Re: Kikuyu grass

I agree with this opinion. I was a horticulture student and gardner in the east bay; Oakland, Berkeley, in the 70's. This grass was everywhere - extremely aggressive, taking over. I also saw it growing up under house siding and pushing off the shingles. I remember not being able to mow it with my small power mower. I had to rent a larger, more powerful mower just for that grass. It reminds me of waste, neglected places.

I think it's wrong to plant it anywhere - and around a Frank Lloyd Wright house - that's pathetic.

Steve French
Sebastopol

On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:46 PM, Doobieous wrote:

I detest this grass. Probably because I spent every weekend pulling it from the flower beds as a kid. It was the grass of choice when they planted the lawns here in my neighborhood (Marina, CA, a few miles north of Monterey). When I decided to get rid of it and change the look of the garden, I was digging up blocks of it a foot deep. It had been in ground for probably 30 years at that point. The stolons had so tightly packed that underneath the sand was hardly compacted. It' still coming up here and there. I remember it vividly trying to get into the garage, and pulling out nearly 6 foot long stolons that had snuck up in between the house and the siding. I once threw a piece of it into a pail of water, and a couple weeks later it was acting like a water plant. In the back garden we still have a strong infestation. I've pulled it, but the winter rains revive it, and it's still trying to take back over. If the stolons are near the surface, they're easy to pull, but they like
to go deep, and become a hassle to get rid of. You occasionally have to use a pitchfork to loosen the soil and uncover deep stolons. The stolons can also have a "spiny" feel as the I guess root buds dry and harden off with a point. It was never a pleasant grass to walk on as the leaves are rather coarse, and I remember coming away itchy after rolling around on it. The one weed which could co-exist with it was Medicago polymorpha - Burr Clover, which was nasty, and made playing on the lawn unpleasant.

It's also somewhat drought tolerant, as it can stand an entire dry season and come back with the rains, which only makes it stronger. I have seen cold weather kill the tops off, but of course, anything insulated by soil just comes back. Glyphosphate is effective with it, but sometimes it takes a few applications to really get the stolons good and dead. I personally would rather go with a tall fescue lawn over this grass any day. I'd even probably go with Bermuda grass before this one because at least Bermuda grass isn't as devilish when neglected (we have some on the north side of our property, but it's sparse and tends to stand upright, rather than creep).
















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