How I FINALLY Won the War on Invasive Grasses (NO Chemicals!)

Comments · 717

• JE

  @jenniferredding8100 · 6 months ago

  Lol. "If you're ACTUALLY lazy,  I don't know how to help you. " lol.  Made my day.

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• DE

  @devchilson6102 · 6 months ago

  I have one more option for the perimeter barrier that I put in when we moved to our Oregon retirement acreage. &nbsp;It has the added benefit of keeping out deer. &nbsp;Instead of the 8 ft tall fence that the neighbors all use, I enclosed the veggie garden with a four foot high chicken wire fence, and enclosed THAT with a four foot high fence of more sturdy fencing, creating a four foot wide corridor between the two fences. &nbsp;(Deer dislike jumping into narrow enclosed fences and they have never attempted to do so here. &nbsp;and we have a LOT of deer, they come on the deck and eat my hostas...) &nbsp;<br><br>Anyway, the magic ingredient here is CHICKENS. &nbsp;My small flock have lots of room in the four foot wide corridor run &nbsp;to roam and eat, and this plan puts their destructive scratching to good use, as they dig and tear into the turf. &nbsp;If I had weedwhacked and put cardboard down the first year it would have worked faster, as the little cluckers love wilted moist decaying vegetation and will dig down and destroy the roots of our very very invasive grass. &nbsp;(&quot;Grass&quot; sounds like a lawn, doesn&apos;t it? &nbsp;This is Devil Spawn.) &nbsp;My daughter had the clever idea of making the two gates (inner and outer) swing in opposite direction so that they block the chickens and open the garden at that part to allow free access (to me) without pushing back chooks whenever I want to go in and out.<br><br>I linked the Chicken Moat to a stall in the barn with a coop inside the barn and an automatic door, so they go in to lay eggs whenever the urge strikes, and the feed is inside. &nbsp;If you have hawks big enough to be a danger (we do not), you could cover the run with more chicken wire, but then you couldn&apos;t walk it easily...) &nbsp;<br><br>I can&apos;t take credit for this idea, I think it came from decades of reading Mother Earth magazines (I still have them!) and a real dislike of adding microplastics to the soil. &nbsp;(There&apos;s no hippie like an old hippie.)<br><br>Thank you, Anne, for this terrific website. &nbsp;I had to take last summer off too because I got two grandbabies back to back, so I am really enjoying our parallel life trajectory.<br><br><br>&quot;

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• VI

  @vicwickgardens · 6 months ago

  You seem so happy and grounded these days. It’s wonderful to see you in such a good place while still pouring so much into the gardening community 😊

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• LU

  @Lunartoon · 6 months ago

  Baby giggles, mooing calves, bright red overalls, and a spring day fixing the beds all feed my soul with such delight—I really needed to be reminded that winter is almost gone and abundant green life is just around the corner. (Torch blast was funny!) Thanks for the great information and a chance to visit. Happy early Easter! ❤️🙏🏼

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• BH

  @bhardee11 · 6 months ago (edited)

  I don’t know you, but I love you &nbsp;and I want to be you when I grow up. I’m 60 so maybe I’ll be you in my next life. For now, your videos and point of view make me so happy.❤

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• BE

  @bethw3573 · 6 months ago

  My mom always says baby giggles are what Heaven will sound like 😊

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• G1

  @G195s · 5 months ago (edited)

  I got one tip for you. <br><br>Border plants. Border plants are plants that surround where ever you are growing/living etc. Their main goal, is to be a filter. They are thick, dense plants that you actually WANT that will provide a barrier for things like grasses, and weeds coming into your property. <br><br>I struggled with weeds for years till I realized, almost all the seeds are coming from the alleyway, the neighbours, the bare patch of land just down a few houses. I was just spending all my time dealing with these weeds, but it wasn&apos;t because they were going to seed on the property. <br><br>It is essentially, a wall of dense shrubs and small trees, and then groundcover. It ends up becoming a living wall, that blocks out stray seeds blown in by the wind, and it provides a thick barrier with little to no light reaching the ground that makes it difficult for things like grasses to spread in, and the density of the wall also stops plants that readily self-seed from ever establishing past the perimeters, and keeps everything outside that you don&apos;t want in your property. Then, you rid the property of what you don&apos;t want growing there, it can take a few years, but so long as you&apos;re diligent with weeding, you&apos;ll soon reap the rewards of having a nearly weed free property. <br><br>I did this at my Grandma&apos;s like 10 years ago, and her entire property is now a weed free haven. This was over 3 acres of land too, so not an insignificant amount. She now has hundreds of rose bushes and lilacs, and raspberries, cherries, and then ground cover like creeping thyme surrounding her property. A very dense barrier. It took a few years of diligent weeding work. She bought a propane weed burner to walk around singing them. She made sure to cut the grass regularly for a few years so no weeds could go to seed, and it very quickly got rid of them.<br><br>It&apos;s a ton of work. But you CAN do it cheaply, if you&apos;re willing to start your own seeds and propagate plants you already have. You don&apos;t have to do your whole property, you can just do around your garden too. There are dozens and dozens of wonderful flowers and shrubs you can plant too. My Grandma&apos;s place in the spring when all the cherries and lilacs are blooming smells wonderful. And then the roses start blooming a few weeks later and oh man. Definitely worth the work.<br><br>Also. If there&apos;s bare soil, throw some seeds in it :)

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• DE

  @deniseellenburg649 · 6 months ago

  Yes Ma&apos;am! I spent about 10 yrs cultivating the soil and microbial life inside my raised beds. Used the Hugelkultur method starting out using thick rotting tree trunks, sticks and other organic rotting yard waste then layered soil, mulch, etc. all the way up till full. Made sure to add in lots of perlite/sand along the way for aeration and plenty of cured horse manure, grass clippings, pine straw, leaves and anything else I thought would help. I now have earthworms growing 8-10&quot; long and thick as my pinky finger happily living in my beds and working this lush gold helping grow all sorts of goodness. Yes. It is work and lots of it to start but OH, HOW WORTH IT in the end!! I purchased zero materials to construct the system using material I collected from surrounding woods on our property. Surprisingly, I learned that weaving large wild hedges together to border the bed to create its shape proved more sturdy/deteriorated more slowly than other natural materials I tried. The hedge bed outlasted the others 3:1. Just proves that hard work and thinking outside the box can accomplish A LOT! Love you, Anne, and that little one is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!!! ❤❤❤ Happy gardening 2026!!!

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• EM

  @EmilyJones-en9sj · 6 months ago

  We moved to a rural area in NC about 8 months ago and every cleared inch of our property was covered in bermuda grass, with several large plots overrun in wild blackberries. We bushhogged the blackberries and I immediately laid down tarps where I wanted to put my garden. A few weeks ago I started to pull back the tarps and build my beds. The results were incredible! Everything was dead and root systems were rotting. Plus all that organic matter is still there feeding my soil! Now I&apos;m starting my lazy garden right on top with cardboard, mulch, debris and compost. I couldn&apos;t be happier!

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• TH

  @theresaanndiaz3179 · 6 months ago

  If you really live a rural life, the answer is to pen pigs over your future garden. They will eat the weeds down to the seeds, turning over the soil, and enriching it. Plus, you get pork!

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• MO

  @MommaHair · 6 months ago

  After 2 years, my raised beds became solid blocks of Bermuda. AND I put the thickest weed paper under my beds. I tried your cardboard, compost and mulch method and boy, it’s been so much easier

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• PH

  @phil6lacio9 · 6 months ago

  I&apos;m in central Texas, and this dang Bermuda grass will creep over CONCRETE and within a few years colonize it and bury it!

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