Couch grass.

Hi,

Five years ago I started to clear the top of our garden in order to create a wildflower meadow; a lot of the area was covered in couch grass which must have been there since the bungalow was built in the sixties so it was well at home.

I tried using my petrol rotavator which just bounced off so nothing for it but to use a spade; I turned the whole area over by digging down and flipping over exposing the rhizomes; it was left to winter then the next springtime I tried rotavating again but the rotavator just bounced around so now using the spade once again I went over breaking it all up into smaller pieces.

With buried stones; bricks; tree roots etc it was very hard going indeed but eventually the rotavator worked; then it was raked over removing lots of debris and tree roots dug out. It was left a couple of weeks then rotavated once again and this time after raking removing lots more debris I finally broadcast wildflower seeds bought from "Meadowmania" the meadow is now into its fifth year. Each Autumn I've strimmed then gone over with the petrol mower and rotavated then the following springtime rotavated again twice before broadcasting new seeds; in full bloom it's stunning so much so walkers along the adjacent lane stop to admire and take mobile phone images engaging me in conversation saying how beautiful it looks and how did I create it.

Now when I rotavate there's little couch grass left. About a month ago I decided to sort another section of garden out this too with lots of couch grass even rapidly growing through ground cover cerastium (Snow in summer) it looked terrible; I just rotavated the lot in; I've since rotavated again.

What I now find is new couch grass pushing through but all I now do is keep an eye on this area which is still bare and unplanted; it's now incredibly easy to pull out the new couch grass growth; there's no longer the long rhizomes so it comes out incredible easy in the now rotavated and raked soil.

To simply pull out by hand couch grass many of the long rhizomes remain in the ground; rotavating a number of times breaks the rhizomes into much shorter lengths; lots are buried too deep to grow again; those exposed just die off in the sunshine.

It works for me but digging and rotavating is definitely hard work; here's the result although I've posted these picture previously;


This was couch grass and a double massive hedge.

A close up in full bloom its breathtaking.

Here's the couch grass and the double hedges; the hedge height I've reduced year on year but now I've worked incredibly hard entirely on my own and the couch grass and all the hedges are gone. It's 60' long across the garden.

It gives me a lot of pleasure now when so many stop in amazement to admire the meadow.

Couch grass is a real pain to get rid of but with lots of patience it can be beaten; chemicals could of course be used to kill the couch grass including its rhizomes but I preferred to do it the hard way.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

There is another way....