Quackgrass problem!
fernisland
16 years ago
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Judy_B_ON
16 years agoKimmsr
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Weed problem (pics)
Comments (5)Along the coast at this time of year that might be Johnson grass, too. Does it stop growing or if you leave it alone, will it grow to five or six feet high? Whatever it is, dig or pull it out. In any case, what do you want to do about your lawn? You have a mix of every grass known to man in there. Are you okay with just mowing it down as long as it's green, or would you like it to look more uniform...like a lawn. If you want more of a lawn appearance it is going to have to have water every 2 weeks during the cooler parts of the year and every week in the summer. If that is okay, then you have some St Augustine in there that will return and choke out most everything else. You don't have to do anything but water and mow. The dead St Aug that I see is an indication that the watering has been neglected in the past. Dried out St Augustine will not come back. It's dead. If you can commit to watering, can you commit to weekly mowing? Your bermuda looks like it is doing very well but so does the living St Aug. If you want the bermuda to look very good, lower your mower all the way when you mow. If you want the St Augustine to look good, raise your mower all the way when you mow. If you have both grasses and keep the deck low, it will always look weedy with St Augustine (coarse blades). If you have both and raise the deck all the way, it will always look like St Augustine and the bermuda "weed" will only be visible to the careful eye. In San Antonio that grass mix becomes fully St Augustine when it gets regular watering and is mowed high....See MoreThe Book On KBG
Comments (1)Great information! Thanks grass1950!...See Morebacked myself into a corner
Comments (11)Yes, flattened corrugated cardboard boxes will take care of the problem. Wet them down and cover the entire bed. You do need to cover with something else as gardengal has said to keep them from blowing away. When I have access to hay or straw, I use that. In an urban setting if your municipality collects lawn waste and yard detritus, you can probably get ground up tree limbs for low cost to use. Where I live they don't do that so I buy cedar or pine bark mulch and use that. If you go the bark mulch route that won't rot into the soil anytime soon but it is easy to pull it back and replace or remove last year's cardboard if that is your choice. I treat this as permanent mulch and add cardboard every couple of years as it breaks down. I can cut through the cardboard with a box knife to plant through the cardboard. I do not otherwise disturb my soil once I have it set up. Cut a hole large enough that it will leave a space for watering the plant. I use drip irrigation or hand water. As I am in an area untroubled by slugs, I do mulch all the way up to the plant base. I have in fact done this pretty much everywhere I've ever lived and slugs are not usually a problem. If you are in a slug-rich environment - say, Portland, OR - you will definitely want to keep the mulch AND the cardboard weed block away from your plants. This method of mulching my garden plants is so effective and so easy on the water bill that I am willing to pick slugs every morning if I have to. I've only been in that situation once in decades but the garden was so small it really wasn't a problem. However if I ever have to deal with slugs again, I'm likely to start relying on Slug-go. Even if you don't choose to continue to use the cardboard (covered by mulch) as weed block, this will definitely kill off your weeds and many of the weed seeds as well. If you want to do a soil sterilization to kill even more weed seeds, in the spring, pull off the cardboard and all mulch and cover with CLEAR, not black, plastic. It needs to be in soil contact not suspended over the bed by draping it across the bed walls. Weight the edges down with scrap lumber or anything else heavy enough to keep it down. Clear plastic will heat the soil up even more than black plastic. This will kill weed seeds for about 6" deep. It won't kill your earthworms, they will just retreat deeper in the soil. If you don't want to mulch forever, don't use hay. It is nearly always full of weed seeds. This is not a problem as long as you keep mulching (especially with the cardboard underlayment as weed blocker), but the results will be less than salubrious should you ever stop. I like cardboard + mulch. I never have to disturb my garden soil except right where I'm planting and everything thrives....See MoreWhat weed you're after...
Comments (43)Thank you Ginny,..I'll have to keep an eye on this. Again,... I'm talking mostly about weeds out on the acreage, spot spraying is what I do, clover and dandelion I don't mind, it benefits my honey bees. I don't think all grass on acreages should be treated with herbicides on a regular basis, I did it one's about 20 years ago when I took possession this infested place. Weeper, many years ago I sprinkled some alfalfa seeds around on places I thought it would be good for honey bees, several years later I found out it spread to areas like near trees and other plants I grew, then I had to kill some. They could grow 8 feet tall, can suck allot of nutrient and water away. Alfalfa has a long root system,.. up to 18 feet!...See MoreJAYK
16 years agoclarksons
13 years agoKimmsr
13 years ago
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