Bermuda Grass is Pure Evil.

It's July and the daylillies are in full bloom!

This year, we had a really mild winter and a nice wet spring, so almost everything is blooming really well. It's time to start the late spring clean up. What that means is crazy weeding. Generally, I don't get a lot of weeds in the beds. But what I do get is the bermuda grass encroaching into the garden edge.

I have dealt with it in a number of (moderately ineffective) ways.
I have:

1. Dug the border nice and deep and try to keep it clear.
2. Sprayed the edge on the garden side with RoundUp pretty frequently.
3. I weed wack the edge really hard. Like super hard. To the point that I am covered in mud when I am done.

None of this really works. All the RoundUp seems to do is give it a nasty hangover. And I am not a huge fan of tougher chemistry.The grass is just pure evil. It sends runners under the dirt and gets into the bed, and when that happens there is nothing to do but weed it out by hand.

So this Saturday, it will be a weedathon. We will be taking care of the front beds, the side beds and the back beds. The only ones that are in good shape are the beds by the pond. Why? Cause that is where I tend to hang out and drink wine - and pull weeds. The front, however, gets no lovin'. It is pretty shabby.

Start at 9:30. Our tools of choice are simple. Hand Claw, Big Claw (i have no idea what this is really called) and lots of buckets. I love to have a bucket always within reach in the garden. I have started keeping the nicer metal ones, cause the plastic ones tend to be eyesores.

On this beautiful day, both kids have volunteered to help me out! They last 10 minutes. After chasing the crickets, they are hot and tired. They both escape to cooler climates in the house. Meanwhile, me and my claw tool rip through the beds.

The mulch has completely decayed, and the top few inches resemble a soil. Sorta. I have chosen not to mulch this year and to just turn in last year's mulch and keep working it. So far, it has done a great a job at making the soil nice and rich as well as looser. A real challenge in Georgia.

About two hours later, I have worked around. Clawing up the edge and chasing down the runners that the grass sends into the garden.

I have seen my children occasionally, for short bursts. Usually related to some sort of wildlife they are trying to catch.

It rains. Not bad. Made it cooler, but didn't really get the soil wet. Hooray drought! Sigh...


By 2:00, the beds are edged pretty well, and I recruit my son and his friend to go around and deadhead the butterfly bushes. Amazingly, this is something I can really get some help with. I have no idea why, but they love to chop off the dead stuff with clippers.


The highlight of the day has been the discovery of Black Swallowtail larvae happily living on the Parsley. On the advice of the garden center, we have planted fennel as well. We have been working on creating more habitat for larvae. Far more pleasing than Gracie's last pet - a tomato worm.

In general, the weeding wasn't hard. As time has gone by, the soil has gotten softer and more crumbly. The clay is turning into something less like terra cotta. Everything that we have pulled, cut or chopped is heading to the compost bin. Nothing goes to waste.

Elapsed Garden Time: 8 hours.
Weed-O-Rating: 5 on a scale of 5. Got all my tasks done and had great weather.