Yep that’s what I feared.. This stuff is intense, it survived being scraped, smothered with cardboard, then a foot of compost in my raised beds and I’m still trying to dig new shoots popping up all season. Afraid that my larger direct to ground gardens are going to be even worse. It actually makes for a really nice carpet of hardy lawn; soft, low growing, and takes a beating with the dogs constantly romping back and forth. Turns our not so great if you decide to convert a yard into something more useful though.

Would agricultural vinegar do much damage to it before smothering? It’d need to dissipate enough to plant in three weeks though and I’m worried about disturbing microbe life with the acidity, unless it recovers quickly with the addition of compost. My thinking is try and do as much damage to it as I can for the next three or four weeks, then as soon as that crop is finished I’ll re-tarp it for a few months until spring planting. I’m just scared all I’d be doing is piling nutrients on top of surviving rhizomes then keeping them nice and warm with a covering so they’re primed and ready to attack as soon as I get seedings planted in spring. Might just have to bite the bullet and keep everything protected with plastic mulch from here on out 🤔

Not sure about vinegar, if it's boiling that may put a dent into the BG. But that's a heck of a lot of vinegar unless you're growing pickles ;-). BG is the perfect grass for high traffic areas esp since it's so hard to kill. To rid my plots of it I had to hand dig it out in 6" squares via shovel and knock off the soil from its roots, then toss the BG in the trash can (do not compost BG!). It was a lot of down on my knees work and it took time and effort bit I finally got it at bay. It still wants to invade the gardens with its relentless runners. You may want to use this fall and winter as time to expand your garden that 1,000 sq ft for Spring.

There's a reason it's illegal in CA! Invasive!

The vinegar you would have to use isn't the $2 per gallon you get at the grocery store. It's really expensive, and I doubt it would work!

Our former neighbor got BG by accident by planting a nursery plant, and it quickly grew to about 1/4 acre (well, over a few years).

He tried everything, and finally conquered it by digging it out (well, his people dug it out) and land/hardscaping the yard!

Good luck! You might do some raised beds, but 1,000 SF would mean some building! And who says the BG won't find it's way into your boxes???

I feel for you because nothing, NOTHING, kills Bermuda.

I have found a product from Bayer called Bermuda Grass Control which will knock it back with multiple applications during the summer growing season. They are careful not to say it kills it. Note the word 'control' which sounds more like containment rather than eradication. But it can help as part of a multi pronged offensive weapon package.

The Bayer stuff comes in a blue bottle you attach to a hose and spray away. It actually does seem to inhibit it and turn it slightly brown. It does not seem to harm anything else I've gotten it on (other grasses, garden plants etc.). I have very little in my garden beds so I spray the lawn primarily but in doing garden paths it will hit some other plants.

Well I’ve decided to expand it about 2,000 sq ft by next spring and just focus on prepping it as best as possible until then. I just sucked it up to only plant my little raised beds with some fall greens until the big area is ready to tackle next year. Tried digging some little spots out where it was thickest, those rhizomes went down at least 8” if not 10” in a few spots so there’s no way I’d be able to dig out the whole plot that deep. I feel like no matter what I do it’s going to eventually keep popping up in places so I’ll just have to keep an eye out and pull as it pokes up, maybe do a little heavier cultivation between plantings than I’d wanted to.. Now on to figuring out how to start controlling the poison ivy thicket that’s ever encroaching through my back fence line 🤗