Our Homestead Garden's Worst Enemy And How We Combat It! (Rhizomatous Grass)

[@judymiller323]

i have this EVERYWHERE in my central FL yard... i've given up trying to manage it in the yard and my raised beds and barrels are safe right now- IF i sift like you suggested, Eric ! Thanks for the great video.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It's all about getting those roots out.

[@TheOldMayfieldPlace]

We call that Bermuda grass here. It is the bane of my existence, but the horses love it as hay.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I totally understand. Glad your horses will eat it.

[@Chocamatoes]

What a great sifter idea. Thanks.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thank you

[@gunnyd9282]

Prevalent in Florida, along with sticktights, and sandspurs.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

There is some nasty stuff out here.

[@Token_Civilian]

That grass took over my lawn. The only way I got rid of it was to tear it all out and start over. Good to finally give a name to what I called "sideways growing grass".

[@CountryLivingExperience]

My whole 8 acres is covered in it. I wish I could remove it and start over.

[@janetthornton7909]

I deal with quack grass that spreads same way. I have buried a 15” vertical barrier of metal roofing around the perimeter of my veg garden. This works.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

That'll work.

[@amsohn1]

Thanks so much, great video and information! It was so good to actually meet you and your kiddos at Discount Tire this week... you were so kind and gracious. We appreciate you and your family and your info you share. We are working on our KZbin channel and hope to start it very soon. God Bless and prayers 🙏 Yes, I'm Grams of All Trades, aka Anita

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Hi Anita. So nice to meet you as well! Have a blessed day!

[@DeepSouthBamaGRITS]

I have this grass growing EVERYWHERE in my area of coastal AL (boarding the FL panhandle). We also battle Cogon grass and Japanese Stiltgrass which are also two very invasive grasses that you can not kill. The more the roots are disturbed, the more it spreads and it literally chokes out anything planted or intend to plant. It literally KILLED/choked out a beautiful tropical bed of banana trees & canna lilies I had planted. Choked them all out. I do not like to use Roundup but I'm almost to the point I may have to resort to it unless I try your method of smothering it with the tarps. I ALWAYS try to get all weeds & unwanted grass out of my garden or flower beds by getting all roots but if you miss one single piece, it will continue to grow & spread. Some like to be covered with light shielding material (which will start to kill it) and then some like sunshine to grow and spread. It is a never ending battle along with the weed "Chamber Bitters" which spread by tiny seeds even on baby plants. All of these grasses & weeds are BURNED and are NEVER composted or fed to my chickens. One little root or seed starts the growing process all over again. I also have Virginia Creeper and it spreads with a very long/deep tap root system. You can pull up the surface plants but you must also pull to get the mother root or it will keep appearing. It is a thick reddish brown root and easy to pull out but can be spread out quite a distance from the initial plants you're pulling out. I'm trying to clear an area for a 2nd larger greenhouse and I'm coming across all of these grasses/weeds along with Yapon saplings and other weeds. I love my woods and the privacy it offers me but I do NOT like all the grasses & weeds that I can never seem to rid. I even dig up the root of any saplings I cut down to keep them from spreading as well. I seem to grow the most beautiful WEEDS in my garden lately but no veggies or fruit. Seems mother nature is out to beat me on growing food to eat. I grow mostly in containers/raised beds due to my clay soil full of iron rock but even they are getting those crazy Chamber Bitters which I'm finding are very difficult to irradicate. How do those seeds get in my raised beds or containers when I don't compost those weeds or feed to my chickens. This is the 2nd yr I've had very little produce to harvest. The heat & drought last summer got last yrs garden. Then the early fall & freezes then the major Christmas 2022 freeze got my fall/winter garden followed by the very early spring (in January 2023) and the subsequent freezes/frosts that got what I had planted. Along with the crazy weather we are having and bugs/worms I've never had to deal with I just want to throw my hands up and forget trying to garden...but I keep trying. I've had a beautiful garden this year with the cooler weather we've had (not common for our area) and then a few days ago we started having severe weather, which is continuing that has very high winds & torrential rains that has destroyed my garden again!! If the high winds didn't break or uproot my plants, limbs & other debris fell on my plants and now they are flooding with l the rain we're having. Over 10 inches in 3 days & more coming every day. Regardless, thank you so much for this video to help identify this noxious grass I continuously battle along with the others I've mentioned. I learn so much from your variety of video's on many subjects that greatly help me around my homestead. It is evident that SOMEONE OUT THERE DOESN'T WANT ME TO GARDEN. Lost all my fruit this year from an unexpected freeze in March after spring came early in January. Everything was fruiting or in fruit set mode when that freeze hit so NO FRUIT this year and very little veggie harvests so far. I can only pray that my sweet potatoes do well this fall when I harvest those. Maybe my pumpkins & Chayote Squash will give me a harvest to make up for what I've lost. I'm debating replanting what I know will continue to grow in our zone 8b but do I waste those precious seeds or wait til next year. I hope others are fairing better with their gardening this year than those of us along the Gulf of Mexico...and now hurricane season is ramping up. Blessings to you brother. WE SHALL SURVIVE as long as we don't give up.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Sorry you are having this issue as well. Certainly along with mankind, the vegetation and animals were infected by sin as well. To him that overcomes and has faith ;-)

