A Common Life

Keeping Bermudagrass Out of Your Garden. Even if you have a Bermudagrass Lawn!

• Taylor and Morgan Myers

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In this episode, Taylor talks strategies and methods for dealing with a bermudagrass lawn.

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Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome to a common life podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about what to do if you have a yard full of Bermuda grass and you want a garden, what to do about it, how to keep the Bermuda grass out of your garden and, yeah, some general good practices. I think it does include Roundup and I recently we put out a newsletter and I talk about all of this and I'm going to be honest and I'm going to be honest I feel weird telling people to use Roundup. I feel some shame about it, but we're going to talk about that. I'm going to talk some more about it and try to explain and we'll go from there.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so this is important If you live in a neighborhood. What I'm imagining is somebody that lives in Hampton Cove. If you don't know what Hampton Cove is, it's a. It's a neighborhood that's kind of. It's a suburban neighborhood in Huntsville, alabama, and it's a beautiful neighborhood with beautiful trees and beautiful yards, but the yards are just all. It's all Bermuda grass pretty much, and the yards are well manicured. And I know people in there that want a garden and they don't know what to do because their yards are full of Bermuda grass is. It is a very aggressive grass that it just will grow into whatever flower bed or garden area that you have. It uses stolons is what they're called, but essentially they send out these runners, and these runners put roots into the ground and send up blades of grass and they can just take over and they can be a real nightmare if you're trying to have a garden. Now, I know some people. Since I've posted the newsletter, some people have told me alternative ways of dealing with it that don't include Roundup. That don't include Roundup. But if you want to have a garden and you have a yard full of Bermuda grass, we're going to talk about some different ways to make that happen. Now, if you have a yard and you've got Bermuda grass but it's not like the full yard and you've kind of got a bunch of weeds maybe you've got some fescue in there or zoysia grass or you know, you're not even really sure what you have you might not need to be as aggressive.

Speaker 1:

But first let's start with talking about Bermuda grass and how to figure out even if what you have is Bermuda grass so if your grass is like really soft to the touch, it's very thin grass that's green during the summer, it's a good chance. It's Bermuda grass. If it's kind of really prickly and hard and stiff and it's green during the summer, it's probably something else. If your grass is green in the fall, winter and spring, it's definitely not Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass gets brown in the winter and stays brown. You know Bermuda grass. It's mid-April right now in North Alabama and Bermuda grass is just barely starting to turn green and it'll be green throughout the summer and then, once the cold weather rolls around in the fall, it'll turn brown. Bermuda grass is used on golf courses. There's all kinds of different hybrid types of Bermuda grass and typically the one that is in lawns that you get with sod, like Bermuda sod. It is a hybrid that is really aggressive and so it can be really difficult to deal with.

Speaker 1:

And the reason I'm talking about it is because all of the information that I've put out there to people to try to encourage and give people that want to garden the tools and resources and encouragement they need to get started and go out there and do it. I always put like, hey, there's a caveat here. If you have Bermuda grass, you might have to do something else, because just going out and like what I say is just like weed eat everything down to the ground, throw some peat, moss and compost on the ground, mulch it and get to planting. That does not work. If you have Bermuda grass, you cannot just do that, and so let's talk about that. Let's talk about some of the things that you can do with Bermuda grass if you do have Bermuda grass. So I was talking to somebody after I posted the newsletter and we were chatting and they have a Bermuda grass lawn and what they did was they put down cardboard and they did it just that way. They put down cardboard, they put soil on top of that, they have raised beds, boxes and they mulched around those beds. They said they still have Bermuda grass growing up in their beds but it's not super bad. They're still able to keep a garden garden and so far you know they're enjoying their garden and they have a pretty big garden space. He did tell me that it will run through the mulch and pop up, and sometimes in the corners of their boxes the Bermuda grass will come up, and so you can do that. You can just like cut it really low and put cardboard down and then put your soil on top of that.

Speaker 1:

To me, any Bermuda grass in your garden is just too much. Because if you let it go and like, let's say you're at the end of summer and you're kind of just done with gardening for the, you know it's hot buggy, all of your plants are starting to die. Done with gardening for the, you know it's hot buggy, all of your plants are starting to die, and and it's like September and we have a hot September and a hot October and we don't get a frost until November, and you've got some Bermuda grass poking up in your garden and it just goes and you just let it run, you're going to have an absolute mess to deal with the following spring. And so if you let any Bermuda grass get into your garden and it takes hold, it's just going to be such a pain to get it out. And so I operate from the perspective of we don't want any Bermuda grass in the garden and I know how sometimes like invasive plants can spook people and we don't want any Bermuda grass in the garden and I know how sometimes like invasive plants can spook people and I don't want to like scare you.

