What did you do in the garden today?

[Beekissed]

Quote:

True...but very hard to defend that viewpoint unless you've actually tried it.

Bermuda is bermuda, wherever it grows and it grows in abundance here on my land. Well established, in other words...and in our hard soil. I didn't put down cardboard or paper or anything before applying the chip covering, just tilled the crap out of the nasty clay soil. After I tilled, I went along and collected all the bermuda clumps I could find and removed them from the space, but many were chopped up and dispersed into the soil and were not collected.

This stuff...and this is AFTER tilling it 5 times....you can see the bermuda in the background, already creeping under the timbers and into the tilled garden space. I'm no stranger to bermuda, been fighting it for the past 40 yrs on this land.




Will report later on about the battle with bermuda in a BTE in this next growing season. Should be fun compared to previous battles in years gone by.

 

[politicalcenter]

The difficulty of getting rid if bermuda must depend on where you live. I'm finding thick roots 12" deep as I dig. My friend did a BTE garden down the road from me and the bermuda loved it Within a couple months she was having a hard time keeping the bermuda for taking over her veggies and it seems to be getting worse as time goes on. I have a BTE garden, but there is no grass near it.

Bermuda and Centipede grasses can be difficult and a grass killer such as poast will probably do the job when the grass is actively growing. But if a weed killer is applied this time of year or when the plant is dormant it probably won't do much good.

I have switched from poast and Roundup to vinegar but I haven't tried it on all grasses yet. It has done better as a weed killer than I ever expected and drift is not nearly the problem it is when using Roundup.

Poast is a chemical called Sethoxydim and you can probably get it at your local CO-OP. You can spray it right over most plants in your garden except grasses like corn and it should do the trick but they must be actively growing. The grass will just stop growing and sit there for a little while and in the course of a couple of weeks it will die. I discovered it when my cantaloupe had so much grass in it I couldn't get the grass out without taking the cantaloupe with it. You need to add a "crop oil" to the sprayer and I use a tablespoon of dishwater liquid and a tablespoon of vegetable oil..mixed and added to the sprayer.

Or... you could try covering the whole garden with black plastic and blocking the sunlight till the bermuda grass dies. This will take a while.

 

[lazy gardener]

There is also solarizing which will kill both plants and any weed seeds in the top couple of inches, but I've found that a nice deep mulch, with cardboard for extra insurance does the trick quite nicely.

 

[politicalcenter]

There is also solarizing which will kill both plants and any weed seeds in the top couple of inches, but I've found that a nice deep mulch, with cardboard for extra insurance does the trick quite nicely.

I use a lot of mulch and it works.... but you read the comment about battling it for forty years?

It can be some very tough stuff. You have to have enough mulch to keep the light out... if not... you are just feeding it.

 

[appps]

An alternative to black plastic I accidentally found was that fake turf. We had a bit off the end of a roll and put it over this awful weed we have that I just cannot kill. It's a bit like wandering Jew but has a different flower and the roots have these big sweet potato like bulbs so you pull it out and it just comes back. It took a while but after a year of poisoning and trying to dig it out of my bed with no success the turf roll killed it right off and I've had Veges growing all season with no sign of it. The fake turf gets incredibly hot in summer, hotter than concrete to walk on barefoot, but still allows the rain through. So it kills anything you put it over so I use it over my vege garden now when I'm not growing anything between crops or if I want to kill lawn before a new bed. Rain still goes through so you don't end up with dried out soil. Handy item if you can find some cheap or free.

 

[lazy gardener]

I use a lot of mulch and it works.... but you read the comment about battling it for forty years?

It can be some very tough stuff. You have to have enough mulch to keep the light out... if not... you are just feeding it.

Yes, that statement was made by BEE. She was stating that she has battled it all her life, so is no stranger to bermuda grass. If you read her previous post, she very aptly states that the BTE approach deals very effectively with Bermuda Grass, as it does with all other weeds. (I might add in all soil types and all gardening climates) Will it make weeding obsolete? Of course not. What it will do is turn the tables so that the crop plants have a decided advantage, and any Bermuda grass that does make it's way into the garden is very easy to pull out. I've been gardening under hay for more than 20 years. We all know how seedy hay is, and it doesn't matter what part of the country one gardens in, or what their soil is like. Common sense says that putting hay with all of it's seeds into the garden is inviting trouble, right? Well, experience shows this common sense to be wrong... if you know how to do it. The success lies in keeping that mulch nice and thick. If it's 6" deep, the weeds will not come up. Simple as that. Same approach with BTE. Keep that mulch deep enough, it will feed the microorganisms, which will feed the soil, while keeping light from getting to the soil, thereby suppressing weed growth.

