Dave wrote:

Jo writes

"Jo" wrote in message
...

Hi all,

I can't get rid of it...it's going crazy in my garden....the dreaded
bindweed. It's coming from next door, under the fence and is invading my
lovely tidy beds. I have to keep digging them up and disturbing all the
bark to get to the roots, but the stuff just seems to proliferate. I've
tried glyphosate which seems to be the recommended stuff for killing the
wretched weed, but it doesn't seem to work. I even snuck round when the
neighbours were out and sprayed glyphosate on the weed on their side of

Slightly over diluted works better than nominal strength. You want the
plant to die slowly so that there is more damage to the extensive root
system. If you hit it ocnsistently every week for a whole season there
will not be much left at the end of it.

I used to let it grow at the wild end of my garden. It never did much
more than compete with the honeysuckle and other hedgerow plants.

You have my sympathy! I have a huge amount of it, plus ground elder -
another thing the Romans did for us!

Ground elder is mildly annoying because it will regrow from the tiniest
piece of the brittle white roots/rhizomes that it forms.

I have found that if the soil is dry and crumbly, if you are patient and
if there are not too many plants (yes, I know, a lot of ifs) then it is
possible to gently explore where the damn stuff comes from. But be
warned, the roots are extremely fragile and snap at the slightest
opportunity. The only saving grace is it is distinctive, waxy white and
curling, with purple tips as it breaks through the ground. If I pick any
with newly broken ends, then I keep digging until I find the other end.
In early march I followed one set down under the plum tree until I had
made a rabbit burrow an arms length deep - but I think I got it all out.
I let them dry out and then burn them.

Its hopeless doing this if the soil is wet or damp, you just don't see
the roots.

Ground elder unfortunately has tiny thin roots which go straight down
metres. I don't know how I will tackle this, except by topping and maybe
roundup.

??? Are you sure? Round here ground elder has shallow fat brittle white
roots 5-10 mm diameter. And will succumb to regular strimming though I
prefer to hit it with glyphosate first and then dig out the dying
plants. That way any bits you miss are less likely to regrow.

I have an endless supply of ground elder in adjacent fields. All I can
do is keep it at the boundary. Shallow roots so not too hard to do.

Regards,
Martin Brown