John McGaw wrote:
Hettie® wrote:

I expanded my front flowering bed about two feet. I used my tiller,
tilled through it once, then added compost and lots of old potting
soil that had a lot of peat in it (was out of peat), and tilled again,
also used the edger. Then I planted my spring bulbs, daffodils,
tulips, crocus, muscari.

Now new grass is growing up through the chicken wire in the new area.
I covered everything with that but the daffs, anemones, and muscari to
keep the squirrels and chipmunks when they come out of hibernation
from digging them up.

Am I just going to have to pull it up, little clump by clump? I was
thinking after the bulbs have bloomed in spring, foliage died and been
given a spring feeding to cover that part with heavy black plastic
until the next spring if I can't get it under control. It's an area I
have had to water constantly, so I think maybe the plastic wouldn't
trap too much moisture that could rot the bulbs but am not sure about
that.

Any better ideas? I'm mad at myself for not at least trying stripping
off the sod first and tilling it all up instead, and it made for tough
going combined with tree roots from my clump of birches nearby. It
has been covered with an old wide board for a border for two years now
until I could figure out what I want to do about a more pleasing, more
permanent border and get around to doing it.

I would like to be able to remove the chicken wire at some point, but
am afraid if I don't, the critters will just dig them up in a
subsequent year. I read that bulbs will grow through the chicken wire
and flower. I could cover it with a layer of topsoil, but that
won't solve the grass problem. Right now, it's just on the surface
secured with u-shaped landscape pins.


If it is regular "chicken" chicken wire you probably won't have to worry
about taking it up -- it is so thin that, buried, it should rust away on
its on in short order. When I tried to prevent digging creatures
(including a very determined 100+ pound Lab) from getting to my bulbs I
used welded reinforcing mesh with fairly tight openings. The shoots from
the bulbs always did well enough finding their way through the openings.
The mesh was under the bark chip mulch so that it could, with much
trouble, be pulled up and then put back. Sometimes this material can be
found as surplus in stainless steel and this should last virtually
forever but even the regular steel will last for a decade or more.

As for the grass, if it were mine I would [cue the wails, moans, and
gnashing of teeth] carefully spray it with a light dose of glyphosate
herbicide while the bulbs are dormant. Since these materials are
absorbed by foliage and break down rapidly the bulbs should suffer no
damage.

At last, thank you. I felt like an idiot with the dumb question of the
year, but it has kind of been a setback for me, 2 beds like that. I can
rip up the wire and try to pull the grass when there is more to grab, or
little by little like I do everything else and tack the wire down again.
Let it go for now, winter is coming, and what little grass is there
now shouldn't hurt tulips next spring (the other bulbs naturalize in it
anyway). Then I will need some kind of barrier edging or it will creep
right back in.

As a last resort I will try the spray while the bulbs are dormant. I
don't like sprays and chemicals, but after a very bad year on all
fronts, I must do something. And thanks for the concrete reinforcing
wire suggestion. I suppose it doesn't cut with my tin snips like the
chicken wire. What do you cut yours with? A torch?

I googled and found cardboard, landscape cloth (have both of those),
could try that when the bulb foliage dies back and cover it with mulch,
but it takes a whole year to kill grass and then some. This is the nice
kind, too.