Killing invasive grass

HI

I have just bought an old house next to some farmers fields. the garden is very limited in that very little has been planted, so its really just lawn grass and a few tired looking shrubs, with lots of invasive grass.

I let the place grow over winter to see if anything interesting popped up.. Its July now and basically its just very strong invasive grass that grows. Everything I have planted has died or strangled.

All the areas that could be bedding, borders etc and just tough, just full of this very deeprooted grass. If I dig it up the grass comes back in no time becuase its impossible to get rid of all the roots.

I wondered, if my aim was a wildlife/cottage garden, was it a an idea to poison all this grass with a chemical? Ive tried carpets but the grass survives that (1 year of carpet!)

I would welcome any suggestions on how to prepare this very rough ground into something I can fill with plants and flowers...

Cheers

SIMON

 

Sounds like Couch (pronounced cooch) grass, it is possible to get rid of the roots, but it takes a lot of backbreaking digging and sifting through to remove it all. It's surprising what it will grow through as well, I've found it going right through bulbs.
If you are prepared to have nothing growing for at least 6 months then one of the path clearing chemicals (sodium chlorate?) should do the job, but will kill every plant, not just the grass.
If it's coming originally from the adjacent field then you will still get roots coming through unless you can dig down a fair way and set foundations of a brick wall or something equally impervious.

 

when I had a problem with couch in my first garden I used glyphosate (Tumbleweed) and it killed great mats of it stone dead. I find it works best as a spray and you need to apply it while the grass is dry but growing strongly...so with damp ground. With most killed its then easy to tackle any reminants that escaped using manual methods.
Glyphosate is fairly safe as a weekkiller, not leaving any harmful residues in the soil but you do have to keep it off the foliage of any plants you want to keep.

 

many thanks... would you know what product I would buy? Also I assume it would be best to use it as a spray on solution Its a real nightmare in terms of destroying and taking over everything!