When I bought my house 13 years ago, the yard was ruined by nutsedge. I am certain that I had at least four different varieties.

I've tried every poison and every trick in the book. Nothing really eliminated then all, although the Ortho and the Bayer products seemed to eliminate two varieties. All that was accomplished by these chemicals was to give the most evil varieties less competition. My yard was ruined.

So I did what every respectable American lawn guy would do. I went to war. I started in a corner of the property and just started digging, using a small hand tool to avoid injuring the cables and wires that criss cross my yard. I dug down as far as two feet to insure that I got every piece and every nutlet. It took almost a year of constant effort, but I got the whole yard done.

Of course, pieces were missed, but the dirt, having been tilled and sifted so thoroughly, was loose, making it easy to take on anything which reared its head. A second year, and the problem was solved, and that was a decade ago.

But on the other side of my driveway, there was no divider to keep these beasts fromcreeping in from my neighbor's yard, overtaking my strip of land. It is here tha I have used the poisons to little avail.

But a wonderful thing happened last fall - the owner moved away. It was abandoned! Hooray for the recession! I immediately took on his whole yard, killing it once per month with RoundUp. I did that for six months.

The nutsedge is exhausted, but still alive.

With nobody to stop me, I began digging and digging. I am half way finished with my own property...

As you can see, I tear out a section, then plant fresh plugs. This is how it looked at sunset today. In a month, I'll be done with my property, and will push the project about ten feet into the other yard. At that point, I will take the most evil soil-burning poisons on the market and will nuke the rest of his yard. Digging lets me win all the battles. Liquid death will let me win the war.

There are several 'extended control', total kill type of products out there. I plan to use them all. This is Florida, where poisons that supposedly last a full year actually leech from the sandy soil in about four months. So late in the summer, I will be able to plant plugs of good grass in his yard which will be free to thrive.

Yes, my diabolical plan is not environmentally friendly, but this is nutsedge. Sissies should not do battle with this evil weed. But if you want to really win the war with this pest, you need to man up and dig down. Kill kill KILL!

If you are a Buddhist, maybe you can learn to live with the nutsedge. But for us manicured lawn loving folks, do what you have to do to win.

I shall prevail.

When they come up with a real cure for a disease, I subscribe to its use. Until a cure is found, 'treatment' is the only option. I'd love it if you or anybody else had an environmentally friendly solution to such things as nutsedge. By all means, tell me how to eradicate it from an adjacent yard! I will become your humble disciple.

But if you have no cure for this plague, I will do what is lawful and effective. My instict is to pour gallons of gasoline on the dirt, as nothing could survive that. But good taste and a wish to minimize the consequences restrains me from doing so.

As recent AIDS research reveals, a cocktail of partially useful chemicals can be effective where individual chemicals cannot. I shall not use a cocktail per se, but will apply several weed killers a week apart to choke the living snot out of this nutsedge nuisance.

But now is your big chance to save the environment from me. Tell me a gentle approach to eliminating the nutsedge from the neighbor's yard. Time is of the essence, as that property will face foreclosure by the new year. I need the nutsedge gone and to put in a good St. Augustine Grass lawn, which I will do at my own expense.

You can save the planet right now! But hurry, for a quick fix is critical.

I just finished reading the UCDavis article about nutsedge. It is about two common varieties as found in California. Florida has additional varieties. Using Sedgehammer did seem to kill off two varieties in the past, but all that did was to remove competition from the more aggressive surviving species, making a royal mess of things.

The article clearly states that nothing can be done to effectively eradicate my neighbor's well established 'nutsedge farm' for situational reasons. The article explains how prevention is the best policy, yet the yard in question is truly plagued with old, well established plants. It suggests using black plastic and mulch, which is not a reasonable approach for a house going into foreclosure. UCDavis's article does however include the use of those evil herbicides. Herbicides? Okay. If I cannot trust your own artcle, who can I trust?

I'll just kick back and await your own prescription for my problem. But one thing is for sure: I am not going to spend a muggy Florida summer hand digging another guy's yard.

So, what else?

