Details are needed. "Grass reeds" does not mean a thing to me, and I know a ton of emergent shoreline species. Also, where in the world this is would help immensely. FWIW, native emergent-zone species are what you want, regardless your location. The planting of non-native stuff by waterways is especially problematic, the seeds or other propagules easily being carried hither and yon by the currents. So please, provide some additional info. I'd love to help, but can't without some background data.

+oM

I am sorry I know better. I am in Southeastern Pennsylvania. There is a variety of plants along the edge of the riparian boundaries, but the majority is common reed which is considered an invasive by PA phragmites autralis. This plant also forms a dense mat which traps the silt and cause the waterflow to be interrupted causing more of a swamp than a watercourse. Since the stream is over 500 ft long that is alot of weeding so I am truing to find a plant which would support the bank but not be invasive or cause the stream to be blocked.

Hoo boy-Phragmites! Got you now. That's one tough customer to get rid of, seydoux. I hate to tell you this, but Phragmites laughs at your attempts to control via cutting back. You need chemical warfare, and since this is at water's edge, this is most definitely a job for a professional company specializing in "native restoration" or some such. I deal with such matters all the time and know whereof I speak. You will never get Phrag under control without a serious chemical (herbicide) program, and again, this is not for the homeowner or do-it-yourselfer. Just not possible.

So, up here in WI, we've got Phrag all over the place. Late summer is when crews of knowledgeable individuals use what is termed as "hand-wicking" of concentrated herbicide,-usually glyphosate-onto the foliage using the "wet glove" technique. This is-again-not one for the beginner. It's doable but takes knowledge. Please let me know what your thoughts are upon reading this. Does this sound like something you could hire out? Are there legitimate companies in your area specializing in such work?

Then-and only then-once the phrag has been killed off, there's a host of delightful native emergent zone plant species to work with. That's the fun part-bulrushes, pickerel weed, arrowhead, and on and on....But first, that Phrag has got to go.

+om

Thanks Wisconsin! ahh yet another invasive! That can go with my japanese knotweed, my multiflora rose, my Norway maples and my japanese stiltgrass. lol. I was actually planning on digging out the stream banks and replacing the soil with some from another area on the property if that works. I have learnt how to properly apply herbicide near water, (I also have an infestation of cattails), but i would prefer just to dig it out and leave the soil someplace dry for a few years. if this would work please let me know what replacement plants you might suggest, I use the winter months to plan.

OK, so to my way of thinking-not saying I'm right necessarily-soil removal is the nuclear option. But that hand-wicking I mention above is no picnic either. Briefly explained, the technician places a chemical-resistant Solvex (or other approved) glove over one or both hands, then places a larger cotton work glove over that. Then from a small bottle of pre-mixed systemic herbicide-this would be at a higher concentration than is used for foliar spraying-a squirt of the solution is sprayed onto the double-gloved hand and immediately wiped or swiped onto the Phrag or cattail foliage-works the same for both plants. This is done later summer, so that sap flow is trending downwards into the roots, so as to kill the whole plants. Typically, a dye is added so that one can see what's done and what's not done.

As you may imagine, this is tedious, often hot work. Usually an entire chemical-resistant suit should be worn as you're more or less right in amongst the plants you're treating.

So, slow and painstaking, but it does work. I'd think-again this is just me-that as an option, this one could save the even larger job of soil removal/replacement. And depending on your state's regulations, permits may be required to do work in the aquatic environment, which is as it should be IMO.

Once the herbicide is taking effect-before the dead stuff has withered away-one can begin planting plugs of the good stuff right in amongst the matrix of dead and dying Phrag or cattails. We do lots of this kind of work, and a total transformation, from a monoculture of just the one invasive species into a nice and much more ecologically integrated mix of various native bulrushes, pickerel weed, arrowhead, Juncus, and whatever else I'm forgetting at the moment, can be achieved.

BTW, here in Wisconsin, we have the native latifolia type cattails, which I try to retain whenever possible, but we also have the non-native super tall and narrow angustifolia as well as the hybrid between the two. I actually really like the native version, but I hate those invasive types. Some folks scratch their heads at seeing us treating cattails, considering that plant to always be desirable. But they don't realize there are invasive types, and short of Phragmites, they are just about the worst at taking over a site and rendering it much less interesting and ecologically intact than it might have been.

+oM

Mmmm, I was hoping for a miracle solution myself, while knowing there is nothing for it other than the glove of death. Phragmites australis, while still only making a few inroads on my side of the land-drains, the writing is on the wall and action needs to be taken before this voracious reed gets fully established. Personally, I loathe and fear these rhizomatous grasses, with bamboo being somewhere around the 9th level of purgatory, creeping rye (a sort of UK Bermuda) hovers around the 5th level...but phragmites is deffo nearer to level 8. I have not really bothered running a full-on eradication of anything in my wood yet (mainly because it would be an exercise in futility and plants have got to get along)...but the patch which has crept in on the dampest corner, come next spring, will have to be tackled with vigour ...because I know in my heart that there will be no peaceable co-existence with anything else. The other sides of the drain and track (not my land) are wholly reed bed and a few scrubby willows - an essay in dreariness (and possibly, Tom, my closest inkling to the US invasive anxieties ) - although marsh reedbed is a terrific fauna habitat.

Even our cattail monocultures-whether the native latifolia type or the others, are surprisingly good habitat for certain birds, primarily redwinged blackbirds and their variants. And even Phrag is a water filterer par excellance. It's just that you lose every other darned plant once these thugs take over. Speaking of Phrag, it is thought that there is a native race here in Wisconsin. You can still see stands of it to the west of where I live. I'm in the part of the state influenced by proximity to the Great Lakes and as such, the big foreign invader type is preeminent. For quite a while, purple loosestrife-Lythrum salicaria- used to be the poster child for emergent zone invasive plant species. Heh....now that Phrag has taken over, I don't think that pretty magenta-flowered plant is on anybody's minds anymore! And gosh darn it, I simply love the look of purple loosestrife! Even though many of our stormwater projects require DNR permits, and even though those permits require the banishment of such plants, I do so only with a heavy heart. This state has imported several beetle species that prey on Lythrum, and to me, it's not worth going after anymore, it's having receded into becoming just a more or less well-behaved member of the biota. But regardless, we must destroy it!

+oM