Be Gone, Grass (in landscape beds)!

 Posted by: Alison O'Connor, Larimer County Extension

Do you battle grass creeping into your landscape beds? Me too. And it isn't fun dealing with it. I've tried all the recommendations--pulling, mowing, digging, and herbicides. Now, before you label me as a "spray head", I'm not. I pull a lot of weeds in my landscape, mostly because I find it therapeutic. I love listening to music, filling up a bucket of weeds, and appreciating my landscape on a micro-level. However, I also have my limits, and trying to dig out bluegrass around my delicate plants isn't fun.

Kentucky bluegrass creeping in my Heuchera (coral bells).

Fortunately, the herbicides available for this problem are extremely effective and readily available. If you choose not to use herbicides, then keep on keepin' on with pulling, digging, and using mulch. These efforts can be successful, but persistence is key. Do it regularly.

If you want to consider herbicides, then look for products that contain either fluazifop or sethoxydim. There's a third, clethodim, but it tends to be more expensive. These herbicides are sold in products like Ortho Grass B Gon, Fertilome Over the Top II, Bonide Grass Beater, Monterey Grass Getter, etc.  

One of many options you can use to selectively remove grass from landscape beds.
This is not an endorsement of any particular product. 

[Side note: I absolutely LOVE saying "fluazifop" and find it to be the most fun chemical name to use in everyday conversation. Flew-as-uh-fop. Fabulous.]

These are selective herbicides, meaning they will remove grass selectively from other plants. Namely, they will kill grasses, but leave your broadleaf plants unharmed. But they can injure/kill other grasses (ornamental grasses), iris, and other monocots. So read the label and use carefully.

But they do work! And usually in one application.

Use of fluazifop in my front landscape bed on bluegrass;
nearby plants included sedum and spring bulbs.

Don't worry, sedum, help is on the way!

Hang tight, little sedum, you'll be free from that bluegrass soon.