Dealing with bindweed, the long haul and mulch reduces the work
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- Опубліковано 31 лип 2024
- Reduce the vigour of bindweed, both Convolvulus arevensis, field bindweed with pink flowers, and Calystegia sepium, hedge bindweed with white flowers and longer stems.
I have cleared or almost cleared both on large areas, but needed 2-3 years for that. No dig helps enormously.
You can compost all of it too, I have done this for years with no regrowth.
Filmed by Edward Dowding at Homeacres 15th June 2018, it's also him in the thumbnail, 9 years ago, holding a long root of convolvulus. edowdingfilms.onfabrik.com/
Follow Charles on Instagram charles_dowding, more about veg growing and no dig on my website www.charlesdowding.co.uk/
I have two online courses which include hundreds of photos and exclusive video content, for more information go to charlesdowding.co.uk/product-... - Навчання та стиль
I lost a shovel to bindweed one year. Had gone on holiday and when I got back out in the garden it had wrapped itself up the shovel and was in full bloom. Great video! 😆
Wouldn’t you just love to spend a week at his place with him. Soaking up his knowledge and calm demeanor. He reminds me of my grandfather who always had a big garden plot and would spend hours tinkering in the garden.
Nice comment and I am not at the tinkering stage yet! :)
me too!
If you ever get a chance to hear him and Steph speak they are fascinating to learn from. They could give even the most amateur grower and cook faith in their own so far undiscovered ability.
Yes. Great technique. I see what I did wrong. And how does he remain so cheerful when dealing with this awful weed. Some days I feel like setting my garden on fire -- which would probably feed it. :-)
Thanks Charles, I DID find this encouraging! I have a LOT of bindweed in my new garden, which I am doing completely with no-dig & mulch methods, and I've been pulling the bloomin' stuff out just as you say about once a week! Very heartening to see your year 3 bed now clear of it!
Dealing with bindweed, what a marvelous demonstration of patience and perseverance, and a zen like focus that allows it to continue the way it will, because you know it will, and yet defend your garden the way we will! Me too, bindweed, it tells me something, and it’s telling me to plant sweet potatoes, and moon flowers, all convolvulus, all morning glories just like bindweed. Your channel is such a pleasant way to share gardening, in this COVID-19 SIP, thank you.
How poetic Gitta, makes me smile thanks and may all your convolvulus be fine!!
I have respect for bindweed, partly for its beauty, but also for it's tenacious growth habit. I have seen parent roots growing through blue clay when digging through a hardpan. It reminds me that what is a "mere" matter of growing vegetables for me is a matter of life and death for the weeds. It reminds me of the persistence I need to maintain to overcome them.
💚 nice!
Great observation, more of this type of thinking and learning.
Yes, to overcome bindweed one must become as persistent as bindweed.
Thank you for this video! I took on a 9x10m plot in March which had 1-3 buried layers of landscape fabric--4 layers under what I call "Bindweed Alley"--and digging them out has given the bindweed a new lease on life despite three rounds of double cardboard/double landscape fabric! I'm considering taking up basket-weaving with the roots ;) I'm going to try triple cardboard under black polythene until spring, and then plant squash through it. This is great encouragement to keep going!
Well done you! Firstly for managing to remove the hidden menace of buried plastic, it can be such a pain. Adding compost on top is an important part of this because I think that bind weed is partly a response to impoverished soil. Your plan for next year sounds excellent, then remove the plastic in autumn which is bindweed's end of season.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you! That's a great extra tip about soil quality--I'll be sure to mulch the area well, too. Fingers crossed!
This is exactly the technique I developed last year when I moved to a property covered in landscaping fabric and bindweed. I'm in year two and the bindweed vigor and amount is much reduced. It's great to get such a clear, well produced, explanatory video and Charles Dowdig's encouragement to keep using this method!
Hi Rachael, thanks and it's nice for me to hear this as well, such a nice feeling when the growth reduces.
