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I just moved into a relative's house in Sydney and the backyard is a disaster. There is some unusual grass that is invading that I haven't seen before.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/y499/evilgrasscorporation/EvilGrass3_zps45d0d552.jpg

I looked at http://thelawnguide.com.au/lawn-care/lawn-varieties.html but it doesn't appear that the grass is similar to anything listed. I don't think it is a lawn grass, but some weed that has grown thickly.

Apparently it has not been raining for a few months now and I noticed that the pest is drying up. How do I go about removing it as the roots seem to be very deep from my experience with a large shovel. You can find some extra photos at http://s1277.photobucket.com/user/evilgrasscorporation/library/ I'm not what types of photos I need to post but I might add to it later if requested.

I also found it weird but there are whole patches where my relatives have been growing vegetables and those patches seem to be immune.

Niall C.
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user60000
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    Do the roots seem to be interconnected at all? Are you open to the idea of using weedkiller on it? – Alpar Aug 08 '14 at 09:57
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    Please clarify if you're speaking of the green growth, or some other part in the pictures. When you say 'lawn', what type of grass is used commonly in Sydney to make a lawn with? (I'm in the UK and what we use here might not be the same), for instance, do you use turf/sods, or something like Bermuda grass? How big is the area of grass? – Bamboo Aug 08 '14 at 10:38
  • I'm referring to the dried and the green patches. They are the definitely the same type of grass. The roots seem to be several meters long at a time and thick. I don't think it is a "lawn" as apparently it was just an empty patch of dirt a few years ago. I don't have any pictures or any idea what is might have looked like... The area affected is quite small about 50 sq meters out of a 150 sq meter backyard. – user60000 Aug 09 '14 at 07:37
  • Oh I did some more searching around and found it is apparently called kikuyu. http://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/kikuyu The picture on the website shows it when it is flourishing, but you can see the same segments along the grass in a dried form in my own photos. – user60000 Aug 09 '14 at 10:31
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    Please remove some of them and take pictures over a white background or something like that. I think they are part of _Digitaria_ genus – BYJ Aug 09 '14 at 13:51
  • If you are right about it being kikuyu or if it is a similar creeping grass then it might explain why some patches do not seem to be affected as it might be too far away to grow into or have a barrier that prevents that. I'm not sure how well weedkillers will deal with that sort of grass so you might be in for a lot of work to remove it. – Alpar Aug 09 '14 at 16:22
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    Can you dig some up and take a close-up photo of the roots and plant body. – Ian Lewis Aug 19 '14 at 10:19

1 Answers1

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The easiest way to get rid of grass is roundup. I personally don't use poisons, but they can be very effective on a small scale.

Whenever I try to get rid of a grass, I first ask myself, why? What do I want to put here? Why cant the grass stay?

Often you can bypass the grass roots (with a shovel) in localized areas to replace the grass with something else like a tree or bushes. This is a transitional method, overtime replacing small portions of the grass with what you want there, even clovers.

If you just kill the grass, who knows what will replace it. Could be more grass.

Alex
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