Actually, I have read all sorts of things from multiple sources for half a decade. Nobody has a good solution for the problems I face with nutsedge. Yes, it is a boggy land problem, but the neighborhood in which I live is semi-arid, sandy dirt. It sure isn't soil and it sure is dry most of the time. This is Florida, not America in any real horticultural sense.

The weeds here are evil. By the things I have read, nutsedge should not want anything to do with our part of the state, but here it is, in multiple varieties galore and all growing vigorously in the dry, nutrient-deficient sand.

The only thing that has been successful for me is to dig and to dig deeply. And as I made clear above, this is what I am doing for my property and for about ten feet into the adjacent property. But if the adjacent property's nutsedge is not vanquished, in only one more year, it will be back into my own territory and will make all of my efforts come to naught.

I do know nutsedge, and I do know what works and what doesn't work. Please keep in mind that we are discussing an abandoned property being the problem. My best solution is a chemical one, and with nutsedge, being kind and gently is never the correct approach. This is war.

You got me there. Both yards have irrigation. Since the infestation is so severe, I could only dream that the problem will take care of itself now that that property will go unwatered all summer.

If you again look at the photo I posted at the start of this page, you will see a photo showing the places where I had dug out the roots and planted plugs. The bushy grass area is from last autumn's plugs, ane the obviously new plugs are where I had only recently begun to dig the nutsedge out.

The areas where I had used RoundUp for six months is also apparent in that photo. I wait a full month after the final application before digging, as RoundUp probably does have some toxicity. In the dead zone, a bit of green is showing, indicating that even all six doses of RoundUp have not destroyed the soil.

But I am now considering the thought of not mega-dosing his yard after all, so long as the hot, dry summer can doom the nutsedge without chemicals. I'll know by July. July is terrible here, and if the nutsedge gets sickly looking, I may just dig the whole yard after all.

I cannot tell you the brand I bought because I bought so many different types to use on the parking lot, which has weeds that you can hear laughing at you at night, I paid little attention to brand name and more to price.

It seems some of the cheaper ones sold at the over-run old stock dollar store type type places work best.

I rarely use poison sprays,till push comes to shove, but as I got tired of pulling crab-grass by hand I gave in and now I seem to have the upper hand.
I used it on the nut-sedge as an after thought.

My opinion of RoundUp is very low as it has worked no better to worse than cheaper alternatives.

If you saw the above photo, you see tha I am a determined digger. I fixed my main yard years ago by persistent digging. Now, the far side of my driveway is all that remains of enemy territory. But the problem is that nutsedge can travel eight feet in one season! It grows undergound, and my neighbor's yard is riddled with it. Only by dooming his weedy yard can I save mine. I will dig out all the nutsedge in my yard on that side of the driveway, and dig out about ten feet into his yard (now abandoned).

My intentions were to poison the bejeebers out of his remaining yard, but I am being advised by kimmser to let the stuff die of drought over the summer. I'll give it until July to see how that works out.

In Florida, our summers are 9 months long. Were I to live in Minnesota, I cannot imagine having a weed problem, as the growing season must be very short. Yank it and forget it, no?

I do not expect themm to melt away in the heat. I understand you. But they have already been hit hard with RoundUp, SIX TIMES before I even began digging. These are wounded weeds. Perhaps I already have them on the run. Without spraying the truly evil chemicals, I might be able to beat them back by more gentle means.

The key here is that I have all summer to finish them off by whatever means necessary. Once the foreclosure is finalized, the new owners will want a real lawn ASAP. If I can wipe out the nutsedge, then I will give him a great yard for free. Ain't I a sweetie!

Yeah, right. I know that if he gets a good lawn, it cannot adversely affect my own. And if he still has nutsedge, I am going to get it creeping into my yard yet again. So, being a desperate man, if I can do it the nice way, then I will. But if you see a mushroom rising over the southern horizon, it's an indication that I had to nuke the yard after all. Nutsedge must die!

As to the abandoned neighbors creeping weeds, wouldn't it be easer to create a Maginot line in your salvo against the sage? Make a barrier 10-15" deep in the property line to stop the spread into your yard?