On Saturday, 17 March 2012 22:22:43 UTC, Christina Websell wrote:
"Roger Tonkin"
wrote in message
...
My garlic bed has been invaded by couch grass from next doors
field/garden. Given that the garlic is growing strongly, how best can I
get rid of the couch. I can not dig deeply to get all the roots out, nor
can I risk spraying with glyophosphate, especially as there is sometimes
stock in the field from where it came.

I spent the afternoon digging out as much as I could, but given the
growing plants I know I've not really done a good job.

Anyone any ideas?


I think you've done all you can given the circumstances. I have couch grass
problems too, and as I want to be organic, I just have to do it the hard
way. I did manage to get rid of an infestation of ground elder by digging
it all out carefully root by root so it can be done.

Adding to a previous suggestion that it can sometimes be pulled from a loose well cultivated soil. This is a technique that can be used with some sucess against things like couch and ground elder. It works well if you put a heavy organic mulch on top of the area and let the weeds grow up into it, they can then be pulled easily - you need a couple of years to get really clean.
Now I've achieved a very friable humus rich layer over most of my borders even dandelions and docks so long as they're no more than a couple of years old can usually be pulled up intact.

Rod