I wanted to add some context to the short video that we published earlier. We've found through years of gardening with Bermuda grass - that if you don't take care of it before you start your garden or garden space, that the Bermuda grass will likely be a constant - daily battle. We've been using solarization / solarizing the grass with great success. It's been a year since we started our new raised bed garden and we don't have the constant weed pressure that Bermuda grass and nut grass often brings. We hope that you find this video helpful. Happy Gardening y'all!!!
Thank you for the additional context. I’m in south central Kansas and planning a garden expansion for next year. My two biggest pressures are Bermuda grass and bindweed. Appreciate the videos!
Very welcome... I hear you... Bermuda is a tough one to control and keep out of the garden spaces. Bindweed isn't much better (we see our share of it as well). I will also pull out a weed burner if the solarization doesn't get them all. I want to do all the work up front that I can - enjoying the garden after... It's so much easier to maintain if the spaces are started out on the right foot.
I'm an Okie, and the Bermuda here laughed at my cardboard and 6 inches of mulch, came through it so readily I was completely unable to keep up with it in my 50x60 area. I had seen this on Oklahoma Gardening, I may have to give it a shot on a new area.
The solarization has worked very well for us. The nutsedge takes a bit of manual labor still. Bermuda grass is tough… I have a VERY large wood chip pile and we find long strands of Bermuda trying to keep growing. The solarization and occultation are the only ways I’ve found to start the growing spaces…
@@zachlloyd9392 - I keep hearing how this summer is supposed to be extraordinarily hot (when is it not?), but that is great for trying to use the solarization / occultation to kill the grass... Let us know how it goes.
This was really helpful. I’ve been reading non stop this and the clear plastic over black doesn’t really make sense to me since Bermuda is sun loving. But obviously it works! Hopefully I can find someone in my area who already has plastic so I don’t need to buy some. Does it need to be a certain thickness? I have some artificial turf that is just sitting around, could I use that? It does have holes for drainage. Maybe I could just lay it on top of the plastic since it’s right in the front yard
Hello Kaitlyn... Thank you for coming by and watching the video (and leaving this comment)! We use whatever we can find to cover the Bermuda grass. There are some benefits to the different coverings... for example, we use 6mil clear plastic sheeting during the summer. The benefits of the clear is that it really brings the heat (think of how hot a greenhouse gets in the direct sun)!!! It's sort of like building a flat greenhouse onto the top of the grass. I cut the grass as low as I can (either weedwhacker or mower). Then, we sprinkle a little water over that space (it adds a bit of moisture and kick starts the greenhouse effect). We lay the plastic down, covering the space we are trying to kill the grass in and then cover all the edges to "seal in the heat and moisture". In hot summer, that can kill the grass in 2 to 3 weeks. The clear plastic brings the heat, the moisture and heat helps any weed seeds that are there to germinate, and the grass and weeds that would have been there to die. We also use tarps (whatever we can find at a reasonable cost). We've found that we can usually get a decent price at places like Northern Tool and Amazon. Your artificial turf should suffice to smother grass, but you'll want to watch it closely... if it's permeable, it may allow grass or weeds to grow through it.
Hi John! It's Diane. This morning I was thinking about our conversation on this topic and I came up with plastic being a better barrier than cardboard. I'm grateful I don't have a very large area. It was wonderful meeting you and Sarah. I sent you an email starting with dhc. 🤠
+Peaceful Acres Farm - Thank you Diane. It was so nice to meet with, and chat with you. I shared the info with Sarah. We’ve had good luck solarizing the weeds and grass to expand our garden areas. It pretty much lasts as long as we need it to create sterile seed beds allowing us to garden with MUCH fewer weeds.
Solarizing is an effective way to kill the Bermuda grass… it’s getting a little late in the season for it now (hot summer days for a few weeks is when this method works best). Many people overseed their winter grass over their Bermuda around here… the Bermuda goes dormant and the winter grass takes over…
The solarization needs to be in place for a while. We typically leave it for 8 weeks during the hottest part of the year. So far, it’s worked very well. The only thing that has given us problems is the nut grass. We see it pop up occasionally. When it shows up, we clear the space around it and dig it out. We haven’t seen any issues with the Bermuda coming back at all.
This was really helpful. I’ve been reading non stop this and the clear plastic over black doesn’t really make sense to me since Bermuda is sun loving. But obviously it works! Hopefully I can find someone in my area who already has plastic so I don’t need to buy some. Does it need to be a certain thickness? I have some artificial turf that is just sitting around, could I use that? It does have holes for drainage. Maybe I could just lay it on top of the plastic since it’s right in the front yard
@kaitlynharmer8459 - For durability, 2 mil clear is good. But thicker than 6 mil, the plastic starts to become more opaque, partly blocking the sun (not as good). For a large area though, even 2 mil can be expensive. I bought two rolls of Husky brand 0.7 mil from Amazon. Each roll is 9 feet by 400 feet for 3600 sq. ft. for just over $30 per roll. I overlapped 1 foot width along the seams, and used over 200 bricks to hold down the edges of the 5,600 sq. ft. area (2 ft. spacing) and along the seams (5 ft. spacing). So far, this is holding in the moisture and withstanding windy weather. A 0.7 mil sheet may not be durable enough for burying the edges. I also removed all rocks, pebbles and stems that could puncture the plastic. The steam helps penetrate the ground and cook the rhizomes.
I wanted to add some context to the short video that we published earlier. We've found through years of gardening with Bermuda grass - that if you don't take care of it before you start your garden or garden space, that the Bermuda grass will likely be a constant - daily battle. We've been using solarization / solarizing the grass with great success. It's been a year since we started our new raised bed garden and we don't have the constant weed pressure that Bermuda grass and nut grass often brings. We hope that you find this video helpful. Happy Gardening y'all!!!
