I lay down thick, heavy, corrugated cardboard between my perennials and top it with 4 inches of bark mulch. It
(1) smothers the grass & weeds; and (2) attracts worms. Worms enrich the soil so the cardboard/mulch does double duty. I use a box cutter to cut the cardboard to fit between the plants. The edges of the cardboard pieces need to be overlapped or the weeds/grass will find the tiniest space between them and grow right up through the mulch. The cardboard/mulch has really saved me from hours of strenuous work in the garden the past several years. If I want to plant something, I just cut the cardboard back and dig a hole for the plant.

I originally tried using thicknesses of newspapers but they break down too quickly.

For along the edges of my beds and along stone walkways I use vinegar. I pour it--carefully--out of a large bowl that has a handle & lip. Vinegar kills everything it touches--grass, weeds, whatever--so it can't be used between plants but it does help keep the outer edges of the beds from looking scruffy & unkempt.

Good luck!

but wont you have to sever the grass at the edge of the bed..

or else it will draw it back into the lawn ???

a well grown lawn is not a collection of single plants... they are almost like an underground vine in some cases ...

ken

Yes, Ortho Grass-B-Gone Garden Weed Killer.

It's a wonderful product. You can safely overspray MOST other plants. It will kill ornamental grasses, of course, and it can burn a few other plants, including sedum, baby's breath, and junipers. There is a list of plants to AVOID spraying on the label.

Just one note of caution -- Ortho markets several products under the Grass-B-Gone name -- another one is a crabgrass killer for lawns. Please be sure to be VERY careful to only buy the one in a 24 ounce ready to use pump spray bottle labeled Grass-B-Gone Garden Weed Killer. The other Grass-B-Gone products are NOT safe to overspray around your perennials.

I love this stuff, and usually use 8-10 bottles a season. It's great for getting rid of quack grass and other weedy grasses in borders and beds. It kills them, root and all, with usually only one application.

Here is a link that might be useful: This is the RIGHT product

I believe that the other Ortho products are Weed-B-Gon, not Grass-B-Gon. That makes it a little easier to pick up the correct stuff.

Google this grass getter. it works awesome I had the same issues with grass in the flowers. I will keep a bottle on hand from now on.

I do the same as Gardenweed - cardboard or newspaper, with a shredded leaf mulch on top. It's environmentally friendly, good for the soil, won't hurt the "good" plants, and it's free.

Dee

It depends on the kind of grass you have.

Bermuda just laughs at the cardboard/news paper and mulch and grows right up through it.
You can kill it all with RoundUp, lay down a raised lasanga bed 12 inches deep, and with in a year you'll have bermuda back in that bed.

You have to use chemicals over and over to get rid of it and just when you think its gone... its back. :(

Forget about pulling it or digging it out.. Its roots go down deeper than you can dig. Around here everyone knows its an on going battle and you have to work at keeping it under control.
Eventually it does get to the point its not ever-present but let your guard down for a minute and suddenly its growing back!
I'm pretty sure the OP doesn't have bermuda though.

rhizo_1 wrote: "I believe that the other Ortho products are Weed-B-Gon, not Grass-B-Gon. That makes it a little easier to pick up the correct stuff."

You are correct. The other product that was previously labeled as "Grass-B-Gon" has been relabeled as "Weed-B-Gon Max". Possibly due to the potential for confusion I alluded to above? Whatever the reason, I'm glad they chose to rename the crabgrass killer, because the potential was there for disaster by those who didn't pay close attention.

denninmi
I don't understand what you are saying. It has always been called Grass B Gon.

I have the bottle right in front of me.
It says:
ORTHO Grass B Gon and under that it says garden grass killer.
Then it says: kills weedy grasses with out injuring ornamental plants.

On the same shelf there were other bottles of weed killer, clearly marked as weed killer and another one called crab grass killer.

Grass B Gon has not been re labeled as something else.

Cardboard/newspaper covered with mulch will do wonderful things to smother many weeds...
BUT - if you have quackgrass (it develops runners from rizomes) it will run under the cardboard until it finds the edge, and will pop back up - maybe right in the crown of a nice perennial.

I would recommend a three-step approach
1. cardboard covered with mulch in the open areas between plants
2. Grass-B-Gone or Grass Getter for the areas where the grass might still be
3. you must create a clean edge for your bed - a clear deliniation between lawn/grass and the bed...

Good luck!
Beth Z5 Northern Michigan

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions.
I haven't had time to get back on line before now to thank you, but I definitely will be putting your good advise to work in my neglected gardens this summer.
I just knew if anyone could help me... you could!
Thanks again!
Mertie

Ortho Grass-B-Gone has the same active ingredient as Ornamec, but Ornamec is just stronger and a lot of us swear by it. Ornamec is safe around most plants (they list the ones that it's not) and it is concentrated, so more cost effective in the long run. I have Bermuda Grass invaders, so couldn't garden without it!

Rather late to the party but once edged with a spade or half moon edger you can keep the grass out if you have edging shears. Ken is right - garden beds need a 'moat'.

re shovels/spades. Here you would dig with a spade and shovel with a shovel. They look different and do different jobs.

