Some times one must admit defeat. I have battled some kind of invasive grass for over ten years now. I have so much landscaping plastic in my yard, until it could be considered pavement, and the grass grows on top of it with roots going through the fabric into the soil beneath. I start off strong pulling and spraying with success, but by the end of June my energy wans. In August it looks as though I purposefully planted the tall gangly tough rooted stuff. It is a rizome under the groung and it runs and attaches itself. It is tough. Has anyone else had such a long and enduring battle with one particular grass. I pull masses of it twice yearly and it can be bundled for hay to feed horses. This year, as usual, I will launch an early attack. But by summer, I will be retreating and waving the white flag of surrender. I am a Christian woman with love for all, but not this grass. It's official I HATE THIS GRASS WHATEVER ITS NAME IS, because it is a winner.
Yes ,I have a hate for what my dad called bunch grass .I fight and fight and it always wins d2d .I decided I would just plant one bunch where I wonted it and let it be pink and wave in the breeze.Have I give up on it ?Yep ,it won.
I battle Bindweed and Vetch here D2D. It definitely has the upper hand, but I will NOT admit defeat! LOL
Fellow soldiers of encouragement. I am smiling because I am not alone. NO surrender, No defeat. Glendann, you are no loser, you were the smarter one.
I'm fighting Aegopodium podagraria - ground elder. I dig it up, spray it, burn it, try to suffocate it with ground cover, but it keeps returning, and every attempt I make to get rid of it seems to make it stronger. I'm not giving in either.
Somebody onsite here has the tagline, something to the effect of "the weeds will always win because nature bats last" "bout sums it up. But, how deep do the rhizomes go? I'm thinking, maybe you could isolate an area with some sort of deep impervious wall that they can't get through? This year, I seem to be having a plague of Exodusesque proportions of mushrooms! Slimy, slimy, icky, mushrooms!
I don't have problems with invasive grasses but I do battle with the dreaded bindweed from my neighbours garden year after year after year. It's getting weaker but it's still there!!! :-x
Its hard out there some times against the univited guests. I have not tried the deep barriers. Where ever there is an empty space in my yard I tell my husband "I'll plant a flower there so the grass will grow." The life of a gardener hey.
Let me begin by saying that you are in no way, shape or form ...a loser. No one here will let you get away with saying that. We just don´t believe it. Now to task-- I have had trouble with this type of grass in that new garden that we took on last year... it was VERY bad. Ground elder is also a problem...but fellow gardeners, I have found something that works against both. It is a type of marigold called Tagetes minuta. This plant grows quite tall and does have flowers, just not like the marigolds that you know and love. They are uninteresting. I was going absolutely bananas with these ground pests and I could only go onto my hands and knees to pull them out, as I prefer not to use chemicals...not that they would have worked anyhow. Oké, so I planted these plants where there the mean grass plants were, ground elder and bindweed growing. The grass was killed and the other two began to show signs of withering at the end of the season...but I won´t know about them until the spring. I can tell you that the grass did die though. I was able to find info on this plant on the internet and most of the info said the same thing -- that the tagates roots killed these pests and also a type of root-destroying larva. I am a sceptical person by nature, but am always willing to experiment in the garden, so I tried it. Have a look at these pics to see results. The stringy, brown things are the dead leaves of the grass-- This is the only thing short of physically pulling it out that works...and it´s `clean`, in the sense that it´s not chemical. The seeds are cheap, so it was worth a try for me. Boy am I pleased with the results so far...crossed fingers for bindweed and ground elder.
If you want to try this and you have trouble finding seeds, let me know and I will try and locate some here for you.
Thanks for the info and picture. I see that your wanted plants on the left back of the Tagetes is still living. How far out does the plant work effectively. It would be a good choice for one particular spot I am having trouble with. It seems to work. Keep me informed and I will keep an eye out for the seeds. Did you purchase the seeds from a catalog or local nursery? I appreciate the reply it is interesting and a ray of hope to say the least. Glad your knees can get a little break
How about that Those Tagetes are just great Sjoerd. Now I have also learnt something new about Tagetes. SO many uses for that small plant. I use Tagetes to fight ants. and now I can use it to fight weeds too.
Hi, D2D: Since last year was the first year that I have planted and experimented with this plant, I don't know alot (firsthand) about the plants. I do not know how far it works, but UI understand that the enzymes that are produced by the roots of the Tagates are absorbed by the roots of the pest plants. If it goes all the way into the rootsystem of the target pest-plants, I do not know yet...I'll know more in the spring. I planted these Tagates p[lants along a fence in the new garden and after a few months all the grass plants were dead..... also on my neighbour's side of the fenceand from that time until today, there are no new signs of grass growth. BTW... I think that that mean sort of grass is called "couch grass" or " crab grass", but I am not sure. I purchased the seeds from a seed company here in Holland. If you get serious about trying them and cannot find them there, I will try and get them for you or give you the name of the seed company, and you can order them yourself...whatever you prefer. I would give you the name now, but I can't recall which seed-hiuse it was, I shall have to look. Yes it is a ray of hope. I can't waut to see if it works just as well against the other meanies. PALM TREE: Please be aware that this particular type of Tagates isNOT the small, beautiful little orangy-yellow flowered plants that grow anourt ankle high or so... these plants get to be 6 feet tall!...and they are permanent, not annual. They start working about 3 months after they have been planted the info said, but I noticed results beginning to happen after 1 monmth and 3 weeks. So far as I know or was able to find this species of Tagates is the only one that will kill weeds. Its presence did not damage my veggies either. The fragrtance of the foilage is different from the usual marigold smell, but it is also pleasant, I find. Good luck with them.
6 feet tall is a little to tall for the space that I need to be aided and because it is permanent it may not be for me. Please keep us informed and how it performs for you.
Heh heh... yes that's tall; however, Next year I'm going to cut the tops out of mine and keep them lower and bushier.
