladed turf grass -- if it stays in the lawn, which it never does. It has underground and above ground runners which you'll never be able to pull up entirely. You won't have much luck digging it up, either, unless you can dig the whole area and work through it carefully to get every scrap of root. It loves Roundup because it kills off the competition and only momentarily slows down the bermuda grass.

It's not hopeless, though. There are a couple of grass-specific herbicides (e.g., Post) which will kill the bermuda grass without hurting the shrubbery or perennials it's twining through. Check a good gardening center or farm supply store. It may take a couple of times to get it all. Just stay with it.
brandon7 TN_zone7
16 years ago
When I grow up, I'm gonna invent a chemical that selectively kills all the Bermuda grass in the world.

Roundup kills my Bermuda grass fairly effectively. At most, two applications seems to rid a certain spot of it. Of course it always grows back from wherever I stopped spraying. I thought about killing the whole yard and starting over, but then there's the neighbors and their neighbors and the neighbors on the other side of them. Did I mention, I hate Bermuda grass!
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ladybug37091
16 years ago
Welcome to Tennessee Tapyam, I too am from Michigan. I moved here many moons ago. You should come to the mtps in Howenwald you would love it. If you are sweating the grass, wait until you get a taste of dealing with the clay. It is a big adjustment but with amendments is actually really good stuff. Rhonda
catbird
16 years ago
Me, too. The DH loves the stuff for the same reasons we hate it -- it's indestructible and it spreads rapidly. I love to garden and the bermuda grass drives me nuts! Post herbicide has saved my garden and our marriage. ;-) LOL You just have to have patience and stay with it. (for marriage and for keeping bermuda grass out of the garden)
catbird
16 years ago
ladybug and I were posting at the same time. I live in No. AL (I'm on this forum because our daughter lives in Nashville) Red clay is what passes for dirt in our area, too. I've discovered that mixing in some coarse sand along with compost helps a lot. Fine sand will turn it to concrete, but coarse construction sand will make it drain much better and make it easier to dig.
freident
16 years ago
thank you catbird! i have red dirt here also. this is my 4th season with space big enough for gardenin. this past year i been really throwin all my egg shells and tea bags in garden area hopin they would help break it up..ty

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