Cough grass

[Ananke]

I'm over the moon (and maybe a wee bit disturbed) that i'm not alone in my love of digging up couch grass. That feeling when you get it out in one long string is ............ I think i'll leave it at that

[RedThorn]

lol please do! By the way, there's a beetle here that kills couch off in no time and even without the beetle, it's hard work keeping it alive here( they use it as their preferred lawn grass)

[Snadger]

lol please do! By the way, there's a beetle here that kills couch off in no time and even without the beetle, it's hard work keeping it alive here( they use it as their preferred lawn grass)

I can undeerstand it being a cool climate plant. Its got relatively broad leaves for a grass and will dry out easily and it is comparatively shallow rooted relying on rhysomes and stolons to survive, both of which are close to the surface.

[di]

Isn't Couch grass that stuff that has lots of entangled bulbs? If so, I can't even get a fork into our's... the clumps are huge, and when I do manage to dig around them they're so heavy I can barely lift them! Someone did tell me they eat the bulbs in Paris..not sure I fancy trying that one though .

If you slice off the turf before digging, it's much easier.
Lot's will scream in horror at the thought of composting the stuff. I have two piles of stacked up couch turf.(I keep it totally separate from my good compost) One of which looks to have rotted down really well(at least two, maybe three years old) I'm going to use this year to cover cardboard on my squash patch. (hoping any roots will be easy to rake out)

[Wren]

It makes FAB COMPOST!!
I gave mine about 18 months to be on the safe side though initially. Escapees now just get slung in with the rest of the compost an next to no re-growth happens. Any bunches of bulblets get saved for the fire basket.

Wren

[di]

I've just emptied half of one of my heaps...really good stuff

Also,spent half an hour pulling up all the dead grass from paths etc and used it to mulch my raspberries.

Could it be we've all been too harsh on couch grass.

(and no, I won't be saying that come summer and it's invading my beds or growing through my potatoes )

[Two_Sheds]

Any bunches of bulblets get saved for the fire basket.

Bulblets? It doesn't have bulblets ...? *really puzzled*

[binley100]

^^^^^^Me too ........more like spaghetti than anything else

[Two_Sheds]

Maybe they ARE talking about COUGH grass, and we're the wrong uns

[stella]

I love it when you pull a long white root up and it has 6 or 7 bits of grass sprouting up along its length yesssss yah

[Two_Sheds]

I love it when you fork out a bit that has a leaf/blade, and you follow it down, pulling gently, until you manage to pull the whole length out without snapping it.

Double points if it comes out with another blade of grass at the other end too

[di]

'Apparently', the sharp ends of the roots are used as sewing needles in The West Indies

I'm wondering if these bulbets are the clumpy bits at the base of some of the stronger tufts? too!