Thank you for the additional context. I’m in south central Kansas and planning a garden expansion for next year. My two biggest pressures are Bermuda grass and bindweed. Appreciate the videos!
Very welcome... I hear you... Bermuda is a tough one to control and keep out of the garden spaces. Bindweed isn't much better (we see our share of it as well). I will also pull out a weed burner if the solarization doesn't get them all. I want to do all the work up front that I can - enjoying the garden after... It's so much easier to maintain if the spaces are started out on the right foot.
I'm an Okie, and the Bermuda here laughed at my cardboard and 6 inches of mulch, came through it so readily I was completely unable to keep up with it in my 50x60 area. I had seen this on Oklahoma Gardening, I may have to give it a shot on a new area.
The solarization has worked very well for us. The nutsedge takes a bit of manual labor still. Bermuda grass is tough… I have a VERY large wood chip pile and we find long strands of Bermuda trying to keep growing. The solarization and occultation are the only ways I’ve found to start the growing spaces…
@@TwoDovesBees Sounds good, picked up my plastic sheeting today, cheers!
@@zachlloyd9392 - I keep hearing how this summer is supposed to be extraordinarily hot (when is it not?), but that is great for trying to use the solarization / occultation to kill the grass... Let us know how it goes.
This was really helpful. I’ve been reading non stop this and the clear plastic over black doesn’t really make sense to me since Bermuda is sun loving. But obviously it works! Hopefully I can find someone in my area who already has plastic so I don’t need to buy some. Does it need to be a certain thickness? I have some artificial turf that is just sitting around, could I use that? It does have holes for drainage. Maybe I could just lay it on top of the plastic since it’s right in the front yard
Hello Kaitlyn... Thank you for coming by and watching the video (and leaving this comment)! We use whatever we can find to cover the Bermuda grass. There are some benefits to the different coverings... for example, we use 6mil clear plastic sheeting during the summer. The benefits of the clear is that it really brings the heat (think of how hot a greenhouse gets in the direct sun)!!! It's sort of like building a flat greenhouse onto the top of the grass. I cut the grass as low as I can (either weedwhacker or mower). Then, we sprinkle a little water over that space (it adds a bit of moisture and kick starts the greenhouse effect). We lay the plastic down, covering the space we are trying to kill the grass in and then cover all the edges to "seal in the heat and moisture". In hot summer, that can kill the grass in 2 to 3 weeks. The clear plastic brings the heat, the moisture and heat helps any weed seeds that are there to germinate, and the grass and weeds that would have been there to die.
We also use tarps (whatever we can find at a reasonable cost). We've found that we can usually get a decent price at places like Northern Tool and Amazon.
Your artificial turf should suffice to smother grass, but you'll want to watch it closely... if it's permeable, it may allow grass or weeds to grow through it.
Awesome. I need to do this. 🤩 Bermuda grass is my arch-nemesis.
I hear you! It’s a great ground cover, put not our friend in the garden!
Hi John! It's Diane. This morning I was thinking about our conversation on this topic and I came up with plastic being a better barrier than cardboard. I'm grateful I don't have a very large area. It was wonderful meeting you and Sarah. I sent you an email starting with dhc. 🤠
+Peaceful Acres Farm - Thank you Diane. It was so nice to meet with, and chat with you. I shared the info with Sarah. We’ve had good luck solarizing the weeds and grass to expand our garden areas. It pretty much lasts as long as we need it to create sterile seed beds allowing us to garden with MUCH fewer weeds.
Will this help me get rid of my Bermuda grass to plant winter grass soon?
Solarizing is an effective way to kill the Bermuda grass… it’s getting a little late in the season for it now (hot summer days for a few weeks is when this method works best). Many people overseed their winter grass over their Bermuda around here… the Bermuda goes dormant and the winter grass takes over…
Thanks!!! You have a link for purchasing the plastic?
Thank You for visiting and viewing the video. We typically try to work in 20'x20' sections. The plastic can be found on Amazon - amzn.to/3SSe0Mz
What about the rhizomes??
The solarization needs to be in place for a while. We typically leave it for 8 weeks during the hottest part of the year. So far, it’s worked very well. The only thing that has given us problems is the nut grass. We see it pop up occasionally. When it shows up, we clear the space around it and dig it out. We haven’t seen any issues with the Bermuda coming back at all.
This was really helpful. I’ve been reading non stop this and the clear plastic over black doesn’t really make sense to me since Bermuda is sun loving. But obviously it works! Hopefully I can find someone in my area who already has plastic so I don’t need to buy some. Does it need to be a certain thickness? I have some artificial turf that is just sitting around, could I use that? It does have holes for drainage. Maybe I could just lay it on top of the plastic since it’s right in the front yard
@kaitlynharmer8459 - For durability, 2 mil clear is good. But thicker than 6 mil, the plastic starts to become more opaque, partly blocking the sun (not as good). For a large area though, even 2 mil can be expensive. I bought two rolls of Husky brand 0.7 mil from Amazon. Each roll is 9 feet by 400 feet for 3600 sq. ft. for just over $30 per roll. I overlapped 1 foot width along the seams, and used over 200 bricks to hold down the edges of the 5,600 sq. ft. area (2 ft. spacing) and along the seams (5 ft. spacing). So far, this is holding in the moisture and withstanding windy weather. A 0.7 mil sheet may not be durable enough for burying the edges. I also removed all rocks, pebbles and stems that could puncture the plastic. The steam helps penetrate the ground and cook the rhizomes.