Hi
I want to dig up some more of my couch lawn to extend a garden bed.
Previously I have been digging it out and trying to save as much of the top
soil as possible. I should add the lawn is only four months old, grown from
seed and the roots don't go down for miles, YET!! :-)
I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could spray
the area with Zero or similar. Will I be doing the wrong thing in trying
to avoid digging. I would like to be able to replant the area within a
month.
Thanks, Sue Karratha.

"Sue" wrote in message
...
Hi
I want to dig up some more of my couch lawn to extend a garden bed.
Previously I have been digging it out and trying to save as much of the
top
soil as possible. I should add the lawn is only four months old, grown
from
seed and the roots don't go down for miles, YET!! :-)
I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could
spray
the area with Zero or similar. Will I be doing the wrong thing in trying
to avoid digging. I would like to be able to replant the area within a
month.
Thanks, Sue Karratha.



Unfortunately no matter how hard you try it's nearly impossible to dig couch
out, especially if you are trying to keep the soil too.
The best thing to do would be buy Glyphosate (aka Roundup but the name
Glyphosate is cheaper and exactly the same stuff, think Kmart has it), in a
concentrated form.
Mix it to the rate of 150ml per 10litre (so 15ml per litre), and spray the
whole area you wish to kill.
If the grass is quite long give it a mow first. Dont spray immediately after
mowing, wait a few days at least, a week is good. If the grass is average
length just spray it, don't bother mowing.
Then a few days after spraying treat that sprayed area as if you wanted it
to grow good. Don't let it dry out, keep it watered as if you would want it
to grow good. This will give the best kill. You can plant it in 4 weeks
then. Leave the couch there, or dig it over. Don't bother removing it. You
can even mulch over it in about 6weeks.
The only problem you may have is the lawn was raised from seed. So any
digging/planting could stir up non germinated seeds. Just keep an eye on oit
and dig out or spray any new couch you see.

Good luck
N.B. The above rates are for mixing concentrated form glyphosate/roundup.


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"Sue" wrote in message
...
Hi
I want to dig up some more of my couch lawn to extend a garden bed.
Previously I have been digging it out and trying to save as much of the
top
soil as possible. I should add the lawn is only four months old, grown
from
seed and the roots don't go down for miles, YET!! :-)
I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could
spray
the area with Zero or similar. Will I be doing the wrong thing in trying
to avoid digging. I would like to be able to replant the area within a
month.
Thanks, Sue Karratha.

"Sue" wrote:

I want to dig up some more of my couch lawn to extend a garden bed.
Previously I have been digging it out and trying to save as much of the top
soil as possible. I should add the lawn is only four months old, grown from
seed and the roots don't go down for miles, YET!! :-)
I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could spray
the area with Zero or similar. Will I be doing the wrong thing in trying
to avoid digging. I would like to be able to replant the area within a
month.

I normally slice the top layer of turf off with a spade, then dig out all the
root clumps with a fork. We have sandy soil, so this is fairly easy. If I
can't use them elsewhere, I pile the turfs in a heap, and then break them up at
leisure. Zero would probably work equally well, though in my experience you
have to spray at least twice, with an interval of at least a week between them,
to get a reasonable kill. However you will still have to dig the ground, at
least where you want to plant things. Either way you are likely to get some
regeneration over a period of several months, so you should try to plan your
plantings to allow for you to dig this out.


Roger Riordan AM

I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could
spray......

Cover the area with black builders plastic and a couple of rocks to hold it
down.

Hope this helps,
Peter

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 07:25:50 +0800, "Sue" wrote:

Hi
I want to dig up some more of my couch lawn to extend a garden bed.
Previously I have been digging it out and trying to save as much of the top
soil as possible. I should add the lawn is only four months old, grown from
seed and the roots don't go down for miles, YET!! :-)
I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could spray
the area with Zero or similar. Will I be doing the wrong thing in trying
to avoid digging. I would like to be able to replant the area within a
month.
Thanks, Sue Karratha.


You could always do the following :

1. Dig out area, chopping the top into squares.
2. Flip the squares so the grass is now underground, and the soil is
on top.
3.. Cover with newspaper, add more soil on top of that.

Worked for me on a fairly well entrenched section of weed ridden lawn.
The only weeds I get now are new ones, the old ones died, and turned
into a decent fertiliser.

Tom.



Tom Elliott
remove `mapsitna' from email address to reply by email.

Hi Sue

Had the same situation, but with very well established couch in heavy clay.

What I did, was to spray the required area with Glyphosate and left it for a
week. I then dug a trench, about 6" deep
and a spade width wide, tossing the soil onto the center. Then went to the
local recycle center and got a trailer load of
compost (7'x6' load for $25) and covered the new bed with a nice thick
layer.

The trench gives me a visual barrier so that I can spot any couch attempting
to get into the new bed and the worms, over
time do all the digging for me.

If you have heavy clay, you could also sread dolomite on before the compost,
and maybe chuck some sand in as well to help
with drainage.

Only 'problem' I have had with this is that some of the plants I put in just
went beserk.

Fof

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"Sue" wrote in message
...
Hi
I want to dig up some more of my couch lawn to extend a garden bed.
Previously I have been digging it out and trying to save as much of the
top
soil as possible. I should add the lawn is only four months old, grown
from
seed and the roots don't go down for miles, YET!! :-)
I guess I am starting to get lazy but was thinking that maybe I could
spray
the area with Zero or similar. Will I be doing the wrong thing in trying
to avoid digging. I would like to be able to replant the area within a
month.
Thanks, Sue Karratha.