Bindweed, anyone dug down deep?

Leif

Saw the neighbours hedge this morning, alive with pretty white trumpet shaped flowers ... sigh. I do not share this hedge, but the end does butt onto my garden, and the weed does intrude in one corner.

cyclonebri1

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Cleavers, or Galium aparine.
Try http://earthnotes.tripod.com/cleavers.htm for details. But nothing new about Cleavers.

Yep thats the stuff, but strange that your link is canadian.
New? that's relative, but it didn't exist in the 60's, 70's unless I'm very much mistaken.

"It be a newcomer" in my best yokel accent, :beer:

cyclonebri1

Leif wrote: »

Saw the neighbours hedge this morning, alive with pretty white trumpet shaped flowers ... sigh. I do not share this hedge, but the end does butt onto my garden, and the weed does intrude in one corner.

Oh come on man you do share the hedge, certainly in as far as you both have to look at it and live with it.

1st point taking you back to your post #1.

Why the hell are you spending hours of your time digging out cubic metres of earth?, what price that time.
You can kill the stuff with chemicals that won't stay, just needs careful dosage.


And 2ndly'

Is there an issue of talking to the neighbor about going round there and treating his "underhedge" with your weedkiller at your expense?, that's the clincher.;);)

DaftyDuck

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Yep thats the stuff, but strange that your link is canadian.
New? that's relative, but it didn't exist in the 60's, 70's unless I'm very much mistaken.

"It be a newcomer" in my best yokel accent, :beer:

It is no newcomer, it's been in the UK all my life, and I'm pretty ancient. I used to roll around in the stuff in an orchard in Suffolk back in the 1960's. Oh, and spend ages pulling it out of dogs' ears.

For a UK link, try http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=29 I just put the other in as it was first on my Google list. You've probably just been lucky!

Mojisola

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Yep thats the stuff, but strange that your link is canadian.
New? that's relative, but it didn't exist in the 60's, 70's unless I'm very much mistaken.

"It be a newcomer" in my best yokel accent, :beer:

Cleavers are a native plant.

cyclonebri1

Ok, maybe we live in an area where it is relatively new.

It's more of a bloody nusense than anything else,

cyclonebri1

Leif. please excuse me for again barging into your thread.


The other major weed threat I have is something I call vetch, purple flowers like mini sweet peas eventually, !!!!!! to dig out as the things seem to love growing up through substantial plantage.

Mine came in from horse manure and took 10 years to show.

Leif

Cleavers is very common in the wild. Maybe it is new to your garden for some reason. I must admit I do not have it. I guess wild plants are often adapted to poor soils and tend to get out competed by others in the garden.

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Leif. please excuse me for again barging into your thread.


The other major weed threat I have is something I call vetch, purple flowers like mini sweet peas eventually, !!!!!! to dig out as the things seem to love growing up through substantial plantage.

Mine came in from horse manure and took 10 years to show.

I think it is related to peas. It is good for attracting beneficial insects such as hover flies, so if you can tolerate it, it is good. And it might well add nitrogen to the soil being a legume.

But some forms can grow huge, and swamp an area. I've seen an entire field of the stuff, a meter high or so, it was wasteland that for some reason was colonised by a vetch.

It seems to me that some plants are worth having even though they spread like wildfire. I have nigella everywhere, trefoil in the lawn, crocosmia popping up even though I dug out 100's, poppies, forget me not etc, all are a legacy of the previous owner. My neighbour has a very tolerant approach, considering a weed a plant in the wrong place. He allows a lot of wild plants in. I've sown some wild flowers, and I have no idea what they all are.

My late mother was not one for nuclear winter gardening, whereby you have a few shrubs surrounded by sterile soil, she had loads of plants, some planted, some volunteers, I will probably do the same.

Dug out more field bindweed this evening. The glyphosate does not touch it. Some roots were 1cm wide.

Leif

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Oh come on man you do share the hedge, certainly in as far as you both have to look at it and live with it.

1st point taking you back to your post #1.

Why the hell are you spending hours of your time digging out cubic metres of earth?, what price that time.
You can kill the stuff with chemicals that won't stay, just needs careful dosage.


And 2ndly'

Is there an issue of talking to the neighbor about going round there and treating his "underhedge" with your weedkiller at your expense?, that's the clincher.;);)

Point 1)
As I've said before, I have to dig the soil as it is in places more flint than soil. 1 flint was 12" across, I've taken at least 30 buckets full to the tip, more to go. I can't grow veg in flints. Also for some reason in places the top soil and sub-soil are swapped round, persumably when they put in the septic tank 43 years ago. So I dig the soil to remove flints, and turn it over. A lot of flints went into the disused septic tank. There's also a lot of clay - 6" top soil, 1 foot thick clay, then sandy clay, going down 20 feet or more apparently. It needs digging, and I will add organic matter, and sand. I have 1000 liters of compost 'cooking'. I AM spraying the field bindweed, and putting it in jars of glyphosate, spraying and digging will kill the b'stard.

You would not believe the roots from these field bindweed plants. As far as I can see the glyphosate - 160g/liter used neat - does not seem to touch it. Perhaps it is a case of soaking for weeks. Anyway once the ground is dug, and it's not far off now, I will leave it bare, and glyphosate anything that pops up. Perhaps the glyphosate will work in the autumn.

Point 2)
I might offer to give them some glyphosate ... I wiped out the hedge bindweed at my end using glyphosate sprayed on leaves.

cyclonebri1

Thanks for the advice on the vetch, it has to go though as it has risen in a whole front garden of winter flowering heather, erica carnea.
It's much taller and clings to the interspersed conifers.
Yes. thinking about it I bet it is related to the pea family, as if left it forms seed pods similar to sweet peas.

You certainly have a decent knowledge of weeds, , I'm grateful, but I have an equal intolerance of them.

Please don't mention Californian poppies, that both my neighbours allow to proliferate.:mad::mad: