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Groundcover vs Bermuda Grass

 
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Hi all!
I'm in high desert western US, and I'm grappling with Bermuda grass. When we moved to our current house, the previous owners had seeded both with bermuda grass.  It does surprisingly well here, often it's basically the only thing growing in a given area. It actually does seem to improve or preserve the soil underneath it, as the areas that have bermuda grass seemed to be the only ones that weren't compacted. Shortly after moving it, we put down 6-12 inches of mulch over the front and back yard, courtesy of the local tree crews, and planted out both with food forest species. We're hitting year four now and things are doing great, and I'm thinking about the next phase of our planting, which is to fill the groundcover niche currently occupied by the Bermuda grass. The mulch seems to have knocked it back enough for the woody perennials to establish, but it's starting to come back with a vengeance now.

So here's my question: Should I bother replacing it, and if so, with what? It needs no care or water and seems to do a good job keeping topsoil in place, but it doesn't really give any other valuable yields that something like Mallow or clover might. I hear that grasses compete pretty aggressively with trees and other woodies, so that seems like a good reason to get rid of it, but what else can survive and outcompete bermuda in these conditions? So far I've tried sainfoin, which grows but not thickly enough to outcompete it, common mallow, which does pretty well but needs watering, sweetclover, which grows a bit too upright to shade out the grass, and yarrow, which grows thickly enough but doesn't spread fast enough to beat out the bermuda

Any recommendations, things I should think about, or anything else? Thanks!
 
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Hey Alder!
I dont know that it's important to remove it. You have erosion control with super deep roots pulling nutrients and water up from way down and leaving behind sugars that feed soil fauna!

I am not the expert but I would get clover and all the other things I was interested in having there and broad cast the seed and keep what stays and plant more of that while using the Bermuda grass as a chop and drop mulch.

I think its much easier to work with the grass and find uses for it then to eradicate it unless you see it is directly affecting your favored plants in a negative way.

Check out this thread for some permie ways to deal with it
https://permies.com/t/159487
 
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Bermuda is excellent ground cover and coexists well with trees. Like you stated already - "It needs no care or water and seems to do a good job keeping topsoil in place"

The valuable yields would be in the form of grazing benefits. It has excellent nutritional value and requires no seeding.

Typically Bermuda thrives naturally south of I-40 so you are lucky to have a microclimate to support it.

I would definitely reconsider getting rid of it and try working with it to your advantage.
 
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