Grass in shrub border

Along the side of my house, there is quite a longer border with shrubs. We are on a newish estate - about 6 years old - and the shrubs were put in by the house builders. I imagine prior to building, the area was just grassy with brambles as this is what comes up time after time.

I try to get down to the roots to remove this long grass when I can, but I seem to be fighting a losing battle. I managed to clear everything about a month ago, and now after all this rain quite a lot has come back again. Some of the grass is already over a foot tall and is growing up and above the shrubs.

Do you know if there is any thing I can put down to get rid of the grass but not damage the shrubs? The brambles aren't too bad and grow really slowly. Thanks.

 

If you go under the shrub and pull all the grass stems down into a little flat bundle then give them a good spray woth glyphosate that will do it. Just make sure it is on the ground and spray directly on top watching for any drift to the leaves of your shrubs. It won't kill the shrub but the leaves won't like it. You do need to keep on top of it. Seeds from lawn cutting germinate. I am surrounded by fields and it's a way of life. The birds also lend a hand sowing the stuff:lollol:

 

I agree with Rhyleysgranny but just use an old bit of carboard, or similar, when you spray to stop the spray drifting onto your existing plants.

 

I don't use weedkillers ( I just can't be trusted with them lol) so I would buy myself a good hoe-sharpen the blade to as sharp a point as you can and make it part of your routine maintenance. Hoe the tops off and over time it will die off completely.

 

I have some birds that help sow things I don't need in the borders and I have the magpies who help dig out stuff they have just seen me plant.
Why can't I train the magpies to just pull out the weeds and leave my newly planted stuff alone.

 

:lollol:

 

Thanks, I will try the glyphosate.

 

One of the good things about Glyphosate is that grass is incredibly susceptible to it's effects, even a small application will pretty much guarantee grass annihilation, although the problem is that you'll just be creating more bare ground for more grass or other weeds to seed into, so it's going to be an ongoing issue.

In the long-term a better solution would be to use a combination of thick mulch (either organic or, where not visible, old carpet/cardboard etc) and dense-growing ground-cover plants to fill in the gaps and cover the bare soil.

 

But that's life isn't it?

It's an ongoing problem with so many things.

I can recall a little ditty with plenty of alliteration about a Dutch ship's caption and his cargo of sacks of rice infested with mouse droppings.
He reasoned if he had to have the droppings, why couldn't they all be put in one sack?