I removed my Bermuda about 5 years ago and converted to desert with minus granite (love that stuff). I scrapped about 2-4" of soil with a shovel and piled it all to make a raised area in the yard, and dug deeper in other area to add more interest than a flat yard. People say Bermuda has roots 14' deep and it grows back from the roots. It doesn't...it grows from rhizomes which are just under the soil surface. People also told me the pile of sod would sprout at the next rain, it didn't.

Bermuda is tough but with a little thinking and work you can win. You have to remove the rhizomes. I saw a class advertised by a permaculture guy where they dug like 12" down and shift thru the soil with mesh to find all the rhizomes. That's crazy. I dig down a bit, 4-6", and remove whatever green/rhizomes/root I find. Shake out the dirt and toss the plant into the compost or trash. Next rain or after watering I check for new growth, and that's the great thing about Bermuda, it sends up a flag to tell you exactly where the rhizome is located. Dig that out. For my lawn I had maybe 10 or so spots that sprouted after the scraping. And after that a couple where the rhizome was deep, like 12" down, looked like where it hit edging and had gone deeper to get under it. In the pile of sod there were a few sprouts which I just turned over.

If there's a big area I'd scrape the entire area and pile the dirt/sod next to the area. Now I have a high berm and a low spot and I tamp down the high spot, smooth it all and it looks natural. Wait for any new sprouts, you can water to see that, remove any survivors. Then later cover with minus granite.

You can of course just use RoundUp on Bermuda. For a large area you really need a serious sprayer and the concentrate. Using the spray bottle is expensive and to me a real pain to use for a large area.

Pre-emergent would not effect rhizomes, it stops seeds from germinating. But I don't know much about pre-emergent chemicals, I'm OK with weeding. I enjoy it, time to think.

Most weeds don't have to be pulled. I use a shovel and push it into the soil a bit and back out so the surface granite isn't disturbed too much, that loosens the root enough, and/or cuts the tap root, that touching it with the shovel removes it. I leave them in place normally to dry up and disappear.

There are a few weeds with thick roots the plant can grow back from. I dig a bit deeper to cut that and same deal, comes out easy. Some do come back, but not many.

I don't try to get every weed. Faster I get to it after a rain the easier. Being so dry here works to weed killing advantage.

With Bermuda and weeds the real trick is to stay after it...as you already know.

So today I spent 7 hours removing a small (5 sq ft) patch of Bermuda. Rhizomes were almost 3' deep and very thick and very healthy. It gets water.

I've tried to remove this patch before, but out of the way so I haven't kept up with it. Oops. It comes back with surprising vigor. So I basically dug a trench at the perimeter and had a wall of soil, a cut away view, so I can follow these rhizomes.

3' deep because I'd piled 18" of soil on top of the spot last year. Oops two. I'm digging like a warthog and get to the biggest mass and hit broken chunks of concrete. Oh yeah, 7 years ago I'd dug out the concrete for a clothesline post and had buried the concrete chunks, along with some Bermuda I guess. Oops three.

Spending 7 hours will hopefully remind me to stop burying stuff. But really it was a nice day, nice soil, and I like digging.

I'm sure I have it all this time and that I will stay on top of it. Have only said that 3 times before.