Grass! >:-l

[Binkalette]

I need some advice on getting the grass OUT of my plant beds! Last summer I went through and I pulled up all of the grass in my beds, then covered them with newspapers and then covered the newspapers with a THICK layer of grass clippings. Seemed to work well enough in the middles of the beds, but the grass did start to come up again on the edges.

Now I left this layer down over winter and was out today to check on my plants, and the freaking grass is coming up ALL OVER through the paper/mulch layers, it's ridiculous!

Now I'm thinking of putting down a layer of thick black plastic after I get my compost turned in, and just leaving gaps for the plants I want. Then covering THAT with mulch to keep it from getting to hot. Is this a good idea? Bad? Is there a better solution?

[jal_ut]

I would be tempted to dig the beds with a digging fork, and get the grass roots out of the beds. Just pulling what is above ground most likely leaves lots of roots to send up more growth. How big are your beds? Is this an option for you?

[applestar]

What happened is that grass rhizomes snuck in during the cold months. The key when doing it this way is to use an edge cutter to keep the grass from creeping in. It's actually a good idea to edge the sod all around in the fall and again in spring.

You can repeat the paper and mulch technique to smother them again. Unless its really bad, you should also be able to weed out the weaker new growth in the bed right now before they really take hold.

For best results, maintain a mulched grass-free zone/path all around the bed.

I wouldn't use the plastic. It's been mentioned time and again that they degrade and become a nightmare.

There IS a variety of grass that people have said nothing will work except to dig every little bit of roots though....