How to Kill Bermuda Grass Organically
Bermuda grass is a warm season grass that spreads by underground roots that slowly creep in all directions. It can be very difficult to remove and many commercial companies and homeowners will use chemicals to kill it before removal.
There are however some organic approaches to removal of Bermuda grass that are rather straight forward, requiring a little sweat and hard work!
By reducing chemical applications you will keep your soil healthy for future planting by keeping your microorganisms alive.
Things you will need:
A round pointed shovel, rake, mulch.
Method 1: Removal of Bermuda Grass Manually
(The pictures demonstrate a small area of sod being removed and mulched heavily. This can be applied for larger areas of sod)
Manual removal of Bermuda grass can be accomplished. If you have a lawn area that you would like to remove to turn into a perennial bed, vegetable garden area, or slate patio you will need to physically remove the Bermuda grass first.
One of the best methods for this is to take a sharp round pointed shovel with a long handle (Less bending over) and face off with your lawn. You will want to imagine your lawn area as a challenge to be removed piece by piece.
Step 1
Cut into the lawn 2-3 inches deep in a straight line all the way down the length of the lawn, going one direction. Avoid digging too deep as this requires too much soil removal.
After you reach the end of this line step back about 8 inches and create another perpendicular line. Follow this to the end. You will want to keep stepping back until you have created lines about 8 inches apart all the way from one end of the lawn to the other.
Now that you have lines going one way you will repeat this with lines going the other direction so you create squares about 8 inches by 8 inches.
Step 2
Take your shovel and starting at one end use your shovel to take out the first piece by shoveling under the grass. You don’t want to stick your shovel in and pry up, instead use the shovel to skim under the grass about 2-3 inch below the blades of grass.
Don’t dig down, dig parallel to the ground. This will help you to avoid removing too much soil. After this first piece is out remove one line all the way across.
Push forward line by line until all the grass is removed.
Wait a few weeks and if small shoots pop up, go back through and dig up the roots that were missed on the first pass.
Step 3
Mulch heavily with 3-4 inches of bark, wood chips, etc.
You may have to hand weed out some small areas from time to time but essentially you have remade your area without any harsh chemicals. You can also consider using a sod cutter machine for large areas to cut underneath the sod you want to remove.
A metal bladed edger can also be used to make the lines and reduce labor time. In the end a sharp shovel works just fine!
Method 2: Sheet Mulching after Manual Removal of Bermuda Grass
Things you will need:
A round pointed shovel, cardboard, rake, pitch fork, mulch.
(The pictures show a small demonstration of sheet mulching over some grass that is growing into a landscaped bed. You could duplicate this for larger areas laying down overlapping cardboard as you go and mulching thickly with 4-5 inches)
Sheet mulching to organically organically kill Bermuda grass.
Step 1
Remove sod
Step 2:
Take broken down cardboard or heavy newspaper and over lap the flat sections by 3-4 inches covering the entire area of sod you have just removed and then cover this with 4-5 inches of mulch such as bark, wood chips, compost, etc.
The cardboard will take a year or so to break down completely and will block out light as well as act as a physical barrier to the grass growing through.
Sheet mulching works best in two situations. After following method 1 above you decide you only want to plant a few plants in the new area but don’t want to worry about running down stray roots as much after the removal. So you can go ahead and sheet mulch the whole area and mulch over the top. You cut small holes in the cardboard where you want to plant your plants.
Sheet mulching will not be compatible with vegetable gardens or areas that will be heavily planted.
Sheet mulching is also a decent organic method to kill Bermuda grass in established planting beds that you cannot dig in very much. Hand clip low lying branches of established shrubs to lift them off the ground by 3 inches or so then lay your cardboard over the grass following by a heavy dose of 4-5 inches of mulch keeping the material away from the crowns of established plants.
For large lawn areas it will probably not be effective to sheet mulch right over the top of the lawn. You will have regrowth as it can take a very long time to kill off all the Bermuda grass roots. Removal and then sheet mulching will be more effective and also make it easier to plant in the areas following removal.
About the Author:
Jonathan Aflatooni is the co-owner of Blacklotus Landscaping LLC and co-owner of Amber Bear Nursery and Farm. Jon has many years of practical experience in the field, from propagating his own collection of plant life to creating and designing new landscapes.
I’ve heard that shingles keeps is from surviving but just wonder how bad it can be as far as drainage and air for the soil? I know someone here in TN that swear by it , all her flower beds are perfectly laid as if it was done today with no weeds nor bermuda considering bermuda is all over her lawn……..
She trims around 6″ circles by the plants and once in a while weeds that.
Anyone else ever tried it?
ONLY thing that EVER worked for me has been Roundup or Eliminator from WallyWorld. May have to keep at it several times but finally it will die. Organic has NEVER worked for me sorry!.
Agreed! That’s been my experience too.
