"Daz" wrote in message
news

Hi,

Im Daz and Im new to the site, been gardening since I was 15, but im
mainly a plantsman first, and gardener second. ie I like to do the easy
pretty parts, and let someone else do the hard work.

Anyway, I have a problem with Bindweed.

When I first moved to my house, the entire back garden was gravelled, so
no weeds, grass etc.

I had the gravel removed and planted up most of the garden, it is now
jam packed with plants, but im starting to have a problem with
bindweed.

I have a large border filled with Hemerocallis, Iris, Gunnera, Giant
Scabious and Acanthus, which bulges by mid summer, however it is being
taken over by bindweed, it is literally in every and around everything,
also starting to get buttercups popping up everywhere in some areas.

I start spraying systemic weedkiller onto the bindweed early in the
season, but it seems to have little effect, and by mid summer the plants
are covered in it, I can no longer spray at that time due to the amount
of plants I have.

I have chip barked the area deeply, but it makes no difference.

As plants will start coming into growth within the next few months, I
just wanted to know if there is a better way of ridding myself of this
weed, its driving me insane and is ruining my huge collection of day
lilies.

I was thinking of collecting my old newspapers, wetting this and
wrapping around the plants as they start to come into growth, then cover
the rest of the bare area in newspaper, then chip barking again, but
wonder if this will do any good?

Thanks for any advice.

Hi Daz,

You don.t say how big the area is, but with a little painstaking work you
can get rid of the bindweed - the buttercup you can simply weed out.
Get as many jam jars as you can and fill them with dilute Glyphosate
(Roundup). When the bindweed is about 6"tall, bundle the shoots
together and upend the bunches into the jars. Leave them there for
about a week, then move the jars on to the next patch. It's a bit
labourious but by the end of the summer the bindweed will be
gone.

Phil