Water the day before

Insert fingers

Pull grass

I've spent a lot of time doing this to phlox and candytuft.

Sounds like a painfully long job.

Thanks

Once you've removed the grass, I suggest a border/barrier of some kind to contain the lawn as well as the phlox. You can use pavers, bricks, etc. to make a strip of paving, then just follow along when you mow the lawn. Or you can keep up with edging the lawn and leaving some space between the lawn and the phlox. Otherwise, it's just a laborious task that you'll have to repeat often.

I just had the same problem except with a low growing euonymus shrub. I hated to do it but it was my only solution. I bought some round up and poured it into a bucket and put on rubber gloves, dipped my hands into the round up and rubbed the tall grass that really took over the shrub . So far it's killing the grass and hopefully none dripped onto the shrub.