What I did was take a square shovel, take an inch off the top. Lightly cultivated the soil interneath, and heavily, I mean heavy, seeded winter cereal rye. Right before the rye went to seed I cut it and let it blanket the area with the Bermuda grass. Once the rye was Brown and decomposed I lightly worked it into the soil and planted buckwheat over it. Once the buckwheat was cut and worked the Bermuda was gone. I
Great info Billy!
Hi. It has been over a year since you commented.,..wondering how well it worked one year later.
I am going to try the plastic method today. We are supposed to have 103-5 temps next week. I will water deeply, lay down the plastic, and weight it down. Perhaps I can steam the crap out of it,
As noted earlier, the Perm beds I have in back, are easy to weed , even of Bermuda. I just did it this morning. No problem.
Will let ya’ll know how it goes. Happy gardening.
We had Bermuda grass lawn and tried solarization to kill it. But covering with plastic in the heat of the summer only browned the lawn to look dead for over a month until the rains came and the lawn came back fully with a vengeance. It took one season and 4-5 repeated applications of roundup to keep back the grass and be able to plant anew perennials and mulch over the former lawn area. Then it took one year’s worth of spot treatment , as the suckers emerged in a few spots in the mulched area (that also had underneath a weed barrier). The grass is no longer coming back on the property alas, except along the fence line with the neighbors’ Bermuda grass re-emerging every year.
This variety of grass is like Monsanto’s patented seeds which keep spreading uninhibited. But the company that owns Roundup reportedly goes after unsuspecting farmers whose neighboring crops are infected with Monsanto seed (as documented in Food, Inc. movie). Moral of the story is prevention, like outlaw new plantings of Bermuda grass, so can avoid using chemical controls. If you find yourself with Bermuda grass, then consider how old and deep the roots are before investing in a method of control.
I am going to try the black plastic method today. We are supposed to have 103-5 temps next week. I will water deeply, lay down the plastic, and weight it down. Perhaps I can steam the crap out of it,
As noted earlier, the Perm beds I have in back, are easy to weed , even of Bermuda. I just did it this morning. No problem.
Will let ya’ll know how it goes. Happy gardening.
My daughter lives in San Diego and there is no amount of mulch or cardboard that get rid of Bermuda grass. after going through all the work of digging it out as prescribed …… It came back in two years, healthier and stronger then ever. Take my word …this approach just doesn’t work.
True. I dug up my entire yard area manually 2 years back.. I was finding deep root clusters almost like rhizomes as deep as 9” i
Deep in the clay soil. Was very thorough, and as with Margaret, it is back worse than ever. However it is much easier pull out of my lasagne style beds, as they are so loose and friable.
I wonder about covering the area with black plastic. Here in Oregon we have more really hot weather coming, and suffocating the turf at least, then planting over with Permaculture beds, and manually keeping up?
I’m not clear if I can plant a new lawn over the mulch/cardboard layer after scalping the Bermuda grass? I would think not. Can I roll in fresh sod over the top? or, what do I need to do before I can plant a new lawn?
Is it advisable to dig 6″ down into the soil layer and remove that whole layer, roots and all, then bring in fresh topsoil? I’m considering this option for a quick, hopefully permanent, Bermuda grass removal and lawn replacement.
Christian,
Removing six inches of soil and there’s no guarantee what might be in the topsoil that you bring in. Once the cardboard starts to break down you probably can seed over top of it.
At least 9” in my experience, and it still did not work. I am in Oregon.
We use the Back to Eden gardening approach on a large garden used to produce naturally grown vegetables for people locally. We have used both of these methods with LIMITED success. The Bermuda will grow underneath the cardboard and mulch we apply for a long distance (over 18″) until it finds a slight crack in our armor. Then it will grow through our thick mulch. The only thing we have found to kill it out is to cover the scalped ground with a heavy tarp or black plastic. The hot Texas sun tends to cook the roots. But, it will shortly grow back into the growing areas from the perimeter.
That is what I was thinking.
My entire back yard is half bermuda, half st. augustine grass. I want to remove the grass around the borders and put in beds. My primary task is killing off the grass so I was considering the mulching method, but the article says it’s not compatible with heavily planted areas. I probably won’t plant much in these areas for a year and then want to gradually fill them in. The wood mulch & cardboard should be breaking down by then – is there any other reason it would be incompatible? Should I add a layer of top soil then mulch?
Any success stories of Bermuda grass being killed by sheet mulching right on top of closely clipped Bermuda Grass? I have 826 sq. feet of it. Labor intensive. Thank you.
Jean,
A heavy layer of cardboard with 3″ of mulch over top should do the trick.
What to do with nall the SOD that was removed, durinf strip mulching???
Can it be put in my Composter????
Reed,
Removed sod should be fine in your compost bin. When I remove sod I sometimes just turn it upside down, pack it down tightly then cover with soil or mulch. Works well for me. But maybe not so much with Bermuda grass.