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Yup.... the dreaded couch.....

Moved into a cottage nearly 12 months ago and its now time to start tackling the garden which has been left to do its "thang".... for 20 years or so from the previous owners with zero maintenance!

The borders which once I believe were simply beautiful have been very sadly neglected leaving it to self turf with lots of couch. Thought the best way to tackle this was to order a 10 tonne skip and fill it with the turf and couch. Took me and the other half 3 days of back breaking digging but very satisfying!

Dug down about 6 inches to get rid of most of the couch but guaranteed there will be roots left so I thought of selling my sole to the devil just this once and using roundup or something of similar ilk to give it a thorough beating.

Just having a look on line it seems that roundup is most effective if there are leaves to be treated.... these are now safely tucked up in a very full skip!

Just wondered if anyone has had any experience of using a chemical treatment to get rid of the remains of couch roots once the majority of it has been dug out and its efficacy?

I hate the thought of using a chemical treatment for environmental and wildlife reasons so I plan on this being a one trip pony but on the flip side I dont want to have to spend all my efforts and money on replanting what I hope will eventually be a beautiful cottage garden for the gains of my family and the wildlife to find the couch once again taking centre stage.

So any help, tips, advice would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks as always
MEW x

First, you posted this thread twice, so I deleted the other one. Hope that's OK.

Ok, couch grass - have a look at this

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/allotment ... rass-1.asp

I confess to having used weedkiller in the past, but I think these days I'd go for the obliterating light and water and regular weeding. I know it takes a lot longer, but if you really work hard small patch by patch, you can get rid of it quite successfully. My suggestion would be to densely plant any areas you clear so it doesn't get chance to grow back again (or at least so strongly).

i'm still trying to get rid of it 5 years on! I'm going to have to ditch some of my perenials as they so choked with couch. Interesting link btw

Me too, I have creeping grass (don't know if it's couch, but same sort of thing) coming up through some of my perennials. You can't do anything about it as even if you manage to pull up some roots there will always be some left behind. I prefer bindweed - at least it has a pretty flower!

I have a feeling that sort of grass would probably need more than one application of weedkiller anyway, those sort of weeds usually do.

But it's hard to have to wait to see if the grass emerges again before planting when you are itching to get pretty things planted. You could just sow some annual flower seeds this year so that if the grass comes back you will be able to dig it all over again next winter (or apply weedkiller). Or you could get some of the paint on stuff and then very carefully paint it on the couch grass that reappears but taking care that it doesn't touch any of your good plants.

I have one particular area of my perennial flower bed that has been troubled with couch grass for 5 years. I haven't as yet used weedkiller.

As soon as the weeds start growing, like now, I start digging it out every few weeks. This entails going back along the roots as far as possible but yes it always seems to come back. The problem is when it gets into my precious cottage plants it soon takes over and starts to strangle them, so where possible I dig up the whole plant and pull out the invading couch grass. It really is an ongoing battle.

The moral of this story is don't give up.

Thanks Maggie

Did try to remove one of the duplicate posts but wasnt sure how to do it.

Thanks everyone for all your advice.

I think I will go for the systemic roundup weedkiller before I plant up the borders, leave them for a few weeks make sure the weedkiller has degraded and then finger crossed its broke the camels back