Talkback: Couch grass - Talkback

flowerbum

24/11/2011 at 15:27

great solution! thanks

kateking

24/11/2011 at 15:29

I remember watching the programme and seeing an alternative to furniture oil but can't remember whether it was vegetable/sunflower/olive oil. I have just bought some wooden furniture so would like to start the way I mean to go on!! Any help out there? Cheers Kate

dking45

24/11/2011 at 15:29

Our alltoment is inundated with mares tail, how can we destroy this pest of a weed?

MarilynSmith

13/01/2012 at 20:20

A few years ago it was possible to buy a weedkiller that only killed grasses and didn't affect the plants growing around it, then it disappeared from the shelves! It was brilliant but now my garden is filled with this grass again - impossible to dig it all out. My son suggests napalm - anyone got any better ideas?

James Allen

02/02/2012 at 11:54

in areas where herbicides aren't a viable option, cover the ground in dark rags, cloths, or even bin liners, remove sun light from any plants equation and it can not photosynthesise this will starve the plant and kill it outright

r0bb1eb

02/02/2012 at 22:42

Or it could be used to make an organic spray for blight.

david spikes

12/02/2012 at 19:55

weeding couchgrass can be a soothing event-its easy to drop into a reverie and then the sudden intensification of interest as you follow a thread 4 or 5 feet thru the garden and discover all the things those hard sharp stems have pierced

Jennifer Revell

22/03/2012 at 19:44

We have an uncultivated plot of land that is infested with couch grass. Digging it over and removing it will take forever and a day and we'd like to get it sorted this year so that we've got a garden.
We'd prefer not to use a weedkiller and wondered if rotovating it would make it easier to remove or would we be making the problem worse.
Any advise would be very welcome.
Thanks

heatherjune

22/03/2012 at 21:55

Couch grass was the bane of my life! I dug the garden several times and got lots of it out but it kept on coming up, it ruined every new lawn, so in the end I put a liner down and fake grass! It always looks nice!!! No more couch grass or weeds either I have a narrow garden and it has lots of curves--I hate straight lines so mowing it wasn't easy anyway, so now I can enjoy the garden anytime!

Excitable Boy

23/03/2012 at 15:01

Jennifer Revell wrote (see)

We'd prefer not to use a weedkiller and wondered if rotovating it would make it easier to remove or would we be making the problem worse. Any advise would be very welcome. Thanks

NOOOOOOOO!!!! Don't rotovate couch grass - you'll only propogate lots more!

I took over an overgrown allotment some years ago and managed to get rid of the scutch in one half by methodically digging it with a fork and removing the roots as I went. Use a fork as the roots are quite stringy and will pull out if you can get a hold. A spade just chops them up and makes it more difficult imho.

The other half of the allotment I used roundup as time was getting on. and this worked just as well. Sometimes I think you just have to give in and use it.

The following year a new tenant in the disused allotment next door tried rotovating without weedkilling first. It looked really impressive to begin with, but like a meadow two months later.

heatherjune

23/03/2012 at 20:25

I pulled out a lot of roots too, but it can't be helped when you dig whether you go through some of them and even a tiny bit that breaks causes more to grow, yes I was fighting a losing battle, it was enemy number one, I got obsessed going out there to pull more out and made the grass bald in the process..! I never thought of roundup..

So in the end it beat me, and now none grows at all because I faked it! :0)

backyardee

23/03/2012 at 23:55

The couch grass in my herbasceous borders is really crafty stuff. I find roots look similar to surrounding plant roots. i dug up a section, where it was the usual white needley bits but then when some of the roots tangled in with the ends of a phormium, the roots took on the orange of the phormium roots. Dastardly stuff, but when it gets too invasive I get the old roundup and a small polythene bag out. I place the growth in the polythene bag and spray. I leave the bag in situ for a day or so.

kalulu

01/04/2012 at 15:52

@dking45 - <span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Re Mare's Tail - I had lots of this growing - here's how I got rid of it:

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dig up as much as you can and any remaining that are not in close proximity to plants you want to keep - put 35ml to 5l of Weedol RootKill Plus.

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">Then - plant snowball turnips - the turnips excrete into the soil a suppressor for the mare's tail.

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">This year I've had a few mare's tail heads poke thorugh and that's it - more turnips at the ready!!!

estherp

14/04/2012 at 13:48

My experience is of a couch grass infested allotment.
The best advice I've had is:

Clear out a small area at a time very thoroughly - rather than doing a half-hearted job in a big area. Gradually extend the clear area as you have time.

Once you've cleared a space pretty well, plant something like spuds that cover the area and go down deep. Once you've harvested the spuds, you can make sure the area is really clear for planting other crops the following year. Then next time plant your potatoes in the new area you've cleared.

I've heard that drowning the couch grass is a good idea so that it can then be composted. Does anyone have experience of this method - does it work - or any other suggestions for dealing with couch grass waste?

Newcastle

14/02/2013 at 21:45

One option is to use landscape fabric to cover the infectted area and make sure you weight it down well at the edges. It looks unsightly and it does tke some weeks to weaken the weeds but it does work and now would be a good time to start. There is an additional advantage that you can cut cross shaped slits in the fabric and plant throught these into the soil leaving the leaves of the plant you want to grow above the surface and pin down the cut ends around it with bent wire etc. Slugs will want to use it as a refuge of course; slug pellets or regular killing forays by hand recommended.

Bunny ...

14/02/2013 at 21:47

As for mares tail... I just keep cutting it and eventually it has lost it's strength (spreads from neighbour who never weeds )

valerie hibbert

29/04/2013 at 22:18

i have couch grass and creeping buttercup on my allotment,i have dug most of the buttercup out,i am toying with the idea of covering some of it ,as i dont want to devote all of my time digging it out.i want to put some raised beds in so i was thinking cover the weeds and it would kill them, am i right ?

nutcutlet

29/04/2013 at 22:22

It may (that's may, not will) kill the buttercups if it's deep enough valerie but the couch grass won't mind. It will just extend those long roots further til it finds daylight.

valerie hibbert

29/04/2013 at 22:29

iv dug most of the couch grass out, except for an area where it seems to have been a dumping ground from other plots .im slowly working on this area ,im going to get as much as i can by digging it out with a fork .then plant potatoes do u think that would work? thanks for ur input

nutcutlet

29/04/2013 at 22:34

Spuds are good because you can get the couch out from round them. they don't get sislodged like seedlings would.

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