Speaker 1:

I mean, if you get Bermuda grass in your garden, it's it's, it's going to be okay, you can pull it out. You just, you just don't want it to get out of control because it will really take the fun out of gardening. So, yeah, the I mean the other thing about Bermuda grass is you just can't mulch it. You know, if you just put wood chips or leaves or you know mulch on top of the Bermuda grass, it's not going to kill it. You know, if anything, it's going to help it because it's going to kill everything else and then it's going to come up. It's going to help it because it's going to kill everything else and then it's going to come up from underneath the mulch and it's not going to kill it. And so what I suggested in the newsletter is what I'm about to tell you.

Speaker 1:

It does include Roundup, and the active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, and a lot of people are familiar with glyphosate and Roundup because it's what farmers use predominantly to spray over their crops. You know corn, roundup-ready corn, roundup-ready soybeans, and it's used on millions and millions and millions of acres multiple times a year here in the US and elsewhere, and the Roundup is associated with industrial agriculture now, because this corn and soybeans, these plants, have been genetically modified to not die when they're sprayed with Roundup and so the farmers can spray their entire crop, their entire field. It doesn't kill the corn and it kills everything else underneath, and so it can be really helpful for farmers in that way, because previously they had to cultivate to kill weeds. So that's another topic for another day. But Roundup has been in the news a lot in the last couple decades because of that, and Roundup does have health implications for us.

Speaker 1:

I don't think Roundup is generally safe, particularly at the dosage that they're spraying our fields with on the industrial agricultural level. I'm not a fan of it and I get it why people don't want to use it and why people are leery about spraying their garden area with Roundup. And I'm not a chemist and I can only look up on, you know, the internet and cross-reference as many places as I can and check my sources to to get the information in terms of how long does Roundup stay in the soil and how you know, how does it stay in the plant tissue and all of that. And my understanding is it once it gets into the soil like once you spray grass or you spray the plants after you know three days or so it's safe to come back and plant in that area and that Roundup, the glyphosate, is not going to affect the plants that you plant into the ground. At that point that glyphosate is going to be bound in the soil and it could take up to six months for it to completely break down into naturally occurring molecules or whatnot and break down, but it's not going to be taken up by the plants that you plant in that soil.

Speaker 1:

So you know, if I spray a, if I spray a portion of my yard, five days later I come back in and I plant tomatoes. You know three, three, four weeks down the line if this is a well-grown, you know a tomato that's. You know that is already. You know I bought it from Walmart or whatnot. It's already got tomatoes on it and I plant it and then three weeks later I'm picking a tomato. That tomato is not going to have Roundup in it. And even if I'm, you know, planting a lettuce crop a week, two weeks later I'm harvesting that lettuce, it's not going to have Roundup in it or on it. So you're not going to be taking in that Roundup. Now, when I'm spraying it, you know if it's windy and it gets on my skin. Or you know if I'm spraying it and I get a little bit on my hand like, yeah, that's going to be something that that you want to watch out for, no-transcript. Which is all of that stuff is turned into. You know, processed ingredients that go into all of our processed foods. I mean that stuff is sprayed directly with Roundup multiple times.

Speaker 1:

So what I'm going to suggest about dealing with Bermuda grass and Roundup, you know, I just I don't think it's the same, but I understand if you have, if you have hesitations about doing it, and if you do, there is another alternative method to dealing with it that I honestly think is just as good, if not potentially better. So let's dive in. All right, so you got a Bermuda grass yard. You want to have a garden. Here are two options for you. The first option is the roundup method.

Speaker 1:

Go out there, find out where your garden, mark it off and spray that area. But also expand out about two to three feet and spray that as well. That's going to end up being your perimeter, the perimeter of your garden area. So you're going to spray it. After a week, two weeks, you're going to see all that grass die. Now there's a chance it's going to green up again. So in the newsletter. I said just wait a little bit longer and see if more greens up. If it does, spray it again, make sure all of that Bermuda grass is completely dead in that area that you sprayed, where your garden is going to go, all right. And then wait a couple weeks or so Again, make sure it's dead and then weedy or cut that Bermuda grass down to the ground, get all that you know, cut it down and then you're going to come back in and add your peat moss, add your compost on top of the soil and then just in the garden area, not on the perimeter, and then you're going to cover all that up with mulch.

Speaker 1:

You got to get some mulch, whether it be leaves, whether it be wood chips, whether it be leaves, whether it be wood chips. You got to get some mulch, cover the entire garden area, including that two to three foot perimeter, or five feet, I mean. Even go out farther perimeter area and that perimeter area is going to be bumping up against the rest of the Bermuda in your yard. All right, now if you're going to do raised beds, I would still do that exact same thing in the garden area. Put your raised beds in there, mulch in the pathways, leave a good stretch of the perimeter and then you're going to carry on gardening just like you normally would.

Speaker 1:

Now, boom, you got your garden. On the edge of your garden, you have Bermuda grass as your lawn. Now, inevitably, that Bermuda grass in your lawn is going to want to come over. They're going to send out stolons and they're going to be runners and they're going to grow out and they're going to run through your mulch, they're going to go under your mulch and they're going to try to get into your garden. When that happens, in your perimeter, you can pull it out. Just pull it out, or you can spray. That's why the perimeter is over there.

