Damn Bermuda Grass
 

Warning: Overly long story about grass.

A couple of years ago I noticed that I had a good amount of Bermuda grass in a 10' x 15' or so area of my back yard. I'm not sure where it came from, it seemed to just sort of pop up, and I haven't noticed it in any of my neighbors yards.

So in the fall of 2011 I sprayed Roundup on the whole area, let it sit for a couple weeks and then reseeded with fescue. The lawn looked great until early summer when the Bermuda popped back up.

Last fall I was determined to get rid of it once and for all. I sprayed Roundup again. Waited about a week, raked a bit and then sprayed another healthy dose of Roundup. Then I tilled the entire area under, brought in a bit of extra topsoil, reseeded and laid a straw mat.

The seed went down a little later than I would have liked, so it looked a little rough over the winter. But with the wet spring, the grass really took off. By mid-May, it looked as good as the rest of my yard.

I went out yesterday to fire up the grill and about pissed myself. Bermuda grass all over the place again. There wasn't a trace of it a week ago.

I'm pretty much at a loss. I never would have imagined it could come back after I tilled everything under. I suppose I could have stripped the surface before I tilled, but I probably would have had to bring in a bunch more soil.

Any suggestions from the CP grounds crew?

mix it with some northern California sensamilia and resead the entire yard

Your uncle molests collies.

Are you positive that it is bermuda?

Are you sure it's BermudaGrass?

I've had some success with Bayer Advanced Bermuda Grass Control for Lawns.

I'm in Hutchinson, BTW. Fescue lawn.

tl;dr

Just paint a large red Arrowhead on it.

you need to know what the rest of your lawn is to find a product that will kill the Bermuda but not the rest. Tilling only makes it worse.

Good question. Actually, no. It just looks like Bermuda to my untrained eye and has the "runners" along the ground that I typically associate with Bermuda. Although it could definitely just be a close relative.

It's a bitch to get rid of, that's for sure. Unfortunately, your tilling likely is the culprit - when you till, you're cutting the roots into smaller pieces, but not eliminating them. Which is why it came back.

You're going to need something stronger than Roundup - a selective herbicide that won't damage the other type of grass in your lawn - maybe something like Atrazine or Ornamec.

Rest of the lawn is fescue.

Ornamec is supposed to be good, but you have to know what the rest of your lawn is.

Just give in and have a bermuda lawn? It's drought resistant as hell.

My main gripe with our bermuda back yard is its tendency to run into our beds.