Grass in flowerbed

Hi
I planted a load of new plants / flowers in my flowerbed over past two summers & I have lots of wild grass growing in the flowerbeds among & inbetween the plants, basically everywhere! I was pulling it out, but its so bad i was hoping there was something i could spray on to kill the grass & not the plants? I searched the net & found "grass-b-gon" but think its american as cant find on a uk website. please help!!

 

Hi and welcome! If you do find such a product please let us all know :D

It sounds like you have couch grass! Pulling it out is a waste of time as you will leave the roots behind. Weedkillers strong enough to eliminate couch, gound elder, bindweed, buttercup and the like will also destroy your new plants. Normally it takes 2 or 3 goes for these persistant thugs.

The only real solution is to dig out as much root as you can, wait for it to re-emerge then dig out the remaining. Improving the soil will make it a lot easier but there's really no short cut as even a piece of root 1/2" (12mm) long will regrow.

There are weedkillers you can use that will only affect green growth but not harm brown bark (such as trees) Look for diquat and paraquat in the small print on the label and only use as directed.

[ 22. April 2006, 02:15 PM: Message edited by: frogesque ]

 

Oh my beloved couchgrass! How I came to loathe them! My freshly dug flowerbeds are full of them - one spadefull of soil turned over, bend down, spend 10 minutes on removing the roots, next spadefull coming up - what a piece of work! And even when thinking I have removed them all - raked and dug in loads of soil improver and multipurpose compost, waited a couple of weeks, then when digging holes for new plants to go in what do I find? Little couchgrass roots with new green sprouting a few inches below the surface! Little creeps! It's a battle where I think you cannot win - only minimize damage! I feel with you - I am there too!

[ 22. April 2006, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: wishaw ]

 

I find a spade chops the roots up which makes the problem worse. If the soil isn't too heavy or sticky clay then a fork is better as you get longer runners out. It's still a heartbreaking task though.

The stuff chokes and damages other plants, I've seen couch pierce a daff bulb and other soft roots and tubers. :(

 

Cut the top & bottom off a plastic bottle shove it over the offending weed and spray down the bottle, that way you get the weed not your plants. Also useful on windy days to avoid over spray.

 

good tip, Revin Helen! The other good way is to paint the stuff on the leaves of the offending weed - that avoids other plants getting it too

 

Veerry nice tip!

Last year I had to dismantle my rockery, go though the soil, practically sieving, it to remove all the couch grass before replanting. It's a pernicious, unrelenting, dastardly horror! Join the club!

 

Ok, I've done a bit of scratching about on grass-be-gon. Active ingredient is fluazifop and is marketed under the name of Fusilade-5 or Fusilade Max in the UK for use as an agricultural herbicide and is typically used in concentrations of between 1 and 3 litres in 80-200 litres water per hectar (strong stuff!!) It will kill grasses including couch but not broad leaved plants. Some crops must not be sprayed during harvesting years.

STATUORY CONDITIONS RELATING TO USE

FOR USE ONLY AS AN AGRICULTURAL/HORTICULTURAL/FORESTRY HERBICIDE

Unless anyone knows better the active ingredient is not licenced for domestic garden use.

 

A variation on Helen's technique that I'v been using for a while is a small plastic funnel that fits tightly on the end of my pressure sprayer.
Lets me give the weeds the "personal touch"

 

How about painting on Deep Root gel, ive bought some to get rid of ground elder which is EVERYWHERE.

 

I agree with Froggy - use a fork when weeding!! I always do. I only use a spade for real digging, not if I want to dig up stuff, whetrher weeds or plants to be moved. It gives you better control. while minimising roots being cut. (Sorry, I know the smiley is completely irrelevant - I just have to use them just now, as I've been deprived for 3 weeks, and am suffering from withdrawal symptoms!!)

 

Well, in my case no choice but digging as the soil is (for the most part "was" as I have about 2 square metres of flowerbed left to do! *bounce*) very compacted after years of neglect. Now I am raking practically daily (usually spreading over a new bag of compost and rake it in thoroughly around the newly planted stuff) and still every time I rake over more roots come up that I missed before! Well, I guess the only option is to persevere - maybe I should not have bothered with perennials right away but gone for annuals for the first couple of years, to get the chance to do some serious digging at the end of each season. Too late now... *sniff* - oh well, need to stay on top of it, eventually the couch grass will give up (please do not destroy my hope!)

 

wow! i saved this page to my favourites & only looked for replies today as thought no1 had replied (thought i'd set up to receive email confirmation but obviously hadnt!) thanks all for replying, not only got grass prob...i've also noticed snail/slugs have eaten chunks out of my tulips! :(
there's no hope!! LOL
Soil is terrible here & will need watering every morning & night for about 2 weeks til soil anywhere near soft enough for getting roots out! boo hoo!
Grass also in the plants so looks like i have a war to plan!
x

 

Yet another version of above is to let cauch grass grow, paint it with roundup and tie a plastic bag round it.

 

Over the years of back breaking but enjoyable gardening i have fought a battle with couch grass by digging it out painstakeingly with a small hand held fork.

On a paticulaly badly affected area I covered it over with a black plastic bin bag untill eventually the couch grass gave up

So you can win (almost) I still get the occasional patch but nowhere near how bad it was in the beginning.