"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article , Rupert wrote:
"Robert" wrote in message
...


Anyway to our thread ....I never thought of using that weedkiller.
There
used to be one that you could mix up and spray in amongst fruit bushes
etc.,
and it only killed grass. You don't know if there's anything like that
around still do you?

There was something but it got the chop for domestic use (I think).
When I have time I will find out more for you.

No, that's glyphosate again. There was something before, but it
wasn't just banned - it was superseded by glyphosate in commercial
use!

Glyphosate simply washes off bark and is neutralised by the soil
(and eventually broken down). When you see commercial orchards
with dead grass around trees, that is glyphosate being used.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks Nick I think I have got that. Glyphosate did come and go and then
reappear as you say, I had forgotten about that.
I am still convinced that there was some *selective*weed killer for Couch
grass that domestic users could use at one time.
I think it got the chop in the sense that the Agro manufacturers could not
be bothered to undertake the new testing that was required.
I am certainly not ware that anything selective remains for use in this
country , however , the US may be a different matter

**********
The very first house I had, was blessed with a garden which had never been
cultivated and was solid with couch grass, The thick net of the roots at
about nine inches under the surface soil and I slogged at it for a long
time. I double- dug all of the area and did my best to take out every scrap
of roots.

I dug two spades-width down and two spades width across each separate line
of digging.
To do this you have to barrow the whole of the first double trench to the
far end of the garden to enable you to fill in the last trench when you
reach there.
I did my best to pick out all the roots . even the small bits of the couch
grass, because if you don't you have still got the infection because the
little white buggers left in the soil sprout immediately you've turned your
back.
It's a hell of a job but I was young and full of go.
Was it a success?. -- Dunno!. I got another house soon after. But I will
tell you this,
I had finished all the work, had the wholes area cleared, planted out with
roses and other perennials plus a new lawn area sown with new grass seed
two days before we moved.
I decide to leave everything in the garden for the next incomer and I would
start all over again in the new house.
We shifted in the morning but in the middle of the afternoon I discovered
I'd left a small bag of tools in the downstairs toilet at the house we'd
shifted from,
I went back to get it and guess what I found.
There was not one plant to be seen, - the whole lot had disappeared. I
didn't bother too much about that but what hurt was, - I had left the sown
lawn with the top of the soil rolled and heavily laden with the finest grass
seeds, (an equal mixture of New |Zealand Browntop, and N.Z Fescue. - very
expensive.). One of my dear ex-neighbours had shovelled the whole of the
top off, bagged it, and hopped back over the fence. Nobody had seen or
heard anything - in bright summer daylight!.
Doug
**********