I have the same problems as you do. I am covering my garden with cardboard and tarps for the fall and entire winter to kill anything underneath. I will then smother the ground with 2" of compost in the fall as well underneath the cardboard and tarps. This should lead me to clean ground by next spring when I uncover everything. Then it will just be a weed little but often task to keep anything from taking over again! This might help you a little bit. So far, areas I've had covered since late May have no grass underneath anymore, as it's all died.

Best of luck

Jacob

Bermuda is evil. Mostly, I pull it out of my beds when I see it. I have had a new bed under clear plastic all summer. If I am energetic, I will try to remove all bermuda stollens before putting down cardboard and building dirt up next year. DH puts weed cloth down under beds before dirt goes in. It may have helped, but we have plenty of bermuda in the beds. I have not heard good things about weed cloth on top of soil. Mulching helps, but I have seen a bermuda runner grow up through a hay bale. Smother, then dig out every stollen you can find. And NEVER let it come back.

Personally, I think it's impossible..but I wish you the best of luck :)

Can i choke out bermuda grass with multiple seedings of a desired grass. Or is that just, excuse my french, pissing against the wind?

If you could provide a cool-season grass that could reach blanket proportions to starve out the light from warm-season bermuda, that would continue to shade it through the summer too. It would be possible, however, I don't know of any such grass.

I think I recommend the aforementioned tactical missile. You can also use a grass specific herbicide, but I'm not sure that's preferable over Roundup (or even more effective)..I just don't know. Introducing Bermuda widespread was one of the worst mistakes in horticultural history (imo).

If the desired grass was a weed you didn't want (AKA crabgrass) it will choke out bermuda, but if desired grass is truly desirable, probably not. I seed my lawn with white dutch clover every fall, hoping it will choke out the bermuda and crab grass. I have a couple of good stands of it. I'm trying to get it to grow in my pathways. But jury is still out on whether or not the clover will beat out bermuda.

I am a convert to the "dig every last bit of it up" school, my third year here, after thinking I could bury it under piles of cardboard/leaf and straw mulch/compost. And then it will begin to encroach again. We have Bermuda growing up through the holes in a cinder block raised bed that's 2 cinder blocks high--and this is on top of a bed of gravel. I'm sure solarization would help; and I might try that--AFTER I dig every bit of it I can find. AND then the cardboard, oak leaf mulch, stray, compost mixture on top as thick as I can manage. And then be vigilant about keeping up-to-date on the Bermuda surveillance activities! LOL What I like about digging it up and then piling on the good stuff is that it may creep up or crawl across, but pulls out rather easily on top of a new thickly mulched bed. Gratifying to pull up a 3-foot piece of Bermuda. :)

Those white dead-looking long runners that are anywhere from 3" below the top of the soil to a foot or more deeper, aren't dead. . . they're just smuggling underground until they find any opening!

I seriously doubt that one can eradicate Bermuda. The best I've been able to do is to shade it with taller, closely planted crops. Strong varieties of corn, rampant varieties of squash, cowpeas, sorghum: these things will suppress Bermuda, as long as they can get growing before summer's heat sets in. After that, the Bermuda will probably keep up with them.

I've also heard that a thick planting of Johnson's Grass will out compete Bermuda. I have starts for anyone interested ;)

George

LOL George!

We laugh. . . but the thing is, even if someone DID use Round-up, that would still only be a temporary/fleeting solution, so why would anyone do that! I figure as long as it will be back no matter what I do, I may as well build good healthy soil while I'm temporarily getting rid of it.

You can drown it, and it hates shade.

Haha! Laughing at George's offer.

Bermuda. It's such a monster. Honestly. You just have to stay on top of it. Dig out as much as you possibly can, put down your cardboard, add your soil and plant. Then mulch. It will still creep in, so asap dig it out. Just stay on it.

IF I had unlimited funds, I would hire someone to dig four feet down and clear out all the dirt, grass, weeds; fill with compost and garden soil. BUT put metal on the sides and bottom of the hole. MY entire garden would be done like that. And even then, Bermuda would find a way.

My stress level rises just thinking about it.

Yes, I'm sorry we're not more encouraging, but this is the real world...and bermuda is the plague.

All that has worked for me is to relentlessly dig it out of garden beds when it moves back in. I do keep heavy, thick mulch (4-8") in raised garden beds and pathways but the bermuda will grow right into the mulch if you let it. Pulling it out doesn't work unless you have very light, sandy soil. You have to dig it and dig deep to get all the stolons. You can shade it out of your yard if you are willing to plant trees thickly, but you'll need to find shade-loving ground covers to replace it....and it still will try to creep back in to the shady spots---so you'll have to dig it out. Johnson grass will crowd it out and shade it out, but please do not accept any starts of Johnson grass that were so kindly offered by George because Johnson grass is the equivalent of bermuda grass on steroids.

To get rid of it more or less permanently? Pour concrete.

Improving the soil doesn't hurt it at all. Bermuda loves the highly improved soil in our raised garden beds in the veggie garen and it will try to race across the thick mulch on the pathways in order to reach the rich soil in the raised beds. (Our veggie garden with its raised beds dates back to 1999 and I still have to fight to keep the bermuda out of it.) The best way for me to control it is to never let it reach that rich soil in the first place because it loves it and thrives in it.

Solarizing, if done beneath very thick clear plastic for 2-3 months in the hottest summer weather can knock it back considerably, but you'll still have some of it survive and come back even if you think you got it all. And, wherever the solarized area ends....there sits bermuda grass waiting to re-invade the area.

