# Keep weeds at bay in bare spots in TTTF in 7b until seed time?



## doppel (Apr 28, 2017)

Just moved into a house last month and while it has a good stand of TTTF, there are some bare spots and some areas where Bermuda has found a home. I started a plan to suppress the Bermuda with Ornamec and Turflon Ester, but wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to keep the bare spots from getting overrun by weeds etc, outside of pre-em and weed control. Is there some sort of Fescue-friendly ground cover that might help choke them out but not become a nuisance when it is time to seed in September?

FWIW I am toying with the idea of mixing in some micro-clover when I overseed in the Fall, perfectly aware of the potential drawbacks. Would this be a good time to maybe jumpstart the clover, assuming I can get the broadleaf weeds under control prior to laying it down?

Thanks!


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## GrassDaddy (Mar 21, 2017)

Honestly I'm not sure that's possible. Anything else you plant as a cover crop will need to get killed. So if you're gonna do that then you might as well just use roundup. Which if you are going to use roundup you might as well use that rather than other blends of stuff to kill the Bermuda.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

How about some chopped leaves on the bare areas? A good coating of them could suppress weeds and then when it's time to plant, you could either rake them up (if they're still thick)or mulch them up more and scatter them across the lawn with the mower to get them out of the planting area (your bare spots). This time of year it may be hard to find leaves but your locality may have piles somewhere if they collect them in the fall. Whether this is workable may depend on the placement of your bare areas and how hard it would be to mow around them, as you'd want to leave them undisturbed until planting time.


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## doppel (Apr 28, 2017)

GrassDaddy said:


> Honestly I'm not sure that's possible. Anything else you plant as a cover crop will need to get killed. So if you're gonna do that then you might as well just use roundup. Which if you are going to use roundup you might as well use that rather than other blends of stuff to kill the Bermuda.


Yeah, I kind of figured that. Thanks for the input.


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## doppel (Apr 28, 2017)

Virginiagal said:


> How about some chopped leaves on the bare areas? A good coating of them could suppress weeds and then when it's time to plant, you could either rake them up (if they're still thick)or mulch them up more and scatter them across the lawn with the mower to get them out of the planting area (your bare spots). This time of year it may be hard to find leaves but your locality may have piles somewhere if they collect them in the fall. Whether this is workable may depend on the placement of your bare areas and how hard it would be to mow around them, as you'd want to leave them undisturbed until planting time.


That's actually not a bad idea tbh. I think that could work for at least some of the areas. Thanks!


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