Tweet
I have couch grass (or twitch) in a few places. I also have what this house has named Super-Grass. I guess it's just twitch, but because it's managed to grow among the roots of the pomegranate tree, the previous owners never really tackled it. It is now about .75 cm across, or more at junctions!
As it was impossible to dig it by hand, we had to rotovate it (I know, I know) which caused it to go everywhere, but despite what everyone says, it made it much easier to deal with. 1) the soil was now loose instead of compacted, and 2) the Super-Grass was now in small pieces, making it much easier to get each piece out of the ground as soon as it showed its head.
At the risk of the pomegranate, we're even digging down, spraying water on the roots to remove all soil, and wiggling the grass out with a 'garden hand fork with only one prong left' tool.
It's painful.
And that's the easy grass. The hard one looks like a small black pea*. It spreads via a root-like link, which grows into another small-black-pea... It's all over the effing place, and unlike twitch (glaringly white), a small black pea is verrrry hard to see against brown soil (they can be grape sized, down to 1mm, or less). So you have to wait until it starts to germinate (so you get some White to see), dig the area over, water and water (soil dries out fast here, and you want them to stay active), wait for the ones you missed to germinate, water and water, repeat and repeat... All the while it's completely pointless planting crops in the area as you can't hoe this grass, so you'll just end up having to dig it all over again.
Yes, I typed a lot. Yes I'm very passionate about this. Yes I've been doing this day after day after day (with help from my other half when she can). I can only continue by convincing myself that when it's all out, it's out.
So twitch is light-weight!
Stay calm and carry on!
*Please, if anyone knows what it is, please tell me! An enemy with a name is less scary! ;-)
As it was impossible to dig it by hand, we had to rotovate it (I know, I know) which caused it to go everywhere, but despite what everyone says, it made it much easier to deal with. 1) the soil was now loose instead of compacted, and 2) the Super-Grass was now in small pieces, making it much easier to get each piece out of the ground as soon as it showed its head.
At the risk of the pomegranate, we're even digging down, spraying water on the roots to remove all soil, and wiggling the grass out with a 'garden hand fork with only one prong left' tool.
It's painful.
And that's the easy grass. The hard one looks like a small black pea*. It spreads via a root-like link, which grows into another small-black-pea... It's all over the effing place, and unlike twitch (glaringly white), a small black pea is verrrry hard to see against brown soil (they can be grape sized, down to 1mm, or less). So you have to wait until it starts to germinate (so you get some White to see), dig the area over, water and water (soil dries out fast here, and you want them to stay active), wait for the ones you missed to germinate, water and water, repeat and repeat... All the while it's completely pointless planting crops in the area as you can't hoe this grass, so you'll just end up having to dig it all over again.
Yes, I typed a lot. Yes I'm very passionate about this. Yes I've been doing this day after day after day (with help from my other half when she can). I can only continue by convincing myself that when it's all out, it's out.
So twitch is light-weight!
Stay calm and carry on!
*Please, if anyone knows what it is, please tell me! An enemy with a name is less scary! ;-)
Well done for identifying it.
Nightmare. 
Comment