Weeds - Bermuda Grass
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  (April) What should I do about Bermuda grass in my flower beds? I have done just about everything but cut them with scissors and it is still gaining on me. And last is it too late to prune Bradford pear trees?

  Bermuda grass can be a troublesome weed. There are numerous grass specific herbicides on the market, such as Grass-b-gone, Over the top, Ornamec or Poast. Use them after the Bermuda has totally greened up and begun to run. Applied too early, you won't get great coverage, but applied late season, gives you dead grass, but lots of it, which is also unsightly. I would say it is too early to prune Bradford Pears. Most people plant them for their flowers in the spring, and their fall foliage. If you prune before flowering is over, you have lost the blooms. Unlike edible pears, which are pruned before flowering, ornamental fruit trees are pruned following flowering in the spring. Let them finish blooming, and then prune. The best pruning of a Bradford pear is thinning cuts within the structure of the tree -- NOT topping! Thinning lightens the load and opens them up a bit. Many people do not realize how large a Bradford pear tree can grow-40 feet by 40 feet! We are seeing a lot of topping of these trees statewide, and that will simply increase the number of problems we will have with them.

  (October) Help! Bermuda grass has taken over my rose garden...Is there a safe and effective made to eliminate the grass besides digging like I have been?

  At this time of year, your best recourse is to hand pull or hoe the grass out of the rose bed. Bermuda grass is beginning to go dormant, and will be turning brown soon. There are some excellent grass-specific herbicides -- Grass-b-gone, Poast, Ornamec, Fusilade, etc. These products will kill the grass without hurting the roses, but then you will still be left with a lot of brown, dead grass in the beds -- which is still unsightly. Clean up the beds now, then next spring when the grass begins to invade or green up and get growing, spray with the grass-specific herbicides, and you should have a much more attractive rose bed.

  (November) We jokingly refer to my flower bed as a "grass" bed. There are shrubs all along the back against the wall of the house. The grass doesn't grow back there. It's on the front part that the grass grows. I have tried Round-up and it keeps coming back. In past years I have covered it up with black bags and placed fresh soil and fresh wood chips and still it came back. Just last month I took up all the plants other than the shrubs in back and doused it again but the grass is back once again. What would you suggest I do?

  I am guessing Bermuda grass is your main grassy weed, and it often grows best where it is not wanted, but it does need sunlight to grow. Try to have some barrier between lawn and beds, and keep it edged. If the grass begins to grow, you can spray with a grass specific herbicide such as Poast, Fusilade, Grass-b-gone, etc. This will kill the grass, and not harm the shrubs or flowers. The key is to catch the problem just as the grass begins to run. Otherwise, you end up with the unappealing look of masses of dead grass.

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