grass in garden

[kommong2]

I got grass in my vegetable garden I guess from mowing nearby so I want you to know if it's OK to let the grass grow or it's a bad idea . my thinking is it might help from insects invasion but my worry is if the vegetable plants would get enough nutrients or not . See attached. Any help is appreciated. thx

[bri80]

You do not want grass anywhere near your veggies. Grass is extremely invasive and will spread and choke out your veggies in no time.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, I can barely see veggie plants in there. They are being seriously overtaken by the grass and will not survive much longer. The grass gets very tall when not mowed and you can't mow it when your veggies are mixed in there. So the grass doesn't only steal soil nutrients and water, it steals sun as well.

Sorry, I know it's a lot of work to get rid of, but that is what gardening is like. Once you have dug all the grass out with a hand trowel, you can slow it down from coming back by digging a little ditch in front of your veggies. It just needs to be say 5" deep and 3" wide or so; you can just dig it out with your trowel. Pile the dirt you dig out in your veggie plot and then cover it with mulch. Not a permanent solution, but it slows the grass down a lot.

This is a fence line flower bed that has been dug out of the lawn and given the ditch edging. I weed it and re-do the ditch early in the season and probably once more later and that takes care of it pretty well.

[imafan26]

yes, keep the grass out, it is a heavy feeder and will suck out nutrients and water from the garden. Not to mention all the roots you would have to keep pulling out. Put an edge around the garden bed. I used bricks laid down next to my borders. It provided a mowing strip for the lawn mower. The wheels of the lawn mower roll on the bricks. Otherwise it is hard to cut close to the bed. Even with a weed whacker it is good to have a mowing strip to save on broken lines and beheaded plants.

[jal_ut]

Yes, the grass has to go.

[kommong2]

Thank you all. I would try to pull out all the grasses. Actually I did prepare my garden good before putting veggies in but I guess grass seeds from mower flew to the garden when I mowed my lawn. I didn't want to deal with mulch around veggies so I let the grass grow. Would grass clippings help as mulch? I hate wood mulch so any other easier way to keep veggie plants protected?

Thanks again.

[jal_ut]

You can take newspaper and cover the ground around the plants with about 4 layers, then mulch with grass clippings on top of the newspaper.

[ID jit]

Grass will consume everything. Only thing it is good for is a winter cover crop like winter rye. Stuff is hard to get rid of too.

I took the easy way out: got a long roll of 6' wide, breathable / water permiable, heavy duty landscape fabric and cut it into 2' x 20' strips and lay that down between the rows. I cover the last 3" from the fabric to the plants with clean grass clippings at about 2" thick which mats down to 1/2" - 3/4".

So, my rows are 30" apart, or 6" of exposed soil between the strips of fabric which I hold down with bricks, because I never see the rocks when I use them and end up tripping over the rock.

"Clean Grass Clipping" (to me) no pesticides nor herbicides for the past year. Also, the worms seem to love the grass

Given those images, I would edge what was necessary to get the plants freed up and cover the rest with anything you have on hand to block the grass from getting sunlight, cardboard, newspaper, black plastic, anything to suppress the growth and weed very regularly and get everything you can out. Don't be surprised if it takes a year or two.

I bought the really heavy duty landscape fabric, woven synthetic fibers and sort of shiny on one side and it is fuzzy on the other. Have reuse the same 2' x 20' strips for 10 years with no issues.

[applestar]

Yep. Once you "edge" -- cut the sod along the edge of your bed -- make a few cuts going into the bed being careful not to damage roots of veg plants, then it should be fairly simple to pull up the grass from the cut edge. Half-moon shaped step-on sod cutter is a good investment if you have a garden. Once they are too sparse in the bed to lift as sods, then you will have to pull. Sodding is easier when the soil is dryish, pulling weeds up by the roots is easier when the soil is wet.

The sod blocks contain all the good topsoil (and earthworms). I turn them over in the same spot, tucking in all the grass, then cover with paper and mulch. Where you need heavy duty mulching, flattened corrugated boxes are sturdier. I also use pizza boxes with printing side down since I can't put oil stained pizza boxes in the paper recycle.

[kommong2]

Thanks everyone. It is already looking better. Just need to do edging and newspaper/fabric and grass clippings and I think I would be on a great start as a new gardener.

[gumbo2176]

Now that looks more like a garden patch. Good job. There's hope for you yet!!!! LOL

[KitchenGardener]

It not only looks healthier, it looks so much neater

[ID jit]

Looks a whole lot more goodlier! Your plants will be a lot happier too.
Soil looks pretty good too.

If you can get some clean wood chips form a tree company or similar, you can top dress the grass clipping over paper/cardboard. Careful with the bagged bark mulch, it is usually loaded up with all kinds of fun stuff.