I need your faith mine looks like a jungle of bind weed since we last went to the allotment but where our new no dig beds and cardboard with wood chip are,.it's struggled to get in
Really helpful - I understand the business of bindweed so much better now, so I must go out and follow your advice.
Know thine enemy! Yes it feels better to make sense of it, and in a funny sort of way I appreciate it's efforts
Thanks so much for an honest, no chemical, realistic methods to thwart the very problematic pesky weed that tries to kill everything that I love growing and eating.
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m dealing with I think sorrel in the same way. It’s nice to know the mother roots will eventually weaken
Precisely the Encouragement I Needed!
What a calm nice guy, honestly needed to hear this motivational speech after yet another year trying to remove bind weed from my garden.
Oooh yes it can be daunting, go well and keep edges tidy too 👍
Thank you for linking me to this from my comment on your other video.Its very reassuring to see what you managed to achieve with some perservence and only spending a short period of time each week to deal with new growths! Thank you for getting back to me Charles on your other video.
No worries Stephen, glad you followed it up 😀
thanks for the encouragement! I'm on year two and it pulls out way easier now than it did last year. Can't wait until it's gone.
Great!
I think I may have answered my own question with this video. Great stuff. Can honestly say I'm now looking forward to bindweed growing season so I can see this working in practice!
Smart and I am pleased to hear that.
Enthusiasm breeds commitment breeds success.
hi charles, so appreciate you and your gardening! greetings from norway.
Lovely thanks
So glad you did this Video. I took over a bindweed ridden allotment plot a year ago and was starting to lose heart. Adding raised beds has helped, but the battle isn't over yet.. spurred on to keep going!
I wish you well!
We have had TONS of field bindweed and purslane in our garden. Last year we tilled and had an unmanageable amount of weeds. This year we did no-dig and there has been about 1/5 as many weeds AND they come out much easier through the compost, even the super long-rooted field bindweed. Every week it’s been easier and easier to manage through no-dig and our veggies are thriving better than ever. Thanks, Charles!
Fantastic result Bob and thanks for sharing
I have that growing in my forsithia bushes and boy is it a job keeping up with it. I mulch, dig and dig. It finds places that are hard to get to . I never knew what it was called before. If this is the same weed,if left to grow ,it will produce large seed pods that will burst when dry and become airborne and plant itself in your garden. I am enjoying your videos very much.
I do find this very encouraging! This video gave me the confidence in knowing I have a plan to deal with the extensive bindweed in the food forest i'm establishing.
Best of luck, it's a commitment!
I love that Charles is such a realist. My wife is gifting me a day course so hopefully I can check out his bindweed (and composting) techniques, and of course meet the man! Hope to visit later in year Charles.
Thanks Steve, see you
I needed that encouragement. Thank you Charles:)
So glad! We all do with bindweed :)
Hi Charles, your absolutely right about those weeds. I'm in my fourth year with your no dig method and almost no weeds! Thank you, best regards, Lucie
Nice to hear Lucie
You are a charming man. Such a positive attitude with the Bindweed. Most of the time I just want to cry because I've used up all my free time that I could have done something fun instead I'm dealing with the Bind Weed infestation.
Thanks, and I know that feeling! And I do want to offer you this encouragement that Assistance will be rewarded after two years! 💚
Thanks for the encouragement 😊
You have given me hope!
Your gardens are so beautiful. Compost makes a big difference in the weeding chores. I use a lot of cardboard and compost to keep much of my weeds down, however the quack grass finds this method its favorite to grow in. Ugh. but still it is easier to pull out. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge with us.
Yes beauty is important.
I am sure that with persistence the couch grass will suddenly stop growing.
What impeccable timing for your video. I am starting a small market garden and have been fighting my Canadian Thistle. I'll not be done if I keep deep digging by fall. I have decided to cardboard and horse manure the whole 1/4, and see if I can slowly wear them out over a few years. Awesome, I appreciate your vid and the encouragement it gave me:))
I wish you well with that!
you could do the horse manure beneath the cardboard, because it usually has some weed seeds in it too...
