I have Bermuda grass invading many of my beds and areas around my raised stone beds. What solutions would you recommend? I think I'm going to have to redo most of my beds this year.

Debra

I keep round up mixed at all times, and bermuda grass is one of the main reasons. I sure have no suggestions except digging it out or round up. It impossible to pull up.

If you don't mind a chemical then you can use Sethoxydim. It is an over the top grass killer that is a selective herbicide and has daylilies listed as one of the things it will not harm. It has several names

Vantage
Grass killer
Over-the-Top grass killer
Poast plus
Grass Beater
Grass Getter

Other than that I suppose digging it out would work

My whole yard is Bermuda grass. I guess someone thought it was green so they used it?! It really looks like it is going to be a challenge for me as well.

It was made for golf courses, and I can say the bain of yard work here in FL. If you have it in zone 6, I guess its proof you cant kill the stuff.

The Bermuda grass really took hold two years ago in a drought. At that time the initial grass plants put roots down in the ground for more than a foot. I have tried Grass Be Gone as an over the top spray without much success. It killed the top growth, but not the roots and in about a month it was growing again. However, I haven't tried the sprays Michele listed. The Bermuda grass is so frustrating because it grows through my daylily clumps. It also seems to love the various weed barriers I've used and just runs under them until it gets to the well watered daylilies. Thanks for the suggestions so far, Keep 'em coming.

Pam - how do you use the Round Up without killing back your daylilies?

Debra

I grow most of my daylilies in pots, ( because of the weed situation in general) so even tho it does get in the pots, it can be pulled out. My husband gets so mad at me and tells me I am going to have to stop edging with round-up. Problem is the bermuda grows into the beds from the yard and even if you edge, you still have to kill the grass. I just do both at once. Im going to have to check into some of the non daylily killing ones that Michele listed.

It is a grass that I find annoyingly patchy as lawn but wonderful as a garden plant. There it runs in between the fans and sometimes sets deep between them. I use a hoe, hand spade and, where set deep in between the fans, Round Up by rubbing it onto individual grass stems manually. Just ensure the stuff doesn't get on the daylily, which you can avoid if you doing it carefully with individual attention.
However, it comes back like all excellent weeds.

Glen, your lauding the audacious tenacity of Bermuda grass reminds me that in one country the dandelion is a weed, and in another it is the dandy-lion and a veritably beneficial herb. I have taken to simply pulling up as much of the Bermuda grass' lateral roots as possible by hand (to locate the buried rhizome) and using a hooked garden cultivar tool to pull up the crowns. After a rain when the soil is moist and loose it is fairly quick, easy and rewarding work. So, I think Michele's idea that hand pulling can work is true over time.

Of course it can slowly grow back from well-established and camouflaged patches at the edge of the lawn, but it seems like the shoots and rhizomes get less vigorous each time after they are disturbed, and I see a huge difference between planting beds where I have done regular removal and those where there is just mulch to retard them (as in our cacti bed). By now the mulch is nearly buried underneath a mass of B-grass so I am planning to use some tough gloves to get in there and work the cacti bed next year. I'd rather be able to get to the weeds than have mulch keep me from getting a good grip on them. And, I like the way the soil gets aerated at the same time.

Uprooting the Bermuda grass that has infiltrated the lawn and migrated to the edges near the moist flower beds also makes it easier to get DH's support for expanding those beds as new bare-dirt patches open up after weeding! It makes my daylily heart happy to have an ever-widening edge to accommodate more fans in... :D

Just a thought. There seem to be no really good close-up photos of the leaves and habit of Bermuda Grass in the database.

About Sethoxydim - will it kill Nut Grass?
We have two infestations of it.

Found this from Walter Reeves, the Georgia Gardener.
"According to UGA weed specialist Tim Murphy, you must spray bermudagrass three times, at four week intervals, with glyphosate (Roundup) in order to kill it."

farawayfarmer,
Found this from:

James A. McAfee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist
Dallas, Texas

Nutsedge (Nutgrass) and Bermudagrass Control in Ornamental Beds

"For post-emergent control of sedge, the herbicide imazaquin ( Image ) is labeled for purple and yellow nutsedge (commonly known as nutgrass").

Edited to add: Nut grass is not actually a grass.
Full Article: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu...

I think I discovered that link last time I searched for articles on nutgrass control, but thanks for reminding me. Frankly, the idea of using a herbicide around my daylily plants scares me, so I haven't tried it.

If it is not too much of an infestation, I use my hand in a surgical glove. I spray the herbicide onto the glove and handle and massage the grass. That way I can be as accurate as possible in applying the herbicide.

If you are willing to use chemicals in your garden, look for the grass killer that contains flauzifop. It is an "over-the-top" for quite a number of plants and does in fact name daylilies among the plants it can be used on without causing a problem. There are a number of other plants listed where mild-to-heavy toxicity can occur, so be sure to check on all the plants you might use it near. When I used it, I still tried to keep it off other plants regardless of what was said about it being safe.
There are many products that contain this chemical and it does kill many other grasses besides Bermuda, so don't use it on your lawn to get rid of a patch of Bermuda. There are concentrates as well as ready-to-use products. A few states have banned it (I noticed "Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, U.S. Territories or International" were mentioned on the label for Fusilade II herbicide. Here are a few other names for flauzifop - - Flauzifop p-buty or butyl(RS)-2-[4-[[5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-pyridinyl]oxy]phen
oxy]propanoate. The label says it takes about a week before yellowing occurs.