Removing weeds within monkey (or mondo) grass

[Jason Carlton]

I have a walkway that's bordered by clumps of either monkey or mondo grass (I'm not sure which). The clumps usually do pretty well, but this year several were pretty much taken over by weeds! The weeds grew in the middle and pushed their way out.

Now that it's gotten a little colder (I'm in zone 7), most of the weeds have died out. I tried pulling out as much as I could, but I know that there are still some roots in there. Is there anything I can do to strengthen the mondo grass now, so that they won't be crowded out in the spring?

I have a lot of this grass that I can thin out, so I thought about just digging up the entire clump and replacing it with a clump from somewhere else. But that's a lot of work and probably won't look good until spring, so before I do that I want to make sure there's not an easier / better option.

[Colbyt]

Never seen that happen. Must be a really hardy weed.

Feed the grass with a liquid fertilizer that you can buy at the BORG.

10-20-20 or 10-30-20. Just make sure the first number is at least half the middle one.

You won't see any difference now but this will encourage root growth and a healthier clump in the Spring.

Colbyt

[Red]

Mondo is a miniature monkey grass, about half the height, darker green, and narrower leaves. I have some of the pesky grassy weeds in my monkey grass also and have not found a way of controlling it except digging the whole mess up, separating them, and replanting the monket grass. Needless to say I rarely go thru that much trouble.

Red