Using friendship-based community organizing and principles of permaculture, gift economy, and mutual aid, Food Not Lawns has been turning yards into gardens and neighborhoods into communities since 1999, when we were conceived by the Food Not Bombs family in Eugene, Oregon. For more than twenty years small, self-organized groups of grassroots gardeners have been organizing local seed swaps, joining together for garden work parties, and making lots of friends while learning more about the simple act of growing food can radically improve your home, your community, and your life.
Lawns are pernicious beasts that keep trying to take back the spaces we try to carve out for garden and food.
It’s worse than hedge bindweed and I don’t know what to do about it.
Fucking bindweed. Don’t pull it out–that just makes it regrow faster. You want to snip it.
Raised beds and frequent plucking of undesired shoots.
The last raised bed, cardboard and fir chips underneath, filled last summer, was so tight with grass at the edges, when I tried to pull the grass out by the base a giant section of dirt 6 inches deep came with it. Roughly 1/6 the soil need replacing after that one pull.
There has to be a better way.
Pull the grass after a good rain. Not when it’s the consistency of cement.
You got an interesting grass species if it goes 6in deep. Most grass root systems are closer to the surface.
I’d say trim it until you get a decent rain like the other poster mentions.
Cardboard or tarp on top when the snow melts can reduce how much grows underneath before you start planting in spring/summer.
It’s a nasty species whatever it is. We have to burrow with our hands to pull out the roots. They appear to send runners, like mint or bamboo. We’re thinking of trying a sod cutter next.
We’re trying to keep the plastic to a minimum, though that’s likely a losing battle.