PC, after re-reading your post, I realize that I'm preaching to the choir. But, just wanted to clarify that Bee's comment about battling Bermuda grass was in reference to her gardening practice before BTE. She contrasted how easy it was to manage in her BTE garden compared to the previous 40 years! BTE won't make it go away, but will make it much, much easier to manage. I imagine that your Bermuda grass is similar to our bind weed, creeping charlie, witch grass, and crab grass.

 

[politicalcenter]

Yes, that statement was made by BEE. She was stating that she has battled it all her life, so is no stranger to bermuda grass. If you read her previous post, she very aptly states that the BTE approach deals very effectively with Bermuda Grass, as it does with all other weeds. (I might add in all soil types and all gardening climates) Will it make weeding obsolete? Of course not. What it will do is turn the tables so that the crop plants have a decided advantage, and any Bermuda grass that does make it's way into the garden is very easy to pull out. I've been gardening under hay for more than 20 years. We all know how seedy hay is, and it doesn't matter what part of the country one gardens in, or what their soil is like. Common sense says that putting hay with all of it's seeds into the garden is inviting trouble, right? Well, experience shows this common sense to be wrong... if you know how to do it. The success lies in keeping that mulch nice and thick. If it's 6" deep, the weeds will not come up. Simple as that. Same approach with BTE. Keep that mulch deep enough, it will feed the microorganisms, which will feed the soil, while keeping light from getting to the soil, thereby suppressing weed growth.

PC, after re-reading your post, I realize that I'm preaching to the choir. But, just wanted to clarify that Bee's comment about battling Bermuda grass was in reference to her gardening practice before BTE. She contrasted how easy it was to manage in her BTE garden compared to the previous 40 years! BTE won't make it go away, but will make it much, much easier to manage. I imagine that your Bermuda grass is similar to our bind weed, creeping charlie, witch grass, and crab grass.

Our Bermuda is probably closer to quack grass if you have it that far north. It grows on rhizomes and can grow right on top of landscape fabric.

Years ago I read an article about an older lady that would use hay for mulch. Every time a weed popped up she would just smother it with hay.
Back then I lived in an area that would gather up all the leaf debris people raked to the side of the road and compost the stuff in the back of a local park. In the spring they would run it through a big mulch-er and load it on your pickup for free. Needless to say I had a fabulous garden. I used the same method of smothering the weeds and it worked well. So I guess I have been BTE gardening for years.

Our soil is very rocky and this fall I wanted carrots. I built a raised bed and made seed mats with paper towels. I filled the bed with old, rotten hay. I planted Danvers 129 and raised the best carrots I ever have. After I planted them they thrived. So hay has to work...it sure worked for me.

I have to use leaves and pine straw because that's what I have.

Started a broccoli plug tray today.

 

[FridayYet]

Our Bermuda is probably closer to quack grass if you have it that far north. It grows on rhizomes and can grow right on top of landscape fabric.

Years ago I read an article about an older lady that would use hay for mulch. Every time a weed popped up she would just smother it with hay.
Back then I lived in an area that would gather up all the leaf debris people raked to the side of the road and compost the stuff in the back of a local park. In the spring they would run it through a big mulch-er and load it on your pickup for free. Needless to say I had a fabulous garden. I used the same method of smothering the weeds and it worked well. So I guess I have been BTE gardening for years.

Our soil is very rocky and this fall I wanted carrots. I built a raised bed and made seed mats with paper towels. I filled the bed with old, rotten hay. I planted Danvers 129 and raised the best carrots I ever have. After I planted them they thrived. So hay has to work...it sure worked for me.

I have to use leaves and pine straw because that's what I have.

Started a broccoli plug tray today.

I haven't been successful in finding lots of organic materials for my garden, so I'm really glad I used cardboard for a bottom later. May have to let most of the garden lie fallow for a year until I can get wood chips or until the lawn starts growing so I can use grass clippings to build the layers up.

 

[politicalcenter]

I haven't been successful in finding lots of organic materials for my garden, so I'm really glad I used cardboard for a bottom later. May have to let most of the garden lie fallow for a year until I can get wood chips or until the lawn starts growing so I can use grass clippings to build the layers up.

You can grow a green manure crop and till it in. Some people use buckwheat, some use vetch, but I would probably use a clover.

 

[FridayYet]

I'm trying not to till and only have about an inch over the cardboard (OK, an inch is pushing it.) Might toss some alfalfa seeds on top and see what happens. If my wood chips come, I'll just bury whatever sprouts are growing.

Can't hurt, right?