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rjmarkz

Need help removing grass from landscape bed

Ryan M
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago

I recently purchased a home, and unfortunately the landscape beds contain some well-rooted bermuda(?) grass. I purchased a stirrup hoe and started chopping away at the grass and roots a couple of days ago...I feel like some progress was made, but this doesn't seem like a long-term solution because the grass will just keep coming back since the roots seem to go way below... However, it doesn't seem possible to get ALL of the roots out on my own. See the photo (bottom left portion is the part that I worked on):



Below is a more zoomed-in version of the piece I worked on, just to show the kind of roots I'm dealing with (I raked the mulch toward the left after working with it, so that's why it's uneven)



I've heard some people suggest putting cardboard or newspaper down and then mulching over it, but won't that leave me with the same problem I have right now? Won't the roots eventually push their way through the newspaper?

So what's the best solution here?

Try harder to dig deeper and get more roots? Or just hoe off the existing grass around the surface level and do the newspaper thing, then mulch over it with some pre-emergent?

As you can see in the photos, I do have a healthy tree in the bed, so I'd like to avoid chemicals if it's possible.

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