Gardening Report: Quack Grass

Now that the rains are finally coming to an end and the sun is expected to return, it's time once again to return to taking care of our gardens.

Tonight we hear from Julie Riley at the Co-operative Extensive Service about a special weed you should be aware of.

Quack, Quack. Today in Garden Report we're gonna talk about one of my least favorite weeds, quack grass. Fall is a good time for perennial weed control, whether you're in the garden or working on the dandelion problem in your lawn. But quack grass is special and I want to show you how to identify it. I'm in a bed here where we've just tried to yank out the grass by its leaves but down below, lurking, are all these rhizomes. And if you cut any of this stem piece into smaller pieces, it's gonna create a new plant. Quack grass is easy to recognize because it's got this very sharp, white point on the end of its underground stem. And so without any flowers or leaf attributes, you can recognize quack grass. So you either have to manually remove it without chopping it into lots of pieces and you don't want to mine your soil either because grasses are good at holding onto soil. You have to take all these pieces out and you still will have a few little chunks of it after you resew. I'm Julie Riley with Cooperative Extension Service, join me next week for Garden Report when we'll be back in the garden.