Speaker 1:

Spray that area to make sure any Bermuda that comes over dies. You do not want it to get established. You do not want it to make over its way into your garden. So that perimeter area is the area where I'm suggesting, if you're going to keep spraying into perpetuity, to keep your Bermuda grass spray in that area, not in your garden ever again. If it does somehow make it over into your garden, yank it up, rip it up. The problem with ripping up Bermuda grass is if you don't get all of it, which it can be very hard to get it all up. I mean it's tough just because the roots, the way it goes down into the ground, it's hard. If you just rip it up and you leave some behind, it's going to keep growing. That's why spraying is so effective and is necessary. So that's what I suggested as a way to deal with Bermuda grass putting that perimeter around your garden, spraying it first and then maintaining and managing the perimeter surrounding your garden.

Speaker 1:

Now I had a reader email me and she was actually my grad student. She was a grad student when I was at Auburn and she was a teacher's assistant in one of my classes and now our families are good friends and so she knows her horticulture stuff. And she said first she said like she agreed with me on all the methods, but she said the only other option that she knows of is to sod the Bermuda grass, so you can rent a sod cutter. If you rent a sod cutter, basically what it does is it'll come and it'll cut sod. There's this blade that'll run into the ground and it slices the sod out. So if you have Bermuda grass and your lawn is Bermuda, instead of spraying that area, mark it out and then go and sod it and just cut it out and make sure when you do that and you remove that Bermuda grass one, you can take that Bermuda grass and put it in other areas of your yard that might need it.

Speaker 1:

But two, make sure you get deep enough to get all of the roots out. That's going to be important. So you might want to sod it and then give it a week, two weeks, even three weeks, to see if any Bermuda grass starts popping up right where maybe you didn't get quite deep enough, and then in that case you might want to rent the solder again or just, you know, get a hoe or something. I think two inches is probably deep enough, but that I do think is a great option. And I would still go a perimeter, say two to three, four feet out from where you want your garden to be, and create that perimeter area that you're going to put mulch in and then just watch it as that bermuda grass starts to creep in. You got to pull it out. I suggest spraying it to kill it to keep it from getting into your garden. Um, if you do sod, the thing about sodding is you're going to be removing a lot of your soil, so you'll have to come back in with even more peat, moss, compost, topsoil, but it's worth it, I think. If you have a Bermuda grass lawn and you want to garden, if you have raised beds and you want to do raised beds, maybe you just sod the areas where the raised beds are going to go. But if you let Bermuda grass come next to your raised bed it's going to grow up into your raised bed. So even still, I would sod a large area and then mulch those pathways, have a perimeter and maintain that perimeter. So I hope that is helpful.

Speaker 1:

There are other alternatives. You know people like to say well, you know, can we spray it with vinegar? Can we spray it with like salt water? You know all these other like chemical, quote-unquote chemicals that are more safe. You know the problem is if you're going to spray, you know, like a vinegar solution, it might kill the grass but also it's going to spray. You know, like a vinegar solution, it might kill the grass but also it's going to kill the frogs. It's going to kill the soil life, it's going to kill the earthworms. Roundup isn't. I mean I wouldn't go around spraying frogs with Roundup, but it's definitely not poison to frogs. I don't think that's a good solution. You're going to end up just destroying your soil if you spray it with something like vinegar or salt water.

Speaker 1:

You know some people on the interwebs, you know they promote stuff like that. I'm just I'm not a fan of that. Some people might try to do like tarping, where you cover it and you block the sunlight and it kills plants and it actually creates an environment where seeds will sprout and then they die. So it's a great method of dealing with weeds and clearing beds, but it doesn't work with Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass almost just goes dormant and then when you remove the tarp, it's going to green right back up. So it just doesn't work. And I mentioned lasagna gardening somewhat earlier with you know, when I mentioned people use cardboard and then they put their soil and different stuff on top of that. I think that can be effective. It's just not effective enough for me. I think you're going to end up in a year or two years with some Bermuda grass popping up and it just spooks me Because if it gets out of hand, then gardening will be not fun and you'll end up stopping. So yeah, you know, I hope this was helpful.

Speaker 1:

If you have different ideas or alternative methods that you found that's helpful, or if you have any feedback for me, definitely don't hesitate to leave a comment, which I don't think you can leave comments on podcasts. Send me an email. It's going to be in the show notes and if you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, definitely go check that out. A commonlifesub stack dot com. We write about topics just like this, seasonal living, and you can definitely leave a comment there. You can also find us on instagram at underscore a common life dot sorry, at underscore a common life, and we look forward to seeing you, hearing from you. Hopefully, like I said, this was helpful and if you do have a Bermuda grass lawn and we look forward to seeing you hearing from you, hopefully, like I said, this was helpful and if you do have a bermudagrass lawn, there are options for you to get out there. So until next time, everybody, happy gardening, thank you.