Scutch grass vs. ornamental grasses in borders

I wish I knew the answer to this! We're in the same situation and would love to do something similar with big, wide beds filled with a mix of herbaceous perennials and annuals. That's a beautiful inspiration you have.

I'm afraid we've been at it for over 10 years and haven't figured it out, at least not an easy way. We have managed to keep the scutch out of the vegetable beds using a combination of intensive removal, some barriers in the worst areas and adding chickens into the rotation. Perennials are a completely different situation because the soil isn't being re-worked. With a bit of work at first, we've got some nice shrubs established but it's a bit more tricky with herbaceous perennials.

Deep woodchip seems to be good but it's either expensive to buy or time consuming to make enough for large areas. We bought a chipper and make our own but can only do small areas at a time. Also, covering it only works if you completely sever the connection to the surrounding areas. We did some test areas where we covered it for really long amounts of time and it survived underneath because it was connected to patches that were uncovered.

I've read that the best way to get rid of it is to cut a trench and thoroughly check that it's completely severed from any surrounding scutch, then cut the area into smaller squares in a grid pattern to really hamper it, and then cover it really well for a year or more and it will be killed. You need to make sure you cut deep enough and make sure you don't miss a spot. We were going to try that method but it's a lot of work. We've just got too much area to do and growing the food takes too much of our time so we've sort of given up on fighting the scutch. I've sort of accepted it will always be there so try to make the best of it.

Be careful as well, because many of the most difficult weeds can lie dormant underneath grass for decades. Many of the patches we have managed to clear of scutch now have a lot of dock and thistle instead. They're very difficult to weed out once you have perennials in the ground.

And yes, it does creep back in from surrounding areas!

In my experience, digging it out does not work because no matter how hard you try, you will leave tiny bits behind. We actually even tried clearing one patch by sieving the soil to catch any tiny bits we might have missed and we quickly gave up on that option when we realised even with that level of effort, we couldn't get every bit.

If you're going to dig it out as much as possible and then cover it as well, that might be a good idea. But again, make sure any area you dig and cover is completely severed to a deep level from all of the surrounding scutch. If there's even one tiny bit connected to anything that can get any light, it will grow up through whatever you put over it.

Well done! Anyone who has dealt with scutch will know just how much extra work you've gone to. I would love to see how you get on with it.