Grass Growing in New Garden Space

[benjaminstarr]

Hi, everyone! I just bought a home that had a 27'x15' level space in the back yard with a playground on it. I sold the playground, raked up the wood chips, pulled up the landscape fabric, and exposed the soil for the first time in a decade. It needed SERIOUS amendments, there was no nitrogen in it at all and it was heavy clay. After adding several tons of compost, wood chips, and sandy loam, I've got several rows of sprouted lettuces, green onions, and herbs, and will put in many more veggies in the coming weeks.

Something I noticed while tilling was that there were extensive grass roots in the soil on one end of the garden. I tilled a lot in that area, breaking everything up.

Now I have grass sprouting up all over the garden, but especially in that one corner. I spend about 3 hours every couple of days pulling the new sprouts. They rarely come up with the roots intact, usually it's just a long, slender white shoot that comes up. Does this mean that new grass will regrow unless I get all the root? I don't mind pulling weeds a few hours a week, but this is insane!

Any suggestions??

I think the grass is Bermuda. That's what I have in the front and back yards, and what the neighbors all have.

Ben in Dallas

[opabinia51]

In my experience, grass tends to stick around for a long time. So, just keep pulling it out as it comes and eventually you'll get it all. You may wish to plant a cover crop of some sort that will outcompete the grass. That is what I have done in my vegetable garden and it works fairly well.

Also, a word about tilling. Tilling once works well but, don't till again or your clay soil will stay as a clay soil and get even harder.

Add organic matter in the form of leaves, grass clippings, manure, and so on each year and the clay will slowly get broken up.

[The Helpful Gardener]

There are organic herbicides that might help speed things along some; clove oil shows promise (although between that and the cinnamon Ben is spreading for ants, the yard is going to begin to smell like gingerbread

[Bob]

If you already have stuff planted in that area, there’s not much you can do except pull grass. If you don't have anything there yet, keep as much out of it as you can until you do plant it, then plan on heavily mulching around whatever you plant there. A heavy mulch should help keep the grass smothered out.