Heard the English style came from digging softer soil,
while the other, Ukrainian, (the pointed one) came from digging the harder soil of central Europe.

Not used a half-moon edger, but apparently those for sale here have a flange, to step on, that prevents the thing from going deep enough into the soil.

I have strawberry paths and i put grass for Keep the weeds but now the gras is growing crazy in my strawberry help please .

not a single one of the above answers was helpful???

if not.. then why didnt you start your own post.. instead of dredging up an old useless one

ken

Hi & welcome, Nancy. If one is reactivating a discussion that's this old, at least read it first, please (if you come back at all.)

Ironically I was just searching the forum to find methods of getting rid of that @#$%!!@#$ Bermuda grass in my perennials. Going to go look for Ortho Grass-B-Gone or Ornamec.

Hi, Deb! By the time you drive to the store & back, you could have probably just pulled it out. Does your bed need a border? Mowing with the chute shooting away from beds can help prevent slinging seeds into them. Good luck!

I've got Bermuda invading my blue carpet junipers, which grass be gone says not to spray on junipers. any ideas? I have used cardboard, newspaper, landscape cloth.... they keep popping up in the holes made for the other plants.

Wild bermuda seems to grow in viney tangles, can you pull them out from the juniper and then spray them with roundup? Bermuda is the one weed that mercifully hasn't been as bad in my current garden as in my prior gardens, so I'm not as experienced with dealing with anymore. (though I have Poa trivialis sometimes try to invade my beds)

That's what ours does... when if finally comes up through the juniper it's about a foot long vine all tangleday with other legs of bermuda... it's been our chore to rip and dig once they appear, but they are winning.... I guess I can employ the same strategy... pull them out of the juniper, but not rip them and spray under the juniper.... spray the legs when they show themselves and cover or pull away the juniper as I do... Maybe I can stake and tie up the juniper legs as the spray dries.... just a pain! I hate our landscaper talked us into the Bermuda at all! Worst part... we had to buy the sod when it was dormant and ended up with weed infested sod, so it's not even like the grass is so pretty that it makes up for its encroaching nature!!!!

I see a lot of talk about bermuda in gardens. I have what I think is field grass in my very large perennial beds. The roots go deep, and snake all over underground as far as 10 inches. I'm fed up with trying to pull it out. It costs too much to dig out the bed and replace the soil. It's a raised bed, as are all my beds. Will the Grass Be Gone work on this without harming roses and perennials?

Yes I have found it kills any grass. Some of them are killed slowly though, like seedlings of "ornamental" grasses. (Can't remember which Miscanthus it was, but I think we will see a tide turn against some of them, as how weedy some of them are becomes more widely recognized)

Overall it is a slow kill, roughly like glyphosate but slower on some varieties. If you have stuff gone to seed I would manually try to cut or pull the seed stalks first, assuming you can do so w/o spreading them. I've taken to sometimes burning the seed sprays of that stuff that looks like a "flatter" bermuda grass, not sure what it is called, to keep it from spreading.

Thank you for the help on this. I've dreaded going out to "deal" with this mess by digging it out. I spend hours trying to get the roots that wind their way everywhere.

I would like to no if this "Grass-B-Gone" from ortho will hurt or kill cannabis plants? can someone please let me no, thanks

Probably not, but Ortho or any other maker of such an 'over the top' herbicide for grasses, certainly won't run afoul of federal laws to label it for use on that crop. So you'll have to take the risk of trying yourself. I'm sure some other forum on the internet can better answer such questions!

On the few dicot species bothered by grass only herbicides, they are usually only injured, not killed. But don't take my word on that.

I would use commercial Ornamec btw. It's a better value.

thanks

ok, everyone there's no need for extra layers or sprays if you put more than 4in of mulch or soil directly on living, growing grass. (that's) in addition to its height so if you mow it to soil level you can get away with 4in. The grass will starve before it can break through to the light - you may get one or two blades but they're super stringy and easy to pull. I put raised garden beds in the lazy way this year and tested it out. I didn't mow my lawn just put my hastely made 2 x 8s boxes down and filled them all up with cheap dirt - I had preciesly one blade of grass come through one corner of one box that had a gap from my stellar screwing. THIS WORKS! If you want to put cardboard or newspaper down go for it its extra nitrogen. If you need to get rid of grass from existing beds use the grass-be-gone, but beware of chemicals - Home gardeners are responsible for 90% of the herbicide and pesticide pollution, only the commercial uses get limits to follow so be careful and read the directions!!

Home gardeners are responsible for 90% of the herbicide and pesticide pollution

source?

Covering doesn't work for bermuda grass which spreads by stolons underground. If you have bermuda you will have to dig it out, make sure to get every single piece of root and be careful to keep it out with a barrier and stay on top of it by keeping the borders edged by cutting all above ground creeping stems regularly with a weed-whacker, these stems root quickly.

My Mom had a Bermuda grass lawn for a long time, but it finally died off. All it took was a broken sprinkler system and six years of a severe drought in southern California. ....Not helpful, I know, just an anecdote. :-)