How to get rid of pesky nutsedge and bermuda grass coming up in my walkways?
by mancheese
How to get rid of pesky nutsedge and bermuda grass coming up in my walkways?
by mancheese
8 Comments
As stated in question – is there any magic, organic method to deal with all these bermuda grass and yellow nutsedge growth in my crushed granite walkways? Besides individually handpicking of course 🙂
Even handpicking isn’t effective. Both of those have rhizomes underground that require a lot of effort to remove. I’ve tried chemical treatments and success was short lived. Even sheet mulching didn’t get rid of nutsedge. Following to see if there are other answers.
Propane tank and blow torch. Easiest way to take care of it.
Sedge hammer for the sedge. Grass b gone for the Bermuda. Pulling or torching doesn’t seem effective IMHO, even though it’d be better to avoid the chemicals.
Surprisingly Frogfruit has been effective in one of my beds at out competing it. That’s really the only thing I’ve seen personally that worked. I have it in my veggie raised beds and am planning on really heavily cover cropping over the winter to hopefully get rid of most of it
No magic or organic method exists for these persistent invasives. “Handpicking” does not get the sedge tubers or grass rhizomes; as pruning off the tops stimulates growth, it can actually make the problem worse. Dig out the sedge nuts and grass rhizomes with a shovel and dispose in trash. Stay on top of any new sprouts with more digging or herbicides (Sedgehammer for sedge, Grass-B-Gone for Bermuda)
I feel your pain, I have bermuda all over my otherwise lovely pathways. From my research, we need to put in 18 inch deep edging (deep enough that underground runners won’t be able to hop under and get back in) and then carefully apply an herbicide using a paint brush or a gloved hand – don’t spray to avoid hurting the plants you like and to keep as little as possible from seeping into the soil and water supply. This is on my project list but it sounds a lot less fun than all my other garden projects so I keep putting it off.
I sprayed some anti-nutsedge stuff (I found it again, it’s ‘Ortho Max Nutsedge Killer Rtu’) over a big area of our lawn (probably 500 square feet) that was mostly nutsedge 3 years ago and I haven’t seen a single one again since.