I'm making my preparations for spring. I have a decent-sized
herb/vegetable bed, about 15X6 that over the last two growing seasons
has been progressively more infected by bindweed. I can't clear it and
cover it with black plastic to cut out the light and raise the soil
temp like my other veggie beds because I have perennial asparagus,
thyme, savory and a few others. I don't use chemicals and I'd never
use them on food crops.
So, I plan to go over my lawn with corn gluten once the soil
temperature hits 60 to snuff out any transient weed seeds. Does anyone
know whether dosing this bed with gluten at the same would check the
bindweed? (I don't grow from seed in this bed so I'm not concerned
about stopping germination of things I want, and in zone 5b, it will
probably be a month or more between the application of the gluten to
when I'm ready to plant plugs, so I can't see it inhibiting any root
growth later on.)
BTW, my philosophy of planting is that if I can still see soil by
mid-June, things haven't been planted close enough. Bindweed is the
only weed that can grow out if the shade of my tomatoes and other
plants in the summer and I despise it.
Thoughts?