A little dirt never hurt -hey Ryan, it took three years to get rid of thistles in our Community Garden by laboriously weeding (their roots go all the way down to Hell btw... 😒). It took FIVE years to eradicate the Colorado Potato Beetle 🥔 but alas... all are gone. 🙄 Really looking forward to your next update (slacker... LOL)
Good luck with the no dig thistle battle. Onward & upward pal.
@@mariecurrie7657 how did you eradicate the colorado potato beetle???
@@music2flyful We simply picked the beetles & their grubs off the plants and crushed them. The eggs are bright orange and are laid on the underside of the leaves so we crushed those too. You have to be very thorough. Year by year their numbers will dwindle until the population is gone. Garter snakes and Daddy Long Legs are also helpful as they eat the eggs. But... check every year, you never know if they might be reintroduced to your area...
This will help a lot of people, including me! Thank you.
Lovely, that is my wish, see the comment below from Girly HR Gardener too.
Thank you for your he encouragement!
We need it, thanks!
thank you for the information-and encouragement!
I have 2 beds one dug with compost mixed, another undug with compost on top. Clearly undug has so less weeds. Great sir thanks once again for all the education
Well done on making a trial, nice to hear
I am in USA, Washington and in zone 8b, not far from the coast. Very similar to you growing conditions I believe and bindweed grows pretty rampant here. Thank you for all you do!
Thanks for this 😊
Thank you, i an struggling with this and mares tail massively this year!
You especially need to weed it at the end of summer where the root has all its energy in the green shoots. Leave it until winter and it will take that energy back into the root to come back again next spring. If you really want to tire it out, do it during the growing season!
We have Glechoma hederacea ("creeping Charlie") in our area. This video is so helpful!
Thank You for this video and yes you have encouraged me. I have been working now for 5 years to rid myself of bindweed... I'm gonna do it this year I think...
smart
Thank you for this video! I discovered this weed for the first time last year and it is so frustrating. We will keep at it and hopefully one day see less and less.
Thanks, and yes keep at it!
thanks for the great advice, Charles! This is very relevant to me as bindweed is in fact the main weed challenge in my new no dig garden . So far I have only been pulling them out as they emerge hoping to pull out some of the rhizome in the process which usually is not the case. This seems like a more efficient method
Pleased to help, I had a feeling this video would be useful to many
Great video Charles, so persistence is key 😁 I’m clearing a bunch of bindweed from along my new plots fence, there’s shoots coming up already 😵 I ended up digging a lot of it out because there’s so much rubbish buried in that area, yesterday I dug out a wire fence that had been rolled up buried with some black bin bags full of rubbish, people walk past and throw bags of rubbish over the fence quite a lot 😭 the other week I saw someone empty a bag over the fence, he ran away when we shouted at him but I still can’t get over how cheeky he was 🤯
That is frustrating! Well done for persevering
Thanks Charles, slowly but surely it’s coming together 😁
thank you, That is encouraging ! I will let you know in about 5 years whether my diligence works.
😎 or two I hope!
Mowing the grass pathways regularly will also stop it spreading, and many other weeds as well.
Great video! There's really nothing on UA-cam on how to get rid of bindweed or thistle. Really appreciate your advice!
Thanks Jacalli
Thanks for this. I am encouraged.
I'm so glad!
To weed or not ... weeds can be indicators of your soil's properties, like structure and pH. I find Binder and Horse Tail where I have a compacted ground. I trash the binders but I keep Horse Tail, dry it in the Sun and then I make a tea, after soaking over night and boiling for 30 mins. I delute it 10 x and spray in my vineyard. HT has a high level of Silicium which is said to keep fungi away.
Thanks Charles, I have both varieties of Bind Weed and Mare's tail on my allotment and I do what you do but at certain times I really feel like giving up. However I still grow tonnes of stuff so I'm learning to live with it. At least it's an indication of great soil
Pragmatic Jason! Nice approach.
