Bindweed - horrid stuff!

[craftygirl24]

Hi, I bought my house 10 months ago and the first job I had done (for an absolutely HUGE amount of money) was the garden. I had 10 raised beds put in for vegetables, with paving slabs all round. I have a bad back so this was the best option for me. The person who lived here before me didn't bother with the garden at all and, as time has gone on, I'm finding masses of bindweed appearing everywhere. It's in the raised beds (which are 2 sleepers on their sides high!), in the greenhouse I've had put in, in the fruit bed, just everywhere. The garden is 100 feet long and 30 feet wide and, I kid you not, the bindweed is all over. I'm an organic gardener and don't know how to get rid of the wretched stuff. When you dig it up, it's so deep you just can't get all the root. If I keep digging and pulling it up, will it eventually give up or is there something else I can do? HELP! PLEEEASE!!

[TEB]

Really not much more you can do as you dont want to use chemicals, just keep pulling.

[Sonata]

I've just had some pop up too. Didn't recognise it as bindweed until it has now flowered.

As far as I know (which isn't much at all), it's a dig and pull job.

[Flummery]

Still digging up and pulling 10 years on!

[pdblake]

We get it from next door, and their brambles. The best you can do without weedkiller is to keep pulling it out and keep it at bay.

[Jerryfb]

I can only sympathis. Bindweed was put on earth to try us. How to deal with bindweed - the real gardening calendar | The Ciderhouse Glyphosate (Roundup) is not as bad as you may fear. I have still not gone down that route but if all else fails...

[Comfreyfan]

I've been pulling it out of my garden for years now - in some parts I've given up - the flowers are pretty!!

[OllieMartin]

Most of mine creeps through from my next-door neighbour's. His back garden is about as overgrown as you can get.
I'd love to napalm his garden just to kill off half the bindweed and brambles that I have to pull up on a regular basis.

[Two_Sheds]

Roundup doesn't work any better than handpulling.
I sprayed a patch of nettle, bramble & bindweed last year, repeatedly ... and it is all growing back from the roots.

[ishmael]

Roundup doesn't work any better than handpulling.
I sprayed a patch of nettle, bramble & bindweed last year, repeatedly ... and it is all growing back from the roots.

i'd disagree with that; while glyphosate isn't a permanent solution, it's a lot more effective and a lot less effort than hand pulling. and, while it never gets rid of all of it, it makes it a lot weaker, over time.

tip is to use one of the branded versions - the bayer generic stuff doesn't have the surfactants in it that the brand ones do, and so it's a lot less effective.

of course, it's hardly organic. we inherited a patch of scrubland, and constant glyphosate seems to be the only way to keep it under control.

[ishmael]

Hi, I bought my house 10 months ago and the first job I had done (for an absolutely HUGE amount of money) was the garden. I had 10 raised beds put in for vegetables, with paving slabs all round. I have a bad back so this was the best option for me. The person who lived here before me didn't bother with the garden at all and, as time has gone on, I'm finding masses of bindweed appearing everywhere. It's in the raised beds (which are 2 sleepers on their sides high!), in the greenhouse I've had put in, in the fruit bed, just everywhere. The garden is 100 feet long and 30 feet wide and, I kid you not, the bindweed is all over. I'm an organic gardener and don't know how to get rid of the wretched stuff. When you dig it up, it's so deep you just can't get all the root. If I keep digging and pulling it up, will it eventually give up or is there something else I can do? HELP! PLEEEASE!!

it will never give up. if you don't want to use chemicals then burn it all off as soon as it starts to show through the ground. pulling up breaks up the roots, and just makes it sprout more. burning off three or four times a year seemed to keep it down to nuisance level, for me, rather than a total disaster. i'm on to tumbleweed, now though.

[Flummery]

I've squirted it and pulled it (not at the same time of course!) and it's still coming up.

[Sprocket*]

Its does have one use - killing my neighbours conifers!!!!

[craftygirl24]

Thank you for all your answers. I'm depressed now! But hey, my neighbour and I are combining our efforts to get rid of as much as we can.

[finefencer]

You have to dig it out .... and be very gentle with it to make sure you have it all out......

THEN...JUMP ALL OVER IT WITH HOBNAILED BOOTS...SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER...AND WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED HAVING FUN....LIGHT THE BAR BEE WITH IT TO MAKE SURE IT GONE.....