Our home came with extremely large patches of ornamental grass - the previous owners described it as pampas, but I’m pretty sure it’s ravenna grass. I was told it had been installed early in the last century to hide livestock from guests at the home and for that reason as part of the home’s long history was reluctant to immediately axe it, but after some consideration of its invasiveness, the amount of prime growing space it occupies, and the thought that other plants could be used as a less detrimental windbreak/screen, as erosion prevention…we decided it needs to go.
Right now it is dried out and I feel it could be mowed over. I would like to avoid herbicides or the task of digging it out. A tentative plan was to mow it over or mulch it down so it’s cut down to soil level and smother it with heavy sheeting. Has anyone dealt with invasive ornamental grass? I am not certain if our plan would work or how long it would take. One enormous area is in prime pumpkin patch territory so I can’t wait to have it gone. Below is an example.
Looks like miscanthus. Speaking from experience, digging it out is a pain and will take you a lot of time. It’s going to be hard to mow over due to the dense base. Maybe try burning the current plant material and apply glyphosate to see new growth as it emerges.
If you burn off the coarse dead material as @ampersand suggested you will then be able to mow the new growth thereafter along with the surrounding grass. As long as you mow at a normal “lawn” frequency it will not be able to grow enough to become too tough for the mower and it will start to get weak and die off.
Burn it first. If the heat from the tall fuel will be a problem smash it down 1st, then burn it. Then I would try putting a piece of black plastic over it and cooking it to kill any regrowth if you dont want to use herbicide. You can use a selective grass herbicide if you feel better about that herbicide usage on the regrowth as well.
I like to put down a layer of cardboard (stripped of all tape and other packing materials/labels) and then cover with a good layer of bark mulch. Wait a season and the ornamental grass should be dead. At that point the cardboard will be mostly broken down. Even if it isn’t, you’ll be able to easily cut through what is left to plant your veggies.
What JCT said is working, just remember to cover larger area, then tops of the grass occupy - root can be wider, and if not allowed to go up, the grass will go side-wise.
I would love to light it up, but we are apparently not allowed to burn here - I haven’t fully looked into it, but the previous owners had been cutting the grass down and stacking it in the woods in recent years because they “were not able to burn it any more.”
Cardboard might be a better idea than plastic, thank you.
I would use it as mulch for something. That is what i hope to try in the years ahead at least. If you have a tractor or large mower Just cut it down until small grasses choke it out, spread white clover or preferred seeds. If you are in a hurry use silage tarp. It all depends on how much of a hurry your in, how much work you want to do, what tools you have on hand…
I would brush hog it, 3-5 times a year for the easiest way.
Harvest and rake it up for mulching potatoes or trees is the best middle ground imo.
Cardboard and mulch if it is bigger than 30x30 feet is too labor and resource intensive for me. If it is that or bigger then silage tarp is last resort for being in a hurry imo.
If you can’t burn or mow, use hand Saw Tooth Grass and Weeding Sickle. Search that line in amazon - there are several options available. I have one and it is an excellent tool to cut hard to cut grasses and irises. Saw Tooth is a must , not just Sickle.
I’ve had that, worst thing anyone ever planted. Fire will weaken it initially, but that’s how excess material usually is cleared out. Fire does not kill the root, at all. Burn it if you can, heavy silage or billboard plastic to smother it. Will take a season or more to be sure it’s dead, use a wide barrier around base and exclude water and light. I ended up cutting with pruners, demolition saw, brushcutting low. Sprayed several times, whenever I saw green. It will try to grow, I keep going after a section by driveway and other plants, that I am not willing to use glyphosate on.