Thank you! I needed this as well
I'm a complete planting idiot. I didn't know anything about gardening, which is why I watch this channel. But, many years ago, prior to my watching this channel. I noticed this pretty pink flowery vine that would grow in the side ditches of the dirt roads out here and no matter how much it was plowed or scraped, it would come back bright and cheery. Since I couldn't grow anything, I thought how cool that would be to have those cheery flowers out here in the wilderness that surrounded me. So, I plucked some up and brought it home. LOL Then, I found out it is called bindweed. Yikes. That little transplant has been very productive here and now that I am trying to plant things, it sure does have a way of trying to bind it all up. Now, I will have to put your tip here to good use. I think I must be the only dork in the world to have purposefully transplanted bindweed. ha ha
I planned to do that too, since it has such lovely flowers. Luckily I forgot.
LOL I really do like the plant. I wish it wasn't such an invasive killer. The plant looks so sweet and non green thumbs can't kill it.
Thanks for the laugh. Nope, you’re not the only dork in the world as I though it was morning glory and left it growing all pretty along the lattice in front of my house. I do believe when I am too old to weed everyday, it will consume my house! No joking, the roots that come from under my porch are 12 feet or longer. It has speed to my garden, my fruit trees, it is everywhere. The pieces I put in the burn pit but my husband just throws them in the yard and says mowing will kill them. He is not right so far. It will beat me some day.
@@bonnieparker1238 Oh, nooooo! :D I think the true battle between gardeners and bindweed will determine the fate of the world. I'm glad Charles has a handle on it. Otherwise, it might take over the world . . . and then, what? It will probably get broken off in the wind and travel to other planets until everything is only smothered in the bright, cheery flowers of tenacious bindweed. The gardeners will win, I'm sure of it. ;)
@@bonnieparker1238 I kind of see a Biblical parallel of bindweed in the love of Peter that was abused by satan to try to bind Jesus and prevent Him from His earthly mission. Mark 8:33 KJV. Sometimes, controlling to the point of smothering is disguised as the bright, cheery flowers of bindweed. It is the confusion of love wanting to protect the loved. But, since we do not know God's purpose for another person, even maybe to leave us for a time in the flesh, if _we_ try to control and protect someone else to the point of stopping them from their mission for God, we could be interfering and actually more destructive to that soul we love that we are trying to protect, than anything that might happen in the flesh. So, we have to constantly pluck the bindweeds out of our own hearts of controlling to the point of smothering people we really do love.
i use bamboo canes to give it something to grow up so it doesnt chock the other plants. great advice and video :)
How did it go? Did it expand and choke out the soundings anyway?
Bindweed patrol every 2nd week since April. There are already a few spots where it hasnt reappeared. Mulch and the occasional excavation. Extraordinary weed!
I have areas in my garden that had been filled with the lower lying bind weed(morning glory). I have noticed that my chickens can really help minimize bind weed impact by letting the chickens roam. This is only helpful if the plants in that area are big, sturdy and not to their liking. I was lucky enough to have squash planted among the bind weed, which they seem to leave alone.
Nice discovery and yes, squash are good for that!!
One garden I was in was infested with ragwort, dock and thistle (chickens had fertilized the ground and the thistles went mad). I simply went around with a pair of shears when the plants were flowering (not seeding), cut them all off, and removed the remains (we used to burn weeds back then, although I wouldn't recommend that now). Basically half an hours work per year. Might need to remove a second cut here and there. Within a year or two, they were all gone. I think flowering really sucks all the energy from the root system, so cutting at flowering heavily weakens it - far more than trimming them when small. Not sure if I would throw bindweed roots into compost though. I'd have thrown them into the field of bindweed behind.
Something else I'd probably do would be to mow the meadow for a couple of years before throwing compost on top. Regular mowing would well weaken the plants.
I put 12" of straw on a section my yard to make a garden next year and the bind weed is the only thing that refuses to die, I am out there daily pull them. My nemesis.
Yes just know it feels like your nemesis, but after one more summer you should find that it stops growing, so you are its nemesis!
