Any thoughts on how to control quack grass?
Quack grass is one of my favorite hobbies. It’s dynamic, prolific and has a special fondness for gardens. Its aggressive rhizomes allow it to survive the worst droughts and the harshest winters - all so it can continue to invade your garden when growing conditions turn favorable.
Like all weeds, it competes with desirable plants and if left untended will rob them of the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy. Quack grass has the added bonus of being allelopathic, meaning it produces compounds in its stems and roots that can reduce the growth rates of surrounding plants by as much as eighty-five percent.
Talk about an unfair advantage.
Quack grass can be a difficult weed to thwart. Every time its rhizomes are broken, new plants are created. If you pull the grass out by hand or cultivate the ground it’s growing in, you're helping the plant to spread more quickly. If that isn’t enough, it has an amazing ability to get its roots mixed up with the roots of more desirable plants, making it next to impossible to rip out without causing damage to those prize peppers.
Although there are chemicals on the market for dealing with quack grass, a non-chemical approach is always preferable. Smothering the ground with vigorous plants, mulches, or cover crops can be moderately effective. Installing drip irrigation can deprive the grass of water. In desperate cases, you can lay down clear plastic and bake it out.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
Originally published in the Creston Valley Advance on July 19, 2007.
