I still some forms of weed killers available in hardware stores.

anyhow, the organic way would be boiling hot water and vinegar or salt.

Go for the boiling water, Vinegar might be all right but salt will remain in the soil and kill the plants

I'll try it. Since the weather is so beautiful here in southern ontario I've jumped onto the gardening bandwagon and hope to kill this stuff before I plant and mulch. I'll give the boiling water a try. Thanks.

Controlling twitch aka quack grass (Elytrigia repens) is a constant battle and frustrates me to no end. I dig it out with a pitch fork at this time of year as the perennials are small but the grass is sitting up like a sore thumb. Use a pitch fork not a shovel or spade so as not to break the long white fibrous roots. A spade means more pieces to send up more grass....actually multiplying the twitch! I have filled bags and bags with these fibrous roots then leave the bags aside for a year or two to decompose. But if a small tear occurs in the heavy plastic bag the roots will live on.
Boiling water will not kill the roots. Only glyphosate applied several times or covering with a black plastic mulch will kill it for a short time. Country property gardens will always have twitch! And if is in town gardens the roots arrived in a potted specimen or by seed.
Curlylocks you will get lots of exercise using that pitchfork!

As a last resort it worked for me in one bed, dig your plants and plant in pots or plant elsewhere. Go over the area with a fork removing as much of the #$@%&%$# stuff with a fork, then rototill the area once or twice a week for the next month, most of the bits that are left shrivel and dry up. If you had your plants in pots replant, if not a trip to the garden center :o). Keep an eye on the bed for any sneaky bits that might have escaped this treatment, they come out quite easily.

Annette

This thread got me so inspired that I went and dug twitch out of my front bed. Just in time, it was getting ready for a major expansion.

I raked all my beds off and they still look like a hayfield. :( Last summer's constant rain and the fact that i babysat for much of the summer wreaked havoc on the flower beds. I've been considering Annette's method for a couple of my beds - a lot of work, but i guess it will be worth it. It's good that the weather is so nice that i can get ahead on this sort of thing this year.