Thanks so much I really wanted a chemical free way to get it.
I am not familiar with bind weed in the Northwest US, but I have been pulling thistle now for 3 years. This may be my last. We will see how it goes. Thanks Charles.
we have bindweed, we call it morning glory though. evil stuff!
Last year we removed 20 sacks of it from our neighbour's garden, which we had finally got access to after years of fighting bindweed back that came through to our veg patches. It was worth it. We are growing veg there now and the weed is ugely reduced. We did find it likes the dark, so it grows happily under paving, behind log piles. But we just keep chipping away at it. Long haul.
Gosh, what a great idea and result
Ok, thanks!
Thanks, Charles you reminded me to go outside and weed my bed of weeds :) Most of my garden beds are done on the lawn, so I am still pulling out the lawn. You are right, with cardboard and compost on the top, it is much easier to pull the weeds out. Like the bindweed, a piece left in the ground would root and off it goes.
Well done Mary!
I"ve got gout weeds /ground elder in my garden.
My Bind Weed is growing in my ground cover, Creeping Charlie, i.e. Gill over the Ground. Perhaps I will still try mulching it. Yesterday I saw it followed my Hairy Vetch vine. I keep yanking it, but I'll try digging it. There is also a nightshade weed that is quite bothersome.
It's funny that I am in south Louisiana and fighting the same weeds as you. I know they were imported long ago just seems funny. Thanks for the encouragement that pulling and pulling will eventually work. Needed that!
Yes thousands of miles, same weeds, thanks for your feedback
Jessi Latiolais how to get rid of blàckberry ramblers roots
The only thing I find that kind of works is to wait until the ground is very saturated with a ton of rain and hack it back then rip the root ball out. Sometimes this works and sometimes they come back after a couple of months. It will be easier if you have to do it again. Sorry that’s the only advice I have.
I have the same experience: other notorious weeds such as couch grass or ground elder are usually mostly gone after a season of clearance mulch but we have to keep removing bindweed ☹
Ah yes so true Vera, it has more energy. Nice you are clear of couch and ground elder!
Great advice I can honestly say I grow bind weed better than you Charles.
Ah that is so good to hear, and I wish you failed plants next year!
lol Thank you sir ;-)
Southpaw Davey urban farm. It grows amazingly well in North Carolina (USA) too. As soon as I saw it, I thought,”I have that same weed.” Now I know to just keep cutting the top off.
;-)
At the moment I'm fighting this fight too. I take out all the small plants that I see and in a few days it looks like I never did any weeding. So I'll just keep taking it out.
Good attitude Vaclav!
Tell me about it. I took on a new allotment and it was riven with bind weed. After much toiling and digging i decided to use cardboard woodchips and then compost to create a no dig clean surface for this years veg whilst the mulch kills off the bindweed.
I’ve heard that concept before of persistent digging perennial weeds- but didn’t know thistles were perennial. After mulching several years with straw, I got a garden FULL of thistles! I spent hours that year they came up digging them! (They were so hard to keep up with that many got 3-4 ft high. ). Then next year, mulched with cardboard but not enough mulch on top, so that many squeezed between the cardboard or even up through as it decomposed. It’s been probably 3-4 years now & there’s much fewer coming up now. But I’m definitely trying to make as much compost as I can & currently looking for a local source of safe manure so I can do no-dig the less weedy way!
That is a prickly adventure! And I'm pleased that you are feeling on top of the thistles also, literally!
I'm sure you will notice the difference with some compost on top, making it much easier to pull them out and I reckon they could disappear completely this year.
Trying to turn a field into a garden myself.
Here in south west France I have struggled for years with heavy clay soil and bindweed - a plant which nothing seems to deter. Being of the organic persuasion we have never used chemical weed killers but the work has been back breaking. So will try your system with my already existing raised beds and see what happens - can't be any harder than what I've been doing already!
Great to hear.
