The Nutgrass Battle

My battle with nutgrass began in April when the weed started poking its nasty little head out of the ground. I didn't have a nutgrass problem in the old yard, so this was new territory for me. I faithfully plucked it out of the ground for a few weeks, but that got old very quickly. The nutgrass would pop up again only days after I'd pulled it up. In May I decided to give the nutgrass in my front bed a chemical blast. I bought Image and Roundup and gave the nutgrass a spray of each. I waited a few days for the chemical to sink in. Then I covered the bare areas with 3 to 4 sheets of newspaper and topped the newspaper with mulch. This method has worked really well to control the nutgrass. A few places it has poked out of the newspaper, mostly where sheets overlap and I left a hole, but it is much more manageable than when this nutgrass battle began.


I have this bed on the side of the house that I've had major trouble with. Apparently someone tried to remove a crepe myrtle from the bed a few years ago because crepe myrtle suckers were coming up all over the place. In addition to the suckers, the bed contained two ugly palm trees and plenty of nutgrass. A few weeks ago I dug up the palms and potted them in containers that I could wheel around the pool in the back yard. I did my best to remove all the crepe myrtle roots/suckers and the nutgrass, and I attempted to improve the soil with some compost manure I bought at Home Depot. I wanted to avoid spraying the bed down with chemicals, so I covered the bed in black plastic to try to kill the nutgrass. Well, it didn't work. As soon as I removed the black plastic, the nut grass came back. On Sunday, I sprayed the nutgrass with Image and Roundup. I've covered it in black plastic again. Lets hope it works this time!!