Boy you surely did pick good ones to ask about first! LOL=20
Bermuda is the scourge of gardeners wherever it grows. You basically
have to mow to the ground...scalp it in other words...then scrape it
to the soil and below as best you can. The roots of this plant are
so difficult to be rid of that it takes a lot to be rid of them.=20
They can go far more than 9 feet below the surface. In times of
drought they will die back to the ground, and then regrow when it
finally rains.
You don't need RoundUP. Use 10% vinegar mixed with a few tablespoons
of organge/citrus oil in a sprayer. Don't dilute it. Just spray it
on the roots. Many now say to cover it with plastic to make the heat
do its job even better. You must do this on a sunny day. Whenever
you see more growth hit it again with the vinegar mixture. It will
give up the ghost eventually...and sometimes even on the first try.=20
It helps to use the plastic in an attempt to stop any moisture from
getting to the roots. You don't have to do it, though.=20
This will sterilize that ground to some extent. It won't do the
lasting damage that the RoundUp would, though. You just need to
realize that the addition of things like rotting leaves are going to
be important when the job is done. Dry molasses would also be a good
thing to put down after you are sure the bermuda is dead. It will add
some carbon back into the soil, as well as trace minerals...and
entice the soil critters back that do the good work in the garden
that this process kills.=20
Now blackberries. Are they simply too large for you to dig them
out? You said the goats eat the ones that come up around the main
plants. Once you dig up the blackberry bushes the new shoots should
stop coming.=20
See when you plant and grow blackberries you are supposed to cut the
wood off each year that bore the fruit after you harvest the fruit.=20
The fruit for the next year comes on the new wood that began growing
in the spring. In this way they don't become thickets. Here in
Texas that is about June usually...time to prune them.=20
Hope it helps! Welcome to the group!
Gloria, Texas
US zone 8a