I gardened on boulbene soil, no dig was brilliant for that. Near Astaffort. There was bindweed, gone after a year and a half
If you're still having trouble a while down the road I'd suggest using Landscape Fabric or weed membrane. Might be called something different in France. Someone I know spent years trying to get rid of it and the problem was so bad (moved house) that they just laid down what I said and they told me three years down the line they've not seen a single piece.
Thank you, every source I saw said sheet mulching wouldn't work.
I tried composting it but I've found its safer to burn the bind weed and use the ash as an amendment until I get better composting bays
Thanks Akariel and nice to meet you here
interesting thankyou
Thank you again. It was on the tip if my... finger to ask if you put those weeds in the compost and then you gave us the last scene👍. However your compost reaches 60°C and I can't get mine above about 30-35°
Yes Caro my heaps get hot but I have composted bindweed roots in heaps of 35C, they are not invincible and expire in 2-4 months.
I had bindweed in my original allotment plot and by following no-dig I have got rid of it, so now in my 3rd year there is no bindweed on my plot. I've just taken over the plot next door and that has been left to grow for a number of years. I therefore decided to take a more aggressive approach in the first year and so I strimmed it all to the ground and covered the whole area (160 square metres) with weed membrane. My intention is to then put beds onto it, cut through the membrane and add cardboard/compost to grow into next year. I am confident that even with 5+ years of unchecked weeds that with this approach I'll get rid of the worst of it within a couple of years again.
Wonderful to hear this GHG, you are a bindweed expert. I hope that your allotment neighbours are flattering you by copying!
Can I ask what you mean by cutting through the membrane? We have just cut back our bindweed and layed down membrane but unsure what to lay down next! Very new to this no dig approach :) Thanks!
I have "green space" behind my house which has a ton of this crap. I have it ALL over my yard in my grass. I applied some "weed and feed" from Scotts and went away for a week and a half and came back from vacation and the weeds were TWICE THE SIZE! I'll start doing this... patience I guess.
Big job, good luck
Thanks!
Many thanks to you Malinda
Bindweed is the one weed where I use organic Glyphosate and it works a treat!
What is organic Glyphosate? I only know Glyphosate as Round-Up and it is certainly not organic or allowed in organic production.
Thanks Charles. First year fully no dig. Was wondering whether to dig out the bind weed or nip off the tops. I’m next to a vacant allotment 😭 so that adjoining side is worse than rest of the plot. The time saved on watering and other weeding makes the cropping even sweeter😁
Nice to hear Jackie
Man, this gave me hope that I was doing the right thing. I had a plethora of bind weed I have mulched with wood chips about 2 years and now I pull the chips back and not only pull the new growth but chase down at least some of the parent root. In the off season in the veg garden I've used my chickens to help. Ive found that where you pull back the chips the chickens will be right there with you and they help expose the root even further. The trick now is for me to not mix the chips with the soil. But you are spot on with the mulch it helps so much to pull the weeds! Thanks for this video
Cheers Steve, you and the chooks are doing well there
@@CharlesDowding1nodig
When I pulled the chips back I am amazed at the mycelium that is in the wood chips. by pulling the chips back and disturbing that to get to the binder weed am I doing more harm than good or should I just pull the top bit of the binder weed? Sometimes I have dug down a bit chased it
It's ok I reckon. Thorough removal means less disturbance in the end
In the US we called that morning glory and it is invasive. It's related to sweet potato vine. In Southern California, it is constant. I find it gets away from me and chokes around my tomatoes.
Yes they are all convolvulus family.
What we call morning glory is an annual with gorgeous blue flowers, it's grown for flowers!
ok, so dense cardboard and weeding... nice. although sounds too good. i reckon no dig, requires some digging at first.. hehe.