If I had an area I wanted totally free of bermuda, I'd rent a sod cutter, cut out the sod as deeply as necessary to get all of it out, enrich the remaining soil and bring in more organic matter, as needed, to compensate for the sod/soil removed, plant what I wanted in that space, mulch heavily, put a heavy steel or concrete edging around that area that would go at least 8" deep......and still know that I'd have to relentlessly dig out any new bermuda that pops in that area....for the rest of my life. Keep in mind that the bermuda grass is out there 24/7 trying to reinvade your cleared ground in its quest for world domination. If you are a gardener in Oklahoma, you simply will have to fight it forever...however you choose. I choose not to use chemical herbicides on our property, but some people go that route and learn the same lesson the rest of us already have learned---not matter what method you use to remove it, if there is any bermuda remaining, whether on your property or next door or whatever, it will re-invade and you'll be fighting it forever. Bermuda grass is, unfortunately, perfectly suited for our climate. On our property, you can shade it out, but the shade required is so dense that almost nothing else will grow in that shade except the most shade-loving ground-covers. Then, if a tree dies or is taken out by a storm and you suddenly have a sunny spot....the bermuda grass will pop up there before you've even cut up the downed tree and hauled it away. Bermuda grass is evil. Prepare to fight it forever.

The good news is: You can still garden. Bermuda is wicked and you will fight it forever, but you can still be successful with a garden.

(I started feeling bad 'cause we were being so negative. :) )

Yeah, you just have to look at it coming up in the middle of your planting, try your best to remove it, and realize there's more where that came from.

And also realize, you're not alone...an army of gardeners are cursing it with you!

It's hard not to be negative about bermuda grass. It is evil. I hate it. I garden anyway and have for decades. In Fort Worth, our St. Augustine lawn grass did crowd out bermuda as long as we kept the St. Augustine grass well-fed, well-watered and properly mowed. Hmmm. If I could find a St. Augustine grass that was truly cold-tolerant, it might be worth planting it in a swath around the outside of the garden fence. I dread the thought of having to keep it watered all summer long though because we don't get enough rain to keep it happy on rainfall alone.

You know the funny thing? Other "lawn & garden" groups I'm in have people lamenting that their bermuda grass is dying and they want suggestions on how to get it to grow. I usually suggest "plant a tomato in the spot, it guarantees the bermuda will come back with a vengeance." I can tell the "garden" people from the "lawn" people based on their reaction.

Yes, this is an accepted tenet of gardening, whatever you're trying to grow will struggle, while your weeds will thrive.

But in all likelihood, if they watered less and enriched the soil (best bermuda I ever saw was growing in a load of cow manure) naturally (not fertilizer), their bermuda would grow better. Bermuda is not happy in a wet soil and so many lawn people think watering every day is beneficial.

Please note, I didn't say it would DIE, just that it's not happy :)

On the positive side... Bermuda keeps you out of trouble! You don't have time to get in to trouble... cause you are digging out Bermuda grass! :)

You guys are funny! Thanks for all the tips! I will just put my shoulder down and continue.

What is the situation? Are you trying to redo a bermuda lawn or trying to keep it out of a veggie or flower bed? It makes a difference. Also what is the problem with Round Up. I'm not trying to be judgmental - I realize people have problems with it. It might help to know why you don't want to use it.

I have has pretty good success growing St Augustine as a cover for bermuda. The coarse bladed St Augustine easily overgrows the fine bladed bermuda and takes over. Easily, time after time, every time I've tried it (about 15 times), 100% success every time. But you are in OK. I'm not sure which will go dormant first, the bermuda or St Aug. But the St Aug should awaken earlier in the spring and then you're off to the races for the season. Pro tip: St Augustine is always mowed at the mower's highest setting.

If you are talking about in a flower bed, you might try an alternate use of Round Up. I have successfully eliminated bind weed from a garden using one easy application of Round Up. I did not spray it willy nilly over the garden. I put some 43% RU concentrate into a floral bud vase and stuck one strand of the bind weed into the bud vase. I let it sit for weeks. That one strand of bind weed took up the RU and killed the entire plant. I had bind weed I never noticed before over a 30-ft diameter circle all coming from one central plant. That one little, noninvasive, dose of RU killed it all. You might be able to do something like that for bermuda.

Glyphosate is simple, safe, and permanent.

Oklahomegrown, something else--Bermuda is much easier to dig out of good soil, so, yes, improve your soil.

to answer san antonio, I am starting a new vegetable garden next spring. I don't want to use round up because I don't want to eat it.

thank you for the advice everyone, I do so respect your experience and opinions, but as far as glyphosate being safe, new research suggests not... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/ anyway, weather it is safe or not, i am sure the debate will rage on, but for me, it is just not worth the risk---I have two little boys and I want them to eat healthy, whole foods, not the crap my parents fed me and continue to eat (and suffer from cancer, diabetes, and chronic hives).

so, dig i shall. (or the husband will-- ;-) )

For this purpose, then ideally rototill to expose the roots to frost. If weather conducive, repeat after a month of freezing temperatures (I mean like 15 or lower). Dawn might have something to suggest about this.

I believe this is your best non-herbicide approach....also you can pick up segments of rhizomes after a deep till and remove them.

Don't rototill, unless you want to have a beautiful Bermuda patch! There is no good way to get all the rhizoome pieces out, once you cut them up with the tiller. Hand digging, aka, use a digging fork, then sit down and pick the rhizomes out will give you a chance of getting all of them.

At least, I have always had good luck with this method.

Moni