Crabgrass issue

11 years ago

I am having a crabgrass issue in my flowerbed! We just bought a house last may and last summer, our flower bed around our mailbox got overrun by crab grass! This spring we dug up most of the area using a hoe and trowel pulling up as much crabgrass roots as we could find. We did not nearly get them all up, but got a good portion of them. We then put down a sheet of gardening fabric (dont know the exact name) that is suppose to let water and air through, but prevent weeds. Then we planted some extra plants and put a layer of rubber mulch down. Now that its been a month or so, crabgrass is starting to poke holes in the fabric and come up.

The grass around the flower bed also has a lot of crab grass. I am not sure what to do at this point... I am a little hesitant to spray crabgrass killer as I have never used it before and dont want it to kill my newly planted flowers. Currently I am just pulling up the green parts of the crab grass as I see it, but I cant get the roots due to the fabric. They seem to be popping up more frequently now and I am afraid its going to get too hard to manage soon.

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Comments (5)

jean001a
11 years ago
This is a tough lesson learned the hard way. Remove the landscape fabric, then weed 'til the crabgrass is gone.
kimmq
11 years ago
Where in the world are you?

Crabgrass is a summer annual that germinates from seed in late spring when the soil temperatures are about 60 degrees. Landscape fabric will stop crabgrass so if what you have is poking through it may not be crabgrass.

Rubber, shredded tires, mulch is an environmental disaster, contributes nothing worthwhile to the soil, and can contribute pollutants that you do not want in your soil.

kimmq is kimmsr
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David
Original Author
11 years ago
I am in Raleigh, NC where it is already getting into the 80's. I am 99% sure it is crab grass and it is definitely poking through. I did not know rubber mulch did that, but will keep that in mind.

Do you think the fabric is doing more harm than good with respect to the crab grass? I think it is preventing a lot of the crab grass from coming up, but just a handful of them are able to poke through. The majority of the grass is poking through in gaps or holes in the fabric where the base of the plants are and the edges of the fabric.

I also have another bed that has a small tree in it. From the size, I would say it was planted right before we moved in. I did the same to that bed and it has a different type of weed in it that is poking through the fabric. That one is a lot easier to manage as it doesn't have the crazy root system that the crab grass does. The weed looks like one sprig of grass, but grows ridiculously fast. It usually has a small, shallow root system.

Would it be safe to put weed killer on that flower bed since it surely should not kill the tree? If the tree was well established, I would not have a problem doing that, but it is only about 4 feet tall right now and nowhere near its adult height... Its a Japanese maple.
lisanti07028
11 years ago
Can't you just pull the weeds out? I am not categorically opposed to judicious use of herbicides, but a couple hours of hands-and-knees pulling can solve your problem without resort to chemicals.
David
Original Author
11 years ago
Yeah, that is what I have been doing, but with the fabric down I can't get the roots very well. I may just have to remove the fabric... I really wish there was another way though.