Bermuda is quite the spreader, sending out above ground runners and underground roots. It’s also a tough guy, growing in concrete cracks and otherwise apparently inhabitable locations. While it’s great for some purposes, it can also be quite the nuisance in a garden.
California Buffalograss lawn owner and certified desert landscaper (and did I mention Lazy Gardens blog writer) gave us some advice to pass on to other California Buffalograss wanna-be’s before installing their lawns:
“I strongly recommend that anyone spend the first few warm months killing the Bermuda. If I had one do-over for this lawn, it would be the Bermuda killing… “
Read on to find the most common mistakes people make when trying to kill Bermuda and how to go about eradicating this garden foe!
The most common Bermuda mistakes:
- Killing Bermuda grass is not difficult, but it’s not going to happen overnight.
- No matter what the herbicide package says, it will take at least a month and several applications of herbicide to kill 90 to 95% of the Bermuda grass, then several months of spot application on surviving sprigs to get the remainder.
- The most frequent mistake people make when they try to kill Bermuda grass is to yank out, mow down, or clip off as much visible growth as possible, then use an herbicide “to finish the job”. Herbicides must be absorbed by the leaves to be effective. If you remove most of the leaves before you apply the herbicide, very little of the herbicide will be absorbed. The grass will regrow from the roots.
- The second most common mistake is to try to kill the Bermuda grass by withholding water, then resorting to herbicides when the grass refuses to die. This is a native of the African savannas, where 6 months without rain is normal. Bermuda can survive herbicides better when it is water-deprived because it absorbs less herbicide when it is dormant from drought.
- A third mistake is trying to kill Bermuda grass during cool weather. The days and nights must be warm enough that the Bermuda grass is actively growing. Let it “green up”, and don’t start killing the lawn unless you have at least 6 weeks of warm weather left.
How to kill Bermuda (when the grass is green and actively growing, follow these steps):
- Water the Bermuda grass thoroughly to encourage it to grow. Herbicides work best when the plants are actively growing.
- Wait a week, water the Bermuda grass in the morning.
- The following morning, thoroughly spray the Bermuda grass with an herbicide that contains glyphosate. Make sure you follow the package directions for diluting the herbicide. Spray the grass thoroughly, making sure you cover all the leaves.
- Wait at least three days to give the herbicide time to be absorbed and spread through the plant tissues.
- Now you can yank, clip and mow, because the herbicide has spread into the roots.
- Keep watering deeply every few days, as if you were trying to grow the best lawn on the block.
- Give the survivors a week or so to grow some leaves, then spray them with the herbicide again.
- Repeat the cycle of water, herbicide, water, herbicide until the sprouts stop appearing.
- Patrol the area for the next two or three growing seasons and apply herbicide to any new sprouts. The roots of Bermuda grass can be as deep as six feet, and they persist for several years.
Be sure to read her full suggestions here, complete with precautions you should take with any herbicides you are using.
And in case you’re not sure how to spot the bermuda in your California Buffalograss lawn here are some pics from Andy in San Pedro, California who installed his lawn in 2009 and is now having a Bermuda invasion:
californiabuffalograssblog.com 
Are any selective herbicides useful in killing Bermuda and not UC Verde?
Hi Daniel, thanks for contacting us! Unfortunately there is not. Bermuda is a very tough grass to eradicate. In order to totally remove it, you’ll most likely have to spray it with Round-Up over several applications, but this will also harm UC Verde.
Reblogged this on Rainscape Designs and commented:
I don’t like the glyphosate option—as it kills the soil also.
But good info.
Re-doing the front yard, I went through the process of watering/glyphosate/patrolling for several months. When we tore up the sidewalk there were live Bermuda stolons under the concrete. Plan on several months of chasing Bermuda.
Oh bummer Charles, Bermuda is notoriously hard to get rid of.
What do you do with it when it’s growing in your flower gardens??
It’s super tough to get rid of. Multiple applications of Round-up will need to be applied, but this will also harm anything else it gets on! You can try targeting the Bermuda by applying it with a paint brush or cutting the bottom out of a plastic cup and placing the cup over the area to spray, then placing the spray nozzle in the hole to minimize drift. Good luck!
Can you torch your Bermuda grass?
You can but it won’t eradicate it since the root system underground will still be untouched. Bermuda is a tough one to get rid of!
I got the idea years ago to have my husband dig up all the variety of grasses (wild &/or planted by previous owners) and I took weeks hand transplanting moss from the sides of our creek in the back of our property to the front yard. It has worked wonderfully …. no cutting, no fertilizing, no grass diseases or bald spots, it doesn’t invade our Azalea islands (4) or our flowerbeds against the sides of the house, very little watering except in the heat of the summer, grows in sun or shade. Only downfall … We do need to keep up with the weeding, however, even though we used layers of newspaper over the soil before transplanting, and later the cloth style, supposedly week block materials … neither of which really work by the way. But if you keep up with the weeding each year, it stays under control.
Husband left patches of grass up in the front by the road around a triangular flower bed in which we have Giant Elephant Ears, Yuccas, Giant Fan Palms, some colorful Azaleas, tall Pompus Grass we trim back every year, other exotic plants …. but the grass keeps creeping into this giant, beautiful flowerbed AND the other way into our moss yard!! Don’t want to use Round Up or any chemical as we are trying to be as Organic as we can, and we don’t want to unbalance the natural mixture of red clay and soil in our yards that produce great flowers and plants. What can we try ORGANICALLY to kill the grass mixtures we have here and there???
Moss yard though I have proven to be the absolute BEST … stays green year round, little maintenance. Just glad we have a never-ending supply growing along our property creek … where wild maiden ferns grow in abundance also & we transplant throughout our yard.
We live in western central Georgia and I must admit the climate and soil mixture is perfect for growing just about anything!!
Bermuda is a really tough one to get rid of unfortunately Pat. You can try solarizing the ground if you want to avoid using chemicals. This would need to be done during your peak temps of summer. Water your space and then apply a clear plastic tarp over it and seal the edges with rocks or other heavy objects. Basically you will be attempting to “bake” everything under the tarp until it is dead.