Hi Charles Sir, Greetings from India!! Your garden along with the lawn looks so wonderful. What type of grass variety is that?? Your Videos are so educative for us beginners :) Cheers, Shalbin
Thankyou Shalbin and it's my pleasure to help. The grass is none that I sowed, it is pasture grasses and weed grasses which respond to regular mowing/cutting by growing more thickly and horizontally, making the lovely green sward you see.
thanks. I started with letting the chickens in the area, and they got it started well, but like you say, the parent root keeps sending up shoots. the bindweed wants to smother my raspberries. it's making me irritable tbh. I think I'll battle the bindweed on the plants this season while making a new bed completely free of the bindweed, and in a year or so, move the raspberryplants over there. then make the current raspberry area bindweed free.
That all sounds good!
Great advice Charles, thank you. In a way it's comforting to know I'm not alone!! My neighbours brick outhouse has masses of bindweed underneath but it seems to love coming up in my garden! It will be attacked with cardboard and mulches plus a trowel this year.. and next, ..and the next... I want to save as much home made compost for my vegetable no-dig beds but I will have a lot of grass clippings available through the year, more than my compost bins can cope with. Could I use un-composted grass as a mulch?
Yes Rodney and for that, ideal!
Great video. Had I taken your advice, I would probably still be in my old home. Yes, it is true. The garden with bindweed and horsetail defeated me and I moved.. My question is, why would you put the bind weed in the compost? Will it not invade the compost and then go out into the garden?
Ah that is a shame Sharon.
I find it decomposes, would not put it in the heap otherwise, and it's adding goodness.
Hi Charles i have one of your books organic gardening, but i would like to purchase the Veg Journa and your Diry, but I live in Poland, so I wonder if these books will be applicable to polish climate? I would be grateful for your answers.
All the best
Hi Zielony and for sure there is a difference, sow perhaps two weeks later in late winter.early spring, then a week earlier from mid July.
Generally applicable, I have nice feedback from a gardener in Warsaw for example.
Thanks for the video and very clear explanations! I wonder if you have nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus) in the UK and have any specific way to deal with it? Here in northern Portugal seems to be a very persistent weed. Even if you put cardboard and spread 15cm thick layer compost over it, it somehow always manage to break through. I try to pull it persistently but it always come back (tubers spread every time I pull it out)
Sorry to hear this Miguel and no I do not know that weed! It sounds tricky but I guess you just have to persist…
I'm seeing some people note that they'd throw the bindweed into their waste or green bin, but not the compost. That's probably smart for most gardeners without a lot of hot-composting experience, but if you do end up doing very well with hot composting, the high temperatures basically fry weed roots and seeds and give you a pretty good end-result, even if you're throwing lots of perennial weeds and seeds in there.
Heck, and bear with me here -- if you can actually handle all the weed seeds and sprouting weeds, or you don't have anything too virulent, then even with cold composting, one can use weeds in that compost and watch for weeds afterwards upon application. I grew some pretty acceptable leeks that way last year, even if I had to go nuts weeding on them. The nutrition would otherwise just have gone out of the garden, leaving me with no compost in a compost-deprived situation.
That's not to say that it isn't much better to go for hot composting if you have the time, resources and experience, or just tossing the weeds elsewhere if you don't, but I figured I'd address this.
Yes Cor a good summary. Well done on leeks!
I would add that cold composting killed my bindweed roots after about four months of repeat additions on top, so it was smothered and worn out of trying to regrow.
Weeds are not superweeds :)
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Huh, I didn't expect a reply on that one. Thanks for the praise, too.
I actually dug up this video again to comment on exactly that -- I read your FAQ and your experiences on smothering weeds, and I must admit that they aren't that different from my own experiences -- insofar as the compost is covered properly -- otherwise, well, I think one can guess what happens. I can't exactly deny, however, that I did see a lot more weed seeds showing up upon application of the aforementioned compost, so it's something I'd be doing with future weeding in mind, should I not be achieving hot compost.
I'm also quite in agreement with the view that the more powerful perennial plants, while certainly strong, aren't endless energy reservoirs, and will eventually tire out.
We have the ever-notorious Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), coming from the neighbour's garden, far in the back It is known for having extremely tender roots that snap off from the base stem with just a little pull, leaving that to regrow.
