Bindweed taking over :(

thorsoak

I have to admit that I have neglected the garden since OH died two years ago ...I just haven't had the heart to do it on my own - but now I've started to reclaim it, bit by bit. I've already given up on the veg patch, and let it become a natural meadow - looks great, is kind to the insects and bees which in turn pollinate the fruit trees in the orchard.

But I'm not letting nature have it all - and now I want to attack the west-facing garage wall. It did have a couple of climbing roses, some honeysuckle and two or three clematis clambering up the faced concrete wall - but they have all been smothered by bindweed

My dilemma is - do I just cut everything back to ground level and try and kill off the base of the bindweed - and hope that I manage to eliminate it all - or do I do away with all the plants and shrubs and replant with peach/nectarines? As I said, this wall gets the sun all afternoon evening, is a faced concrete wall, so will retain heat - would I stand a chance with fruit trees? Or can I save my existing roses clematis and honeysuckle?

Dizzy_Ditzy

Bindweed is evil :mad:

I've just spent 2 days trying to clear it from my parents garden :eek: and I'm still not done

I've just pulled what I can off the ground, and have poured hot water, fault and vinegar over it. As it dries, I'm bagging it up in paper garden waste sacks for the council to get rid of.

I'm getting in some special weed killer for it, as it multiples faster than rats :mad:

I think you'd be ok cutting it all back to ground level and using glyphosphate to kill it off proper. It might take two or three goes, and you will probably keep finding new shoots, but if you are able to keep on top of it, eventually it'll get fed up and die off.

You can rescue your climbers, but it will be a slow process of cutting and untangling. Get some round up gel to apply directly to the evil weed at the bottom, that way it won't affect your climbers (I got some round up gel from Tesco last week for £3.50)

Good luck, and keep popping by to let us know how you get on

macma

This year we have resorted to glyphosate, but you shouldn't cut it down ,the more leaf to absorb as much killer the better. We've lived here 30 years and believe me digging out doesn't work

lostinrates

Its been a horrid year for bind weed.

I am also annoyed that we have found it growing In bought in plants from a well known supplier. Free weeds.

Anyway, this year I gave up organic aspirations of organic and sprayed the bindweed. It felt good.

Leif

Regarding a veg bed, why not put down some weed membrane and leave for a year to clear weeds?

macma wrote: »

This year we have resorted to glyphosate, but you shouldn't cut it down ,the more leaf to absorb as much killer the better.

Exactly. I assuming the OP has hedge bindweed, which is the easier one to deal with. Carefully untwine the strands from the plants, get some old vinegar bottles or pop bottles, half fill with glyphosate solution, bury the bottom of each in the ground near the bindweed roots, then bruise the bindweed leaves (fold them till they break), and curl the bindweed strands up into the jars. Leave and dispose of the jars after a week or two. It only really needs a few hours contact, but the more the merrier, especially if you have long established bindweed roots.

Bindweed develops a massive underground network of starchy roots which feed the above ground growth. Hedge bindweed tends to grow horizontally in the top 12" of soil, and you can dig it out but small fragments will establish new plants, so you will still have to spray, or continually cut down new growth to weaken it and after a few years it will be dead. Glyphosate is easier, but you'll probably need to spray next year as well. Field bindweed goes down very deep, with less top growth. So even if you dig down 1m, you might miss most of the root.

macma wrote: »

We've lived here 30 years and believe me digging out doesn't work

My experience is that it can work, but you have to dig out all new growth and it takes years.

Davesnave

No idea which bindweed I had, but it was all over two medlars which I wanted to keep when we moved here.

I found that careful spraying and painting-on glyphosate worked well enough, once I'd pulled growth clear of the medlar leaves. The following year there was some vigorous re-growth, but from Year 3 there was nothing to show what a serious problem there had been there.

Persistence is always the answer.

macma

Leif I know digging could work in some places but we are surrounded by chunky stone walls, the stuff sprouts from under them. They harbour millions of snails too I repointed about 4 feet in the front garden, it was very satisfying but took aaaages so I guess the snails are safe :rotfl:

kerri_gt

Our front garden had a massive attack of bind weed the first year we were here. I used (on advise of the council) Glyphosate on just the big leaves of the weed - they also advised (rightly or wrongly) that pulling up the weeds can in fact encourage it to spread by distributing spores from it's root network.

I even (very carefully) sprayed some large leave where it was tangled in bushes. It was coming from a garden behind us. Although not totally gone, since doing that treatment, it's never come back so badly.

Well done on tackling the garden, it will be worth it xx

Leif

kerri_gt wrote: »

they also advised (rightly or wrongly) that pulling up the weeds can in fact encourage it to spread by distributing spores from it's root network.

The problem with digging it up is that if you leave pieces of the roots in the soil, they will form new plants. So never put bindweed on a compost heap.

Mojisola

kerri_gt wrote: »

Our front garden had a massive attack of bind weed the first year we were here. I used (on advise of the council) Glyphosate on just the big leaves of the weed - they also advised (rightly or wrongly) that pulling up the weeds can in fact encourage it to spread by distributing spores from it's root network.

Wrongly - whoever told you that knows nothing about plants!

Bindweed doesn't have spores anywhere, least of all in its roots. What it will do is grow away from even short pieces of root so, if you pull a plant up and break the roots into several pieces, instead of one plant you'll have several growing in its place.

Keep up with the glyphosate as soon as it tries to come back from the neighbours. It's much easier to deal with it regularly.

cyclonebri1

Leif wrote: »

Regarding a veg bed, why not put down some weed membrane and leave for a year to clear weeds?



Exactly. I assuming the OP has hedge bindweed, which is the easier one to deal with. Carefully untwine the strands from the plants, get some old vinegar bottles or pop bottles, half fill with glyphosate solution, bury the bottom of each in the ground near the bindweed roots, then bruise the bindweed leaves (fold them till they break), and curl the bindweed strands up into the jars. Leave and dispose of the jars after a week or two. It only really needs a few hours contact, but the more the merrier, especially if you have long established bindweed roots.

Bindweed develops a massive underground network of starchy roots which feed the above ground growth. Hedge bindweed tends to grow horizontally in the top 12" of soil, and you can dig it out but small fragments will establish new plants, so you will still have to spray, or continually cut down new growth to weaken it and after a few years it will be dead. Glyphosate is easier, but you'll probably need to spray next year as well. Field bindweed goes down very deep, with less top growth. So even if you dig down 1m, you might miss most of the root.



My experience is that it can work, but you have to dig out all new growth and it takes years.

Excellent advice, most folks miss the point that you can treat the roots with GLPT, not just the leaves.