I literally dug all the bermuda out of my new beds. Boy what a job. And then put down lots of mulch and that helped a lot. The grass still tries to creep in but having the mulch makes it so much easier to control and take out. My Mom puts down black plastic sheets and waits for the grass to die. Then she takes the dead grass out. Then puts down mulch. It has worked for her.

Dancey

Bermuda will grow right up through lasagna compost, invigorated and stronger than ever. Grass-B-Gone works well. I use Grass B Gone in my flower beds to keep bermuda in check and Roundup on the edges, works well. If you insist on going "organic" please don't whine about how tough bermuda is to control. Used judiciously and according to the label don't worry about health or environmental effects of these herbicides, do keep the child out of the area for a week or so. Pesticides are a different story. Don't use them at all around your infant. Inside or out.

I have found Round Up to be but a "temporary" means of erradicating bermuda. Your best bet is to dig it out (and go deep, a side benefit is that you are preparing your beds by such deep digging anyway). Later when stray sprigs sprout, they will be easier to pull out.

Then put a barrier system between the lawn and your new bed.

Use a sod cutter. We plan on using it at my mom's house to prepare beds. In NC, we have just gotten a good dosing of rain so the ground will be especially easy to work.

Bermuda roots are deeper than a sod cutter can dig. You'll just end up with another crop if you try that. The roots can go down 6 feet. Yes, feet. Unless you are willing to double dig down that far and sift every bit of dirt, removing it by mechanical means isn't gonna work. Bermuda grew up through a 12 foot pile of wood chips I had out back composting down.

Bermuda is evil. Even chemicals have a hard time permanantly eradicating it, but with persistance, it can be done.

The only permanant way I know of to really kill it is to water it really well, fertiize it so that it's growing really good, wait a week, and then spray with a extra strong strength of Roundup. Wait 3 weeks, and do the same thing on the stuff again in the spots that were resistant or you missed the first time. The good news is late summer into fall is the perfect time to do this. Bermuda is storing starches in it's roots to tide it over for winter, so the Roundup is translocated that much faster and is more effective now.

Don't forget to trench edge the new bed and keep it trenched or it'll just creep back in. Ornamec (fluzipflop p-butyl) will eradicate it from an ornamental bed, but it takes more than one application also and is best used as a spot treatment not a total eradication method.

We're pretty proud of our Bermuda here in Georgia...it feeds lots of cattle and we are the "epicenter" of the industry. However, in my daylily garden, I have found the only way to get rid of it is by hand and then only temporarily. And I prefer St. Augustine for my lawn thank you very much...but any spot that dies gets wild Bermuda in its place.

Thank you all for your responses.

I have successfully used a product called "Ornamec Over-The-Top Grass Herbicide" with incredible success. I purchased via an internet source, however you may find a retail nursery in your area that carries it. I have used it in my rock garden beds, annual & perinnial beds. It WORKS just like they claim. Doesn't harm hundreds of plants--even my tulip and daffodil bulbs. It's worth every penny you'll spend for it!

I keep some mixed up in a pump sprayer for spot treatments--those persky bermuda shoots will of course keep trying to come up here & there, but it's no biggie for me.

Since I don't know if it's OK to list the manufacturer's website address here--just type in the product name I've mentioned and you can read all up on it. They also list retailers.

Good luck. CFB

...type the product name into a search engine & you'll find the manufacturer. :-) CFB

Holly Springs is right -- bermuda is evil. I have tried eradicating it for years. Don't even think about some of the usual methods such as mulch. Bermuda *loves* mulch.

I have tried digging it out, but the roots go so deep that it is nearly impossible. Spraying with roundup kills the top but it comes back from the roots (at first). You have to keep applying it over and over for a period of weeks or months to kill the roots.

You also have to have a barrier between the lawn and your new bed, as AshGa says. And don't think you can use something as simple as landscape timbers. Burmuda simply sends shoots under the timbers that creep *under* the mulch until they pop up all over the place in the middle of your bed.

What has worked best for me in flowerbeds is this: Use a foam brush to paint on a concentrated roundup solution. When you find a shoot, follow it (under the mulch) till you find where it goes underground, then paint the entire shoot that is above ground. Check for new shoots at least twice a week. Diligence will pay off so don't give up, even if you have to keep doing this all summer long.

I am currently trying the trench method as barrier between lawn and flowerbed. That sneaky bermuda still manages to send disguised shoots under the mulch into the bed if the mulch drifts too close to the lawn. Widening the gap bewteen the mulch and the lawn doesn't look very nice. What I wish I could afford to do is pour a concrete footing about a foot deep and lay pavers on top for a border.

Okay,
My wife wants to kill me for thinking of this,but now it just sounds like more work than its worth. I just want to kill every bit of bermuda in my back yard and replace it with zoysia palasade. I've heard it's just as drought tolerant and tolorant to foot traffic. Question is now that when I kill the bermuda off does the dead grass retain the Round up,there for meaning it can't be used as compost? Or is it okay to mulch the dead grass and leave it? Also,does Zoysia survive okay on sandy loam? Cause thats what I got. Cheap dirt.

Well,forget that idea. Now I'm reading Zoysia can be just as invasive. Maybe it's just better to stick with the Bermuda. Buffalo won't take the foot traffic that goes on in my back yard.

Research centipede grass. It's not as "pretty", but it needs far less mowing and has good wear tolerance. Roundup is rapidly broken down in both the soil and the plant after it has it's effect. Composting any of it should be fine. It works by translocating through the plant down to the roots where it starves the plant. It is only taken in by the green growing portion of the plant though, and any overspray onto the soil will not make the soil poison for other plants. That's why I said to get it good and growing well before you roundup it. The more green the plant has to take in the roundup, the more effective it is in killing it.

I can second the opinion on Ornamec over the top, it is particularly effective right now, as the bermuda is sending nutrients to its roots in preparation for winter dormancy.

I 2nd centipede as a grass rec. It is cold hardy enough for where you live.

A combination of most of the methods mentioned above will work. I would spray with round-up (at least twice), let it die, and then use thick cardboard as a base under a "lasagna". The lasagna needs to be quite thick, as much as you can find, and then let it sit over the winter. I find a trench edge works to best for trying to keep out bermuda, but you must keep up with pulling out the runners. Some bermuda will still show up in your beds, pulling and grass-be-gone works well.

Be careful with grass be gone around dianthus type plants, I got spray happy and took out a bunch of carnations and pinks.

Lisa

The Bermuda grass at my mom's house was actually sodded in by the builders last year in the subdivision she lives in. After reading the posts above, I was hesitant to try the sod cutter, but did so anyways and it doesn't appear that the roots went down as deep as noted previously--perhaps due to the short amount of time the stuff has been in and the depth we were able to cut out with the cutter after all the rain we have gotten.

Forgot when posting yesterday that I did find a supplier of ornamec here in the Kernersville area and will probably go ahead and buy some for any residuals that do come up and for other areas in the yard where there are already beds surrounded by the evil grass!

I sprayed first with Round Up, tilled, next a thick layer of mulch. Any bermuda that comes up through it I spray with Poast. Poast can be sprayed over broadleaf without damaging them as it kills grass. I spray it over daylilies, zinnias, cone flower, marigold, rudbekia, etc. So far so good.

Are there any grasses that will crowd out Bermuda? If so, do they leave you with a worse invasive?

I've ripped out bermuda sod my yard and plan on more this spring. I find this is best when coupled with a spray of round up 1 week before planting the bed plants. I don't have kids, so I haven't tried anything but round-up. But I don't see why you couldn't roundup and then put down mulch right away. Round=up is supposed to decompose in no more than a week. Since it's getting colder, you could schedule your time to when your child won't be outside for a few days (like a few days before rain). I usually take a straight shovel and cut my lines and then rip it out with a hoe. Of course, if I'm transplanting grass, i get under it with the same straight shovel. It's really not that bad.