Starting from last year, I pretty much decided that whenever I was going to take a walk in the garden, for whatever purpose, I would check that spot and snap off any of the new shoots coming up. Fast forward one year, and now the growth seems a lot more aggressive on the neighbour's side, even before I got to snap the first ones off.
I have an allotment plot which is infested with bindweed, mares tail and couch. I am afraid to say that the trial area treated as no dig has been an utter waste of time. The couch, in particular has and is growing madly and destroying my spring planted onions.
Glyphosate is ordered, and will be used extensively this autumn
A pity!
0:26 you can say that again. It’s a nightmare to deal with. Did 12 cm of compost. 2 months everything was ok, then it exploded.
Almost nothing else came through. But the bindweed took over during my 2 week holiday
Got rid of most of it in my backyard garden last year. On the 2‘500 m2 property I rent from the commune it is so prolific.
Gotta keep on top of it.
Ah I wish you the best. Commitment 💚
I'm in an arid climate and weeds have gone from no dig bed after only 6 months.. Dig beds are covered in weedy grasses and dandelion
N Alt, thanks for the feedback
Cześć Charles fajny kanał ,jestem twoim widzem :-))
This is excellent news! It’s not a battle - it’s a campaign! Can I do the same thing with ground elder and bramble though...?
Nice words! Yes ground elder same approach and one full year of mulch + remove any shoots should see it gone.
Brambles are different, actually best to dig the central woody clump of stems, just to 15cm/10in depth, leave all the other fine roots, then mulch and remove any small regrowth.
An old country name for Bindweed is 'Devil's Guts'. You can see why. Also, it can be used as a remedy for stomach disorders. Most plants have a use for humans. Even Ground Elder (I have chickens, so no Ground Elder, but both neighbours are infested with it) is a good salad veg and I have made wine from the flowers. Bindweed is my big problem, like so many people.
Yes I have heard that name, descriptive as you say.
Maybe keeping chickens on an area and effectively overgrazing ground elder is an effective organic control?
My garden was overtaken by bindweed, which at first looked pretty. Today I broke my trowel digging out a big fat root. I'm now going at it with a spade.
How far back should I clear, won't it quickly invade again if in the vicinity?
And what other plants might I plant instead, to out compete or take its place?
If only it were that simple. It's a two-year job, without digging I recommend. It's always trying to invade but regular cutting 3 to 5 yards around reduces its vigour
Hello Charles, this video could not come at a more opportune time. I have been digging out the bindweed as you described but of the notion what is left in the ground divides into two (forks) is this an urban myth? You mention a sub-root, what form does this take? The reason I ask this is like you show and describe my soil has become softer and like you demonstrate I can easily push my trowel into the earth. Just to see how far I could go is quite impressive. My allotment is on the edge of the South Downs, Malling Down to be exact the strata his a heavy clay topsoil, a grey lifeless looking clay and then white chalk which pumps up flint nodules. The land has been farmed for centuries grazing on the Downs and in the valleys rotating Broad Bean, Maize and Rye. Back to the Bindweed, digging deep I have brought up what looks like a dandelion tuber, except it's multi-rooted, octopus-like. I could be on a Wild Goose Chase my knowledge of weeds is limited. I am starting my fourth year on this site and weed control is improving it's just that Bindweed is a real bind. Thank you for an informative video. Mike Brotherton.
Mike you are indeed extracting the darker parent root, "devil's gut". You are getting there and yes they fork!
Great video. One question though: in this situation with bindweed still active less than a metre from the bed you're working on, will the growth in that untamed area not provide energy to parent roots under the beds to keep sending up new growth? I'd have thought you'd need at least a couple of metres of bindweed-clear ground, or a vertical underground barrier to avoid this.
Yes Jeff and I should explain that too. Mowing the edge reduces weed vigour, and this strip is about to be mulched as well.
Smother them with love. Like!
Thank you for producing this.
I’ve also heard bindweed called field bindweed, hedge bindweed, morning glory, and creeping jenny.
Can bindweed be