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By 5 Acres and A Dream
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This Year I’m Gonna Have Strawberries

Thursday, March 7, 2013 23:11

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(Before It's News)

At least this year I hope I’m going to have strawberries. Trying to grow strawberries had been a real battle for me, ever since the first year I planted them. The problem? Bermuda grass, AKA wire grass, my arch nemesis. My strawberry saga goes like this:

Feb. 2010, planted our first strawberry plants
May 2010, wire grass was growing in the strawberry patch.
June 2010, I decided to cover the entire area with landscape cloth and thick wood chip mulch.
Sept. 2010, the wire grass was poking through the landscape cloth.
March 2011, moved the strawberries to a new location.
March 2012, wire grass had taken over the new bed.
March 2012, later in the month I planted 50 new strawberry plants to a bed in the garden, along with the survivors I could find from the previous bed.
August 2012, wire grass was taking over once again …..

Strawberry bed being swallowed up by wire grass

August 2012. Wire grass taking over my strawberry bed. Again.

One of my projects this winter has been to try to free my strawberries.

At least I can see the strawberry plants

No, wire grass cannot be eradicated. Trying to pull it out is like pulling on wire embedded in the ground. It grows about knee high tall with a root system just as deep. Even a teeny section of root left in the ground is enough for it to take over again in record time. If left alone, it will choke out anything and everything in the way.