[@wadeschwartz6281]

Put your compost in your chicken yard let them be 24/7 care takers ! 🙂

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yard it too big. I would lose all my compost.

[@johndoh5182]

Hey dude and to whoever may come along and read this, tacking that screen material to the bottom of it is a bad idea and requires you over engineer the thing. when you put downward pressure on that screen, and at some point you may want to, it puts downward pressure on the staples, nails, etc.... and that works to pull them out. Instead, fold the screen material up each side 3 - 4". You tack that stuff into the side of the frame, not the bottom. You then don't need to add another strip of wood, nothing. It will take years of downward pressure and stay intact, well, until you use so much force it rips a hole in the fabric. Putting sideways pressure on nails, staples, etc.... isn't a big deal with durable nails, staple...... This also means staples from a staple gun aren't good enough. You use fence staples that you nail. I've made these for sifting heavy soil. I DO put the thing over a large wheelbarrow so that the material falls into that and I can simply move the material where I want it to be after I'm done. I don't know why there's a reason to hang this. Once again, maybe a little over engineering and may create more work than it's worth. This is my favorite tool for cleaning up an area of junk in the soil including getting rid of that rhizome grass root, but because I'm also sifting soil I'm using a 1/2" mesh. You don't need anything that fine for compost sifting.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You do you dude.

[@BayouCoyote]

Never knew the name of that invasive grass. We always called it "Evil Grass". Lol! All those easy to grow nodes explains why it's so hard to get rid of once it's established.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Evil grass is probably more appropriate.

[@willbass2869]

Bermuda grass

[@jandcschwartz]

Vary much like bind weed. It will grow without light and curl for several feet.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It is crazy stuff for sure.

[@virginian3390]

? I was wondering if chickens would eat that grass if they found it in the ground? Although I guess the roots would still be there.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Those roots are the nasty part. They survive a lot of methods to destroy them.

[@Firevine]

Whether this is fescue or Bermuda where I live, I don't know, but I want it GONE. It completely took over a wood chip pile. It's growing through the siding of my house. The only thing keeping it at bay in one of my garden beds is that the mint is outcompeting it.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It will “eat” almost anything in its path.

[@joyscott7372]

@@CountryLivingExperience true!! It’s taking over the monkey grass that we planted around the inner edge of my shrub beds surrounding my house. It’s so frustrating! Also, it’s the most invasive thing in my garden. I always say that they have roots to China!

[@edensbounty6679]

Zoyza and Bermuda are bothering the same way! I hate those

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yep

[@simonsays6557]

My chickens did a great job to kill off that nasty grass. Those roots are resident and go dormant only to reactivate

[@KumiOriFarm]

I set up a temporary chicken run several times a year along the sides of my hoop house, The chickens are happy to weed there.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

The roots are the super evil part of the plant.

[@KumiOriFarm]

@@CountryLivingExperience I agree, up here in Spokane the people call it quack grass, it survives the dry summers but still I hate it.

[@KumiOriFarm]

Nasty rhizomes

[@krystlehammond1447]

I swear this weed was not in the Garden of Eden! It is so bad on our property. It overruns my strawberries every year

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I totally understand. It took me at least 4 years to get it completely out of the main garden beds. Sin infected all the plants and animals as well. I am sure God never intended thorns to prick you or lions to eat you. ;-)

[@venidamcdaniel1913]

I have these nasty stuff n just can’t get rid of it. In town so no chickens or bees. Thanks.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It is hard to get rid of.

[@humbllbug]

Jesus is God who came in the flesh to be sacrificed for the forgiveness of sin for any person who believes and calls on His name. Beware that Satan will soon appear on earth claiming to be Jesus. A few days before Jesus was crucified, He was eating at the home of Simon, a leper who Jesus had healed, when a woman came along with a box full of precious ointment and anointed Jesus with its contents. The disciples were mad, saying that the woman could have sold the ointment and given the proceeds to the poor. Jesus explained to everyone that she had anointed him for his burial, and commanded that what he had done be told for a memorial of her where ever the gospel is preached.

[@ashleehouse5204]

That stuff is awful!

[@CountryLivingExperience]

For sure!