Monday 17 January 2022

Dealing With Bindweed?

 "Bindweed man lives in the family garden, with his bindweed lady love and his bindweed children three (billion)"


Unfortunately a few years ago I unwittingly imported some muck that must have had some bindweed in it. It has since become the bane of my gardening life. It's only in a few beds and this year I'm determined to get on top of it. 

Last year I sheeted over the badly affected beds in the hope that starving it of sunlight might help weaken it. But it always finds some way to grow up and around, even when I tare at the shoots like a rabid dog.

This year some beds will stay covered up and I'll try to get some of the main ones back in production.


So the last week of my "half hour a day" has been spent digging over two beds, lifting the paths and making sure I have every bit of the "devils guts" removed from the soil. No doubt I've missed some and will have to be pretty vigilant in the coming season as it sprouts back up. 

Anyone have any good methods of controlling this truly horrible plant?

Any tips gratefully received! 


13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Fascinating. I have read of bindweed but never seen it. The US version of this is crabgrass (or I call it as such), which has the same ability to go under, or or through any obstacle.

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    2. I'm surprised it's not in the US, we get couch grass as well (which I think is like your crab grass). The bindweed here is in most fo the hedges, it has pretty white flowers and spreads like mad (unfortunately). I have a feeling my battle with this has only just begun. 4 full buckets of roots so far from two beds!

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    3. We have it here in Canada and it's just as bad as goutweed. I had one bed that had it and nothing worked. So one year we tore up the bed used a tractor to get to hard pan sprayed with Round up (the only time I ever used it because desperate times call for desperate measures) put landscape cloth, new soil and it still came through all that! It's evil!

      Good luck.
      Lisa
      Spring Peeper Farm

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    4. Yeah, it's the time I think weed killers are a good option.

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    5. Bindweed is most DEFINITELY in the US!!!!! After not having it for years, it showed up about 3 years ago. I'm trying to keep ahead of it, pulling & digging as much as I can. It's one of the few weeds, Canada thistle being the other, that I have no hesitation on breaking out the weed killer for. This past summer, I see it's popping up in teh lawn around the flower bed too.

      I'll try to remember SallyC's trick of giving them a place to climb then blast'em with weedkiller.

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  2. We stuck canes in the ground and wound the bindweed round them. When they had a lot of leafy growth in late summer we covered the surrounding plants and gave the bindweed a hefty dose of weedkiller. We had to do it two years running but it got rid of it entirely.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, we did that as well, worked well.

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    2. I think this might be what I do, once I've dug over the beds

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  3. My dad got rid of the stuff from his garden with canes as Sally suggests although he did lose a few plants to the weedkiller. The only sure way of ridding it for good that I've found is leaving the infested area fallow for a year and applying several applications of weedkiller throughout the summer. I've managed to keep it under some control be continually hoeing it off but you really have to be on the ball as it only takes a bit to get missed and aways it goes again.

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    Replies
    1. This has been left with a sheet on it last season, but it kept growing up the sides so I suppose I didn't cover it enough really.

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  4. We are with Sally - dug and dug and dug while we could but once veg were growing near we either carefully painted a systemic weedkiller onto the leaves of the bindweed, or did the canes thing and then put a sleeve over the cane and bindweed and sprayed inside that on a very calm morning. I don't hold with sprays but for bind weed only was prepared to make an exception.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I think that's what I'll have to do, I don't like it either but it's a better option that dealing with bind weed!

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