I will never use a gas mower again. I currently own 2 manual mowers ( a sunlawn and an old craftsman) and I own 2 cordless electric models ( a brill and a sunlawn) my mom currently has the brill but doesn't use it much. Between all these I can usually get er done. The sunlawn electric is good on the thick bermuda areas, but I had to modify mine to get it to keep working. I like the heavy old craftsman but it took me a while to find the right front and rear mowing height and the blade needs constant adjustment. When all settings are right I would say its the best. I'm now researching to find the best manual mower. Tru-Cut makes a heavy duty manual model called a H20-5 that could be what I'm lookin for. Also I've read that the Agri-Fab silent reel mowers are really good also, but they stopped making them. Now there are couple of chinese manufacturers reproducing that same mower now called the silent cut 18 or 20. I've heard the quality is good on these also. There is also a pro-mow model that is supposed to be real good also. I wish I could try all these out and find out which one is the best for southern turf like bermuda, centipede, and all the zoysias. My lawn has all three. Probably wouldn't hurt to plant some St. Augustine too. I think I'm addicted to grass and reel mowers and no I don't look like a long haired leaping gnome, I just feel like one.

No one asking anyone to read ALL those replies. If you do not want to know what we know, skip our replies. On a new thread or topic, we will come over & reply & you will be back where you are now. jolj(7b/8a) henry, I am going to try solarization on my bahia grass. 90% of the things on this thread will not eradicate bahia grass. This includes round up, which kills the tops, but not the deep roots. Round up will not kill nut sage/ nut grass or common dew berry vines. So I will try this on the bahia. I have heard that the solarization may kill the soil food web, when it kills the weeds. I am planning to sheet compost the beds after I kill the grass/ weeds. I have been told that tilling kills the soil food web. Not sure who is right or if it matters, I give vegetables away every season including the winter. I grow more then I can use, then I must be doing something right. [Like[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/organic-way-to-get-rid-of-bermuda-grass-dsvw-vd~1521679) I did this in 2011 & it worked great.

I guess I'm surprised so many people have so much trouble killing bermuda in garden beds. Killing it out of an established lawn is a huge issue, but killing it in bare dirt is simple. Bermuda requires FULL sun to grow and thrive. If there is a tree or building to the south between you and the horizon, you have a pretty good shot at killing it out. All you need is shade. My neighbor killed her hybrid bermuda front lawn for two years by applying too much compost. The compost shaded out the bermuda. After two years of a really horrible looking lawn, they replaced it all with St Augustine. Just this year I killed a 500 square foot patch of bermuda by smothering it with sand and mulch. We had just finished remodeling last winter and the bermuda filled in where the contractors were working. We needed to relevel the area for drainage anyway, so we brought in sand. The sand ranged from 6 inches deep against the house out to zero inches deep at the edge of the stone driveway. The mulch was 2 inches deep next to the house and out about 10 feet, but then we put in a row of bricks at the edge. The bermuda was growing at the time and we received 50 inches of rain in the 100 days of summer. Although the bermuda was plush out in the (formerly) rock driveway, it never came up through the sand and mulch. This was not a Herculean attempt to kill the bermuda. It was straight forward gardening. We were prepared to pull bermuda shoots as long as necessary. We had less than a handful spring up where the mulch/sand combination was very thin under a huge rose bush. Those were in deep so I know they were volunteers from below. The bermuda creeping in at the edge is extremely easy to pull out of mulch and sand.

I know this is an old thread, but I'd like to add the knowledge I've gained from battling bermuda grass over the years using only organic methods. I live on heavy clay soil and the bermuda grass is heaviest over the leach fields of our septic system. Because I can't plant anything but grass on the fields, I added lots of planting beds near and around the fields where the bermuda is the thickest, but didn't know how much of a pain that was going to be. So, to say the least, I've been whacking at the bermuda for years and learned the following: Digging it up is an almost useless undertaking mainly because of our thick clay soil. There's always enough missed that the stuff comes back fairly quickly. This is especially true if digging it up near a sidewalk or driveway. There is plenty of rhizomes under the pavement. Burning the stuff with a propane torch is fun at first but grows old quickly when you start seeing new green growth the following day. I also can't do extended burning sessions because I'm usually doing a remedial removal with good plants near the bermuda. I'm lucky enough to not burn the plants I want. Boiling water held promise when I tried it despite risking killing roots of my wanted plants. Though my first attempt at this was incredibly dangerous (super propane burner under a giant stainless pot filled with boiling water and a smaller pot to scoop and pour the water out). I saw definite slowing of the regrowth but I couldn't risk doing it the way I was. So I devised a plan to turn my propane torch into a continuous hot water flame thrower by getting thin copper tubing, turning it into a coil, and attaching it to the end of the torch. With the hose attached to the other end and a valve to adjust the water volume, I was able to torch and pour boiling water on the bermuda at the same time. Unfortunately, the bermuda just kinda laughed at the rig and kept growing. Industrial strength vinegar (ie, 20% acetic acid, and yes I know that stuff is quite dangerous) works wonders to kill the top growth, but sadly it just grows back. Now if you're putting in a new bed, thick paper or cardboard under the added soil or mulch will work, but only if timed correctly, more about that to follow. So what's left that an organic gardener has to kill this grass? The final thing in my arsenal is black plastic and not clear plastic. I've tried the clear in another area, albeit it didn't have bermuda in it, but it did have johnson grass and it loved the clear. The johnson grass just kept on growing. The black plastic I've used is the stuff meant to go in crawl spaces as the moisture barrier. It's thick, heavy, and comes in really large sizes. And it withstands the elements very well. I've used one piece now for a year and it doesn't show any UV damage that most plastics would show. Now there's a trick with using the black plastic. You have to time it right. If you want to kill the bermuda, do not put it down in the early spring to take it up in early summer or late summer for late fall removal. Because bermuda goes dormant where I live, the spring time use of the plastic will not really kill it as it is probably still dormant under the plastic. But, the interesting part is the fall timing. As cooler temps approach in late summer, the bermuda starts going dormant even though it is still green. It starts storing more in its roots. So, even if you smother it then, it will come back in the spring. I learned this dearly when using the thick paper method of killing the stuff for a new bed. The paper did its job to kill the bermuda for that year, but in the following spring when the paper degraded in the soil, the bermuda came back with a vengeance. So time laying the plastic out in the early summer to at least late summer. That should ensure total removal. Of course, if you're paranoid, like me at times, leave it longer. Now, there's another problem with thick, black plastic. You really can't use it in already established beds because it will choke out your good plants and probably wreak havoc with your soil. It works wonders for killing this stuff before establishing new beds and for areas without plantings like walk paths. But what do you do with established plantings? This year I got a new weapon. Woven black plastic: http://www.groworganic.com/sunbelt-weed-fabric-3-x-50-roll.html The stuff lets air and moisture to pass through while keeping a total blackout for the soil surface. I haven't yet tried it on my bermuda as it is still dormant-ish, but I have some ready at first signs. It looks extremely promising as the material is thick and just as light blocking as the black plastic for a crawl space moisture barrier. And it should work just fine around my already established plantings.