I now do the gardening at my elderly father's home and he never managed to get rid of the bindweed in the 30 years he gardened it himself. It is a persistent menace and threatens everything I plant as well as everything already growing there.
I do not want to use glyphosate - as I have signed a petition to have it banned - but despite digging up, pulling out and even seiving soil has not worked. Is there an environmentally sound alternative to glyphosate?
Flame thrower? My neighbor uses a handheld butane torch on her weeds. Burns the tops to a crisp, but obviously don't harm the roots.. but if you keep up with it, maybe it will eventually die? The problem with digging them up is they are like hydra.. cut off the top, and 17 grow in it's space. I dig it out as much as possible, then spray glyphosate on whatever sticks it's head back up through the mulch during the summer. Then hand weed again in the fall before putting on leaf mulch, etc. A combination effort.
Problem is it's in amongst all the things we don't want to get rid of so flame thrower/ butane torch would not be a good idea. I'd rather not use glyphosate for reasons previously mentioned. Any other ideas?
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There's a thing. I did that for the first time during an argument with someone a few weeks ago.
He was bigger than me though
Weedkillers are no joke guys.
Poison for plants is poison for humans just the same.
When it gets in the water its getting into your food and maybe the toddler down the road.
I now do the gardening at my elderly father's home and he never managed to get rid of the bindweed in the 30 years he gardened it himself. It is a persistent menace and threatens everything I plant as well as everything already growing there.
I do not want to use glyphosate - as I have signed a petition to have it banned - but despite digging up, pulling out and even seiving soil has not worked. Is there an environmentally sound alternative to glyphosate?
Flame thrower? My neighbor uses a handheld butane torch on her weeds. Burns the tops to a crisp, but obviously don't harm the roots.. but if you keep up with it, maybe it will eventually die? The problem with digging them up is they are like hydra.. cut off the top, and 17 grow in it's space. I dig it out as much as possible, then spray glyphosate on whatever sticks it's head back up through the mulch during the summer. Then hand weed again in the fall before putting on leaf mulch, etc. A combination effort.
Problem is it's in amongst all the things we don't want to get rid of so flame thrower/ butane torch would not be a good idea. I'd rather not use glyphosate for reasons previously mentioned. Any other ideas?
IMHO you can use weedkiller, or live with it.
In my experience, they're your only options.
You could , of course, do as your father did and spend 30 years failing to get rid of it.