Perfect Bermuda Grass
This is a good question that someone asked me the other day. They have a Bermuda lawn and want to know how to remove all the unwanted weeds and grass that are not Bermuda. This is going to be a two step process. With anything having to do with grass, it always takes time.
The thing you can do now, being July, is spray a normal weed-b-gon type product. This will not damage the Bermuda, but will get rid of all the unwanted weeds. i.e. dandelions, broadleaf weeds like clover, etc. Getting rid of the weeds will help prevent them from reseeding and creating new plants this fall and next spring.
Now for the hard part…getting rid of fescue and other grasses that are amidst the Bermuda grass. There are several options that are all good ones, it just depends on your particular situation and attitude. There is no single product that will kill fescue, without killing the Bermuda. Read another blog I have written, What is the difference in Round up and Weed-b-gon?, and it explains in detail the difference in a selective and non-selective herbicide (weed killer). To get rid of the fescue in the Bermuda, you will have to use a non-selective herbicide. If you decide to use it in the middle of the summer, you will kill the Bermuda where you are spraying the fescue. If you wait until the winter when the Bermuda is dormant, than you will kill the fescue without damaging the Bermuda. Does that make sense?
If you decide to spray in the summer, the Bermuda is only going to be dead looking for a couple of weeks. It will recover and fill in the barespots fairly rapidly. Bermuda is a really aggressive grass. By the time you get done reading this article, it will be time to go pull it out of your flower beds again! J If you decide to wait till the winter to spray, make sure you do it on a day that reaches as close to 70 degrees as possible. That will give the chemical a better chance of working properly. Taking the time to do this right will definitely pay off in the end. With a solid Bermuda lawn with no weeds will make you the envy of the neighborhood in no time!
Happy Killing
