Sorry about your losss. You could remove the edging but you could be asking for more problems simply because grass spreads by rhizomes which means you could eventually have the trimmer girdling your plants. Maybe come up with a different edging to control, somewhat, the spread of the grass, because if you think its bad now it could get worse. Maybe you could wet the area the night before you plan on weeding so they'd be easier to pull out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

The bermuda will engulf your plants. Spray along the edge of the bed with roundup a couple of times a year, with or without the edging.

Thanks Bullthistle and Catkim for your insight. Sadly, I think the Bermuda has already engulfed the plants. I will, however, thinking about a different edging and go from there.

redthistle...

I don't know what kind of resources you have. If you have a helper, you could use this example. This is exactly what I did along the flower bed so I wouldn't have to pull grass out. My solution was to use exterior grade lumber to create a border. I buried it about 3 inches and then used the round-up along the edge of the outside of the lumber. This killed the grass/weeds very well.

Then I kept my eyes open for stacks of bricks laying in other people's yards. I would ask the owner if they had any plans for them, and most all said I was welcome to them. Then I hit the mother load!!! One person told me where our city was just dumping bricks (and other stuff) in piles that were free for the taking. I found the dump site and pulled up my truck to a pile of dirt and brick mixture. These bricks were used in the streets of our city before blacktop and concrete were put down and now they just were going to sit there.

So... I loaded up. I think I pulled out around 400-500 bricks. I only took the perfect ones that I wanted. I then placed these bricks right along the flower beds and created a nice flat walkway. This was definitely a very big project that took some time for me to complete. I have bricked a single walkway about 50 feet long and 4 bricks wide. Not to mention all the edging I've done with the brick. Also, building new flower beds using the brick to raise up the beds.

Now I have come up with an idea to help me NOT mow the grass out in front of my house due to lifting the mower down over a 4 ft high wall and back again. If you can get FREE BRICK, you can do so many things with them. It was time consuming but it didn't cost me one cent (except gas money to ride 2 miles and back). I still keep my eyes open for free brick where ever I go :)

Redthistle-

It's not a sin.

It's also not a sin to consider quicklyÂor slowlyÂwhatever speed feels "Right"Âto dismantle this bed.

You and your husband probably had a goal in mind when he built this bed. It added something to the aesthetic of your home. It "fit" with your neighbors. Perhaps he, or both of you, enjoyed the gardening to keep it up.

ButÂit is no longer working for you. It gets overgrown and it will keep getting overgrown, year end and year out. If your desire is for it to look better, then you have these choices:
a. Keep doing the work yourself.
b. pay for someone else to do the work--maybe just two major clean-ups each year?
c. Pay for professional landscape work or DIY, according to some of the plans offered above, understanding, of course, that bermuda diligence will still be needed no matter what you do.
d. Resolve to remove the 100' x 10' bed and let it be lawn.

My advice would be to get rid of this maintenance challenge. Let it be bermuda grass. Then, focus your energy and creativity on something with a maintenance level that you do enjoy. The answer I suggest won't be perfect, but I promise it will be less work and, I think, a burden lifted off of you.

AndÂyes, it is okay. A landscape design works to your goals, not the other way around. Sure, it may lose something aesthetically, but only if you are thinking of the way this "used to look". Right now, grass would look better and that is fine. If the design functions well for you, then it's "Good design".

Two years ago we got rid of an island bed in the middle of our front yard. Unlike yours, ours--here when we bought the house--was always ugly. It was a constant weeding nightmare. Because I have no vision, I constantly tripped over the edge. Even so, I felt a little odd taking the audacious step of removing something that was "there". I discovered something. There is no rule in the rulebook that requires us to keep things the sameÂ

Now I have tons more time to spend on my patio area which I've recreated into a container haven. It's cool. There are places to sit. My son just told me tonight, "Mom, your plants are amazing. The whole patio looks really fantastic."

Hope my musings are helpful in some way.

Wellspring

redthistle,

Not sure of your budget, but you can start small and go up from there. I like to use the black plastic edging initially then add when I have enought money to but materials to add to it. Generally, I use the plastic edging to keep the grass out out the beds and then I will put in brick or rock among it to hide it as time and money permit.

Then again, the wife "lets" me do this to save me time from edging contstantly. She doesn't mind the look of the edging too much either.

Good luck with your project and sorry for your loss.

wellspring is on the right track. The 100' x 10' bed is no longer right for you. The answer is not in having Bermuda and perennials live together--it's in reducing the size of the flower bed or giving it up altogether and maybe having a few large containers.

If you had said you just wanted a bit less maintenance, but still wanted to keep up a large garden, then you would look more into a combination of better "Bermuda defense" maneuvers--Roundup on the edge, GrassBGon in the plantings, plants that create more shade, which discourages Bermuda grass, and plant species that are low-er maintenance.

But I think you just need a lot less flower bed.

You have gotten some good suggestions. Just wanted to share that I had a big problem with bermuda grass in my beds. It is about 2 yrs since I moved here, and I am winning against the grass now. I do have a little scalloped ?concrete edging in the front, sometimes the bermuda tries to get in thru a crack. I'm able to pull it out, I enjoy weeding a little. I use alot of mulch between the plants, and as the plants are filling in now, the grass is really not much. Just little tufts of it here and there, and it is much easier to pull out after a rain. In the back yard, I trim around some large island beds every few weeks with a little electric trimmer, sometimes a weedeater, and maybe once a year, shovel out a trench. These back beds don't have any edging. Often I just mow over the edges. If I had used pine straw on all the beds instead of shredded bark, it would be real easy to mow right over the beds edges. You might want to consider hiring someone to clean out the beds and mulch them well for you, if that would be in your budget.

Instead of watching the garden decay, another option would be to keep your loved one's garden alive by donating the plants to other gardners. This will shrink the size of the garden and return it to lawn, which seems to be easier for you to maintain.

I have not been able to get back to this thread till today.--High School graduations and graduation parties, etc.

I am still in the process of mulching this bed, at least for the summer until I decide what I want to do permanently.

So far, I have put down 51 bags of mulch (3 cu. feet of mulch/bag), which represents about four six-hour weekends of work. The weed-eating, cardboard, and mulch will only be a temporary fix.

You've all given me a lot to think about. Thanks so much!

I'm glad I read this. I too have an area out front that just isn't working as I had visions of. The grass just wants to take over. I now feel I can go ahead and move what flowers are growing to another area and let this go to grass. I was fretting over it, but am not anymore. Thank you all for your words to redthistle. It has helped me a great deal. I have a place to move the bricks to, and the wooden boarder can go to another area. I will feel better not to look at what I consider an eyesore, even if it is only in my eyes.
presmudjo