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Bindweed

sseagullsseagull Posts: 5
in Problem solving
I've just moved into a new house and the garden was absolutely infested with bindweed. After clearing a lot of the overgrowth I spent weeks digging out the bindweed roots as best as I could. I now have empty beds and wondering whether there is any point putting in new plants at this stage. I think in an ideal world I would cover with something heavy and mulch and then just leave them for a while. I can imagine doing this and leaving all the beds empty until Spring maybe but I've read you would need to leave them empty for years for this to be effective which is not something I would want to do. So looking fo advice. I think my options are: a) leave empty, cover, and mulch until Spring and then plant or b) just plant and keep on top of new bindweed shoots as they appear so they don't smother the new plants. If doing a is not really going to achieve much within the time I think I will just go ahead and plant as I don't want to have all my beds empty for years! Or any other ideas welcome! thank you 
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  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    The usual method is to cut back, then -once new growth appears [which it should still do this year] treat with a good weedkiller. If you can push a cane in beside the plant so that it climbs up it, that's the easiest way, and you can also cover with a plastic bottle or similar if there's any desirable plants nearby, although it doesn't sound as if you have any just now, so that's easier. It may need a few applications, and you'd still need to be vigilant next year, especially if it's coming from a nearby source which will make it very difficult to eradicate completely.

    Covering rarely works well with bindweed, and similar plants, as it'll just run underground and come out at the edges of the covering.
    I wish you luck with it! 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    When we moved into our previous place there was bindweed up to the upstairs windowsills and all over the garden. We treated it with a carefully targeted application of glyphosate … left it to die off before removing it, then painted any new shoots with the same .., that dealt with it and we were able to create a pretty garden … we just kept an eye open for any attempts at invasion by the bindweed next door
    abd dabbed them with glyphosate gel. 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    Fairygirl said:
    The usual method is to cut back, then -once new growth appears [which it should still do this year] treat with a good weedkiller. If you can push a cane in beside the plant so that it climbs up it, that's the easiest way, and you can also cover with a plastic bottle or similar if there's any desirable plants nearby, although it doesn't sound as if you have any just now, so that's easier. It may need a few applications, and you'd still need to be vigilant next year, especially if it's coming from a nearby source which will make it very difficult to eradicate completely.
    That's an interesting idea, @Fairygirl of putting in a cane to train it, I guess, to stay in one place. We've been in this house for over 21 years, and been plagued with bindweed the whole time, particularly in the beds containing fruit bushes and canes. 
    Much of ours comes from a neighbour, or from the field behind us. The neighbour mainly, 

    So @sseagull don't be dismayed, but do try to  keep on top of it. It certainly sounds as though you have been prudent and hard-working. Ours still gets tangled round raspberries. We just have to be vigilant. 

    It's a weed (sorry, a flower in the wrong place), that gets on my nerves, and drives me nuts. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I know it's a method that's been advised many times on the forum @rowlandscastle444, and to great effect. It just depends whereabouts it is in a site.
    Not something we really have a problem with round here, so I've never had to tackle it. Plenty of other things to annoy us though!
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    It's a pain in the neck. I've never managed to get rid of it completely. In my last house it hid under a wall and reappeared every year. I have it in the vegetable garden here, managed to dig it up one end but then planted raspberries the other end and it has regrown and climbs up the prickly raspberries. I just pull it off when I see it.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • BigladBiglad Posts: 3,265
    My youngest has it spreading across her front garden. Next door has artificial turf but that doesn't stop it, which backs up the earlier advice about covering it not being effective - it'll just run underneath and pop up where it fancies. Regular removal and/or treatment is the way to go, IMO.
    East Lancs
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    As well as the above, another treatment which helps remove it from established beds is this. Get an old wide neck bottle and put weed killer in it, unravel  a long tendril nip off the tip and then push as much of it into the bottle and leave it for a week or so. The weedkiller will transfer all the way to the roots. Obviously this is a slow laborious method, but if the bindweed is in among other established plants it can be the only way. Clearly you need to be careful, wear thick gloves, make sure the container can't fall over , keep children and pets away. 

    BTW,  I  have just remembered, it's said that the best time to spray on open ground is near the end of the season,  as the plant is beginning to draw down nutrients etc to the roots.  This ensures a more effective treatment,  so let it regrow for now, spay it off later, say around late October, depending on conditions. 
    AB Still learning

  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    It runs riot in our garden, OH digs up what he can and I pull it off from round the plants when I see it. It's everywhere also in the grass, and without glyphosate now it's even worse.
  • JohnjoeJohnjoe Posts: 77
    Same here, its just one of those tireless tasks that I keep on top off. Was plagued years ago, but now as I've kept on top of it, its showing itself less. My sister planted a Honeysuckle and was boasting to me how she got a free plant along side it, turned out it was Bindweed, she loved the flowers but finally caved and started digging it up.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    In the method I gave you can use lawn weedkiller it works very well. 
    AB Still learning

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