Hi.
I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to rid a garden of grass? We have had our garden for four years now and every year we have such a battle with grass growing in it...we want to get rid of it! Please help!
hi kari when we plant our tomatoes green peppers radishes etc we go and put news papers around each of the plant and in the middle of the rows. we have to do this every time we plant but it does help control the weeks. Good luck
Hi, Kari! I was told by an older woman that she uses white vinegar to kill her weeds. So, I went to Sam's Club, bought six gallons of vinegar, put it in my sprayer, and sprayed everything in sight. It works!! It's WAY cheaper than commercial weed killers, and it's not toxic!! My yard smelled like a salad for an hour, but it worked great!! Good luck!
Hi kari. What kind of mulch are you using? If you are using grass clippings, you may be seeding your garden & not even realizing it. Grass seed can stay dormant for quite a while in the soil; as well as weed seed! Next year early [like feb/mar] place clear plastic over your garden plot & leave it there until you would normally plant. This should help sterilize the ground of unwanted seeds; but it will also kill some of your perinnial or bi-innial as well as plants that re-seed themselves. When i had a large garden,i would put down the old newspapers first then put clean straw over the top. Both will help to enrich the soil & keep the rows looking neat plus keeps grass down to a bare minimum. This also helps to hold moisture in the soil! Hope this helps without using herbicides. You can also boil white vinegar down & use a foam brush to "paint" any grass or weed you don't want anymore. You may have to do this a couple of times; but as long as you are careful, you will only kill what you want dead. Good luck!!!!
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You can also ask a professional there. His name is Mike. He may have some expert answers. If you decide this place is helpful to you, would you mention that I referred you to them.
I would spray round up only on the grass to kill it at the root. Be sure though not to do it on a windy day because even the slightest amount on the leaf of a flower will kill the flower.
You pull the grass, put down plastic between the garden rows and use mulch. It won't get rid of all of it but at least 90% will be gone.
hi Kari,
I have been and organic gardener for nearly 20 years, and I understand your frustration with grass growing in your garden. You don't say what kind of garden, so I'll assume this is a veggie garden rather than a flower garden. There are 2 main ways to get rid of grass: mechanically or chemically. Mechanically you can till, dig, plow, or otherwise disrupt the roots of the grass so it does not come back. Chemically you can use really yucky stuff that you wouldn't want to grow food with anymore, or you could use vinegar or very hot water. Using a vinegar solution (about 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water) is likely going to be more successful than hot water. To help this process after applying the vinegar, you can cover the area with layers of newspapers and/or black plastic to finish off the grass. Then keep the area covered until you are ready to prepare your soil for next spring planting. I hope this is helpful.
We have the same problem:( My brother is a landscape architect and knows quite a bit about horticulture. He basically told me there's nothing you can do except stay on top of weeding:( We've been so bad this year that I took a weed-wacker to it yesterday! I will try to pull up the roots today...argh:(
I tilled up the ground to pull up all of the old roots of the grass, and now I just weed it every chance I get. It doesn't keep the grass from growing, but it keeps it from getting out of hand!
HI Kari,
with the grass starting to come back now after the frost you should try putting layers of news paper ontop of the grass area you don't want , I'm assuming between your veggie plants? this works the best, is organic and will keep the soils nutrients and integrity that is needs for your vegetable production...if you spray poisen , you will eat it with your vegies too, remember that!!! Newspaper layering : a layer of newspaper, water it, and cover with mulch or new dirt to hide newspaper..and you can make the layers as thick as you want!
good luck :)