How do you get rid of bindweed?
Discussion
First of all let me state I have very little experience when it comes to gardening, and if it was up to me our garden would be a nice paved patio.
I live in a rented flat with a small garden at the back, which the landlord made clear is ours to maintain. There are a few bushes and shrubs (for lack of a better explanation), arranged around a gravelled area, with a weed barrier underneath. The ground between the bushes is also covered by a weed barrier.
Last year everything got overgrown with bindweed, which we tried to take out as much as possible, but we didn't manage to control it. Now I wanna try and start on the right foot, but a lot of the bushes look quite dead, and a flimsy one, which would have been about 1.3m tall, looks open and stretched out from the top. I'll take some pictures to illustrate as I can imagine my vocabulary is limited...
There is also bindweed everywhere already...
Can you give me some advice on how to make everything nice again? Is it worth attempting myself, or do we need a gardener to do it properly?
It would be nice to use the garden but it's not possible at the moment...
I live in a rented flat with a small garden at the back, which the landlord made clear is ours to maintain. There are a few bushes and shrubs (for lack of a better explanation), arranged around a gravelled area, with a weed barrier underneath. The ground between the bushes is also covered by a weed barrier.
Last year everything got overgrown with bindweed, which we tried to take out as much as possible, but we didn't manage to control it. Now I wanna try and start on the right foot, but a lot of the bushes look quite dead, and a flimsy one, which would have been about 1.3m tall, looks open and stretched out from the top. I'll take some pictures to illustrate as I can imagine my vocabulary is limited...
There is also bindweed everywhere already...
Can you give me some advice on how to make everything nice again? Is it worth attempting myself, or do we need a gardener to do it properly?
It would be nice to use the garden but it's not possible at the moment...
OK..from personal experience....bindweed is very hard to dig out as even the smallest fragment of root will grow again.
So, what to do is :
1. untangle it very carefully from whatever it's wrapped around
2. gentlyish squeeze the leaves at the extremities but make sure they remain attached
3. take one plastic container and put in a concentrated mixture of glyphosate (e.g roundup extra)
4. put the crushed 'ends' into the mixture
5. watch them die
6. repeat as necessary
Crushing enables the chemicals to be absorbed more fully.
2 years later I am now bindweed free.
So, what to do is :
1. untangle it very carefully from whatever it's wrapped around
2. gentlyish squeeze the leaves at the extremities but make sure they remain attached
3. take one plastic container and put in a concentrated mixture of glyphosate (e.g roundup extra)
4. put the crushed 'ends' into the mixture
5. watch them die
6. repeat as necessary
Crushing enables the chemicals to be absorbed more fully.
2 years later I am now bindweed free.
No easy answer, about covers it: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?P...
Unless it's an isolated bed, once you've got it, it's really a case of management rather than eradication. I've tried everything from weedkiller to deep digging chasing the roots. These days I just pull out of much of the root as I can without it breaking, then cut as deep as possible with a long sharp knife. This time of year you'll probably need to go over the worst areas at least once every couple of weeks. I find the smaller species worse because the roots seem to head straight down and it comes back like a hydra, whereas the larger species often has very long runs of shallow roots that are easier to expose and pull up.
Edit to say - I'm surprised at people reporting total success with weedkiller because in my experience the clever little plant very rapidly compartmentalises poisoned sections and severs itself underground so that even a fast acting systemic has limited effect. I can only assume these were limited shallow and isolated infestations, as otherwise they would be rapidly re-colonised anyway.
Unless it's an isolated bed, once you've got it, it's really a case of management rather than eradication. I've tried everything from weedkiller to deep digging chasing the roots. These days I just pull out of much of the root as I can without it breaking, then cut as deep as possible with a long sharp knife. This time of year you'll probably need to go over the worst areas at least once every couple of weeks. I find the smaller species worse because the roots seem to head straight down and it comes back like a hydra, whereas the larger species often has very long runs of shallow roots that are easier to expose and pull up.
Edit to say - I'm surprised at people reporting total success with weedkiller because in my experience the clever little plant very rapidly compartmentalises poisoned sections and severs itself underground so that even a fast acting systemic has limited effect. I can only assume these were limited shallow and isolated infestations, as otherwise they would be rapidly re-colonised anyway.
Edited by Mr GrimNasty on Sunday 1st May 17:53
king talking.Alex@POD said:
Thanks guys, I guess I'm off the the DIY shop in the morning then! Do I need to try and take out as much as I can, then treat it, or let the roundup do its thing?
If you're going the systemic route then leave plenty of leaves to treat carefully with the weedkiller. Personally I've found the best solution to rigorously pull up any new growth as soon as it appears.As another poster has said the weed has a habit of overcoming systemic killers (unlike dandelions for example) and therefore deprivation of sunlight has been my route to success.
It doesn't produce instant results in getting rid of the weed altogether but over 2 -3 years you will find it weakens and eventually will disappear.
I save the insides of kitchen rolls. I carefully unwind the weed, make a small tear in some of the bigger leaves. Stuff the whole lot into the roll, being careful not to break it off at the bottom. Then give it a good spray of Roundup. The roll keeps the spray off other plants, and then protects the weed from the rain while the weedkiller does its work.
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