# Killing grass around hedge



## helpneeded (26 Feb 2007)

Can anyone recommend a grass killer that I can spray liberally around a Laurel hedge that will kill the grass but not affect the hedge?

The hedge has just been planted a couple of weeks ago. For a variety of reasons which I will not go into I could not spray the grass before the hedge was planted.

Pulling the grass is not an option as the hedge is about 40 metres long and there is alot of grass.

Thanks


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## Vanilla (26 Feb 2007)

Get a strimmer. Then lay some weed suppressant membrane to avoid having to repeat too much.


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## Carpenter (26 Feb 2007)

Professional landscapers and gardeners would use a spray in this situation as it's labour saving and controlled use of a weedkiller is appropriate in this context.  Simazine free weedkillers are suitable, like Weedol, just avoid getting the spray onto green leaf- spray on a calm day and use a shroud on the head of the sprayer.


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## nod (26 Feb 2007)

Agreed with Carpenter,its the best and easiest solution.
Do not attempt to strim around the plants,no matter how careful you are you will end up "nicking" the bark or worse still cutting them completely.Also,its too late now to lay membrane,that sould be laid prior the planting


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## demoivre (26 Feb 2007)

I always used Roundup to spray around the bases of hedge plants when they were becoming established - never had any adverse effect on the hedge plants as they are all now about eight feet in height.


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## liteweight (26 Feb 2007)

I use round up too but I'd be a bit 'iffy' about spraying around new planted/young shrubs.


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## pjq (26 Feb 2007)

If you use roundup on a decidous hedge , the leaves cant absorb any chemical in Feb., but you have laurel . Why not try a mulsh of grass cuttings for this year ?added advantage water retention this summer . 
pjq


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## Evil9 (26 Feb 2007)

Hi, I am planting bare root hawthorn hedging over the next week or so, I've put down weed killer already but grass is just kind of flattened and not quite dead yet. What sort of membrane would be good and how would I go about laying it prior to planting the hedging? Also, would bark chipping work to keep down the weeds/grass round the hedges? Sorry for all the questions, very new to this gardening lark and my fingers are not really green! All help appreciated!


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## kiwifruit (26 Feb 2007)

wait till the hedge is settled for about 3 months,then give the grass/weeds around it a clean trim using a clippers or pulling it by hand,dont use a strimmer. finally,you can spray round-up, and no more back breaking labour.......


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## Vanilla (27 Feb 2007)

Bark chipping won't work anyway! Been there, done that. Hawthorn is very hardy- you won't really even need to weed around it- just let it grow away itself. I planted a hawthorn hedge around our house a few years back, but changed my mind when I saw it in winter- we live in a very exposed spot and really needed something evergreen for the cover so I ended up digging up each hawthorn plant a couple of years later and replacing them with escallonia. Back breaking work, bloody hawthorn was well rooted in and I never weeded around it. Luckily neighbour wanted the hawthorn plants so no waste.

We have strimmed around our escallonia for the last couple of years without any difficulty but each to their own.


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## pjq (27 Feb 2007)

For hawthorn Teagasc recommend cutting back and piercing the stem through a plastic membrane [broken link removed]
IMO grass clippings will do fine until the hedge is sturdy .
pjq


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## galmeister (8 Mar 2007)

Trying to do things in the right order ... I hope to plant a hedge in a few weeks time but have to first kill off some very thick grass which has formed a mat several inches deep aided by a few bits of ivy and other stuff. Is Round Up the thing to use and will it then be safe to plant the hedge on the treated area in a few weeks time? Thanks


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## demoivre (8 Mar 2007)

galmeister said:


> Is Round Up the thing to use and will it then be safe to plant the hedge on the treated area in a few weeks time? Thanks



Yes and yes .


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## slookie (9 Sep 2009)

Hi.We planted a row of laurel and red robin at back of lawn up against a timber panel fence, in April just gone. Needless to say the weeds in between are all over the place, and have to be pulled every few weeks (takes over an hour on hands and knees). Is there something I can spray that will kill the weeds and grass, but wont kill the hedging. I want to spray it in a straight line so that I just have to run the lawnmower along the edge. (Hope ye understand me!)


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## slookie (9 Sep 2009)

Hi .We planted a row of laurel and red robin at back of lawn up against a timber panel fence, in April just gone. Needless to say the weeds in between are all over the place, and have to be pulled every few weeks (takes over an hour on hands and knees). Is there something I can spray that will kill the weeds and grass, but wont kill the hedging. I want to spray it in a straight line so that I just have to run the lawnmower along the edge. (Hope ye understand me!)


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## demoivre (10 Sep 2009)

Round Up works well as I said above. Mark out your straight line with a rope along the length of the hedge ( around 1' in from it ) and then spray between it and the fence with the weed killer.


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## slookie (10 Sep 2009)

But what if a bit of it actually gets on the hedge....I preseme it will die! It's awkward as they are planted 18 inches apart and have grown a good bit since, so not much room around them.


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## krissovo (10 Sep 2009)

I had same issue, planted 700 plants around my site and before long the grass was twice the height of the hedge.  I was totaly inexperienced and nearly regreted spending €500 on my mixed hedge.

I used a plank of wood about a meter and half long and rope on each end.  I flattened the grass by stepping on the plank while holding the string and following the line of the hedge.  It was the same style crop circle makers do it and 200 or so meters of hedge were done in just over an hour.

Once the grass was flat I sprayed round up on the grass as close to the hedge as I dared (€500 investment) and waited.  A few weeks later I had a nice clearing but I did have 10 or so fairly brown looking plants.  The most affected was the beeach but I think all the plants will survive.

The grass has now started to grow back so in the next few weeks I will lay some form of weed control membrane to prevent the same happening next year.


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## sparkeee (10 Sep 2009)

roundup is absorbed through plant leaves,as long as you only get it on the grass the rest should be ok.


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## demoivre (10 Sep 2009)

slookie said:


> But what if a bit of it actually gets on the hedge....I preseme it will die! It's awkward as they are planted 18 inches apart and have grown a good bit since, so not much room around them.



I use a low concentration mixture of about 100ml Round Up to 15 litres of water and I have never had any problem spraying around the base of different hedge types. Even with hedge plants like Hornbeam with some of the leaves very close to the ground I haven't lost any plants because of spraying and I'm sure some spray gets on some leaves - in fact I haven't lost any hedge plants or shrubs at all that I have sprayed around  come to think of it.


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## selfbuilder (13 Sep 2009)

I use Casaron G weed killer.  it comes in a granular form and is easy to shake around the base of the hedge.  it will keep weeds and grass away for most of the year and won't effect the hedge.


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## Chocks away (14 Sep 2009)

Bought a plot with a derelict building at the beginning of the year. Do not intend to build on it for about 12 months. Today we got a letter from the Co Co - need to tidy up the gardens at front and sides. Mainly shrubs, weeds, flowers and a long type of grass. I intend to get the shrubs ets cut down completely. Will Roundup do the rest? And if so, for how long? Anyone got a better idea?


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