Hello everyone!!!

Hello everyone, I'm a newly established member of this site as of today. My homestead is around dubbo Australia, and I have just started to get back into gardening just of last year. Already have a few plants established, my garden consists of containers and raised garden beds. I've got lots of things starting up this spring season. Sorry I'm a rambler, love to hear from everyone about their gardening experience. Cheers.

Welcome to the forum @GreenThumbsUp !
I'm also a container gardener at the moment, as the area I'm hoping to use for raised beds is overgrown and it keeps battling me every time I try to clear it.
Many of us are in Australia, though we really do have members from all over the world. It's really interesting to see how everyone gardens and what plants htey are able to grow in their climates. On top of that we can all ask for tips and share our knowledge!

Mandy Onderwater said:

Welcome to the forum @GreenThumbsUp !
I'm also a container gardener at the moment, as the area I'm hoping to use for raised beds is overgrown and it keeps battling me every time I try to clear it.
Many of us are in Australia, though we really do have members from all over the world. It's really interesting to see how everyone gardens and what plants htey are able to grow in their climates. On top of that we can all ask for tips and share our knowledge!

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Have you got anything growing in that area? If not just whipper snip the bed there and maybe if you can get you hands on some newspaper wet some down and lay it over about 8 pages thick and overlapping 10cm then build the raised garden bed over the newspaper then put soil in it to stop the weeds and grass from growing back. As long as all the weed and grass doesn't get any sunlight they'll get killed off gradually.

GreenThumbsUp said:

Have you got anything growing in that area? If not just whipper snip the bed there and maybe if you can get you hands on some newspaper wet some down and lay it over about 8 pages thick and overlapping 10cm then build the raised garden bed over the newspaper then put soil in it to stop the weeds and grass from growing back. As long as all the weed and grass doesn't get any sunlight they'll get killed off gradually.

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It's called guinea (or so) grass here. It just refuses to die. We;ve burnt it, poisoned it...anything and it just needs a little springle of rain and it stands 3m tall. It's horrendous and the whippersnipper can;t seem to get through it too easily. I can't get through it either. It houses snakes and it cuts the skin. I genuinely don't know how to defeat it anymore.

What does it look like? I'm curious about the weed you are talking about. Certain weeds have very deep rooting systems and if that tap root isn't removed properly it will do exactly as you said "a sprinkle of rain and comes back 3m tall".
I live in regional temperate area and I have weeds that grow about the same height as 3m too.

It's nighttime at the moment so sadly I cannot show you at the moment but...
It has these very strong "stems" at the base that are really tough. A whippersnipper can't seem to get through them, even a metal blade just doesn't. We've tried burning and poisoning those bases but... to no avail. The only thing that seemed to "work" was digging them out and hoping you got all of it. But the backyard has hundreds of them and I can't see myself digging every single one out. I despise them, and it's sadly not in an area where I can let my cows in either (They misbehave and would escape!).

Oh I see, I know the grass type. I remember that grass needs machinery to dig it out. My parents use to be a veggie farmer long time ago but that grass can't be removed by hand because of these heavy dense and really compact root ball, even burning it and poisoning won't do. As I remember back then, he had to till it up with the tractor with the tilling thing on the back. But that is all I know about this grass from personal experience whilst on the veggie farm. They aren't the best grass to work with really stubborn.

Yes, the grass is horrendous. So I've really been struggling. It's honestly taken over and it just keeps spreading. It feels like there is no stopping it.

How big is the patch of grass you have growing? You might have get a few people together to dig it all up if it's a small patch since machine can't come into play. It'll have to be manually battling it like you have.

It's just a really clumsy area, really. There's a tree and a broken down car blocking the "entrance" and a broken down tractor and the septic tank as wel... It's probably about 15m x 6 or 8m. Just... ugh. And there's rocks hidden in the mess as well, which would need to be moved (imagine 10 to 30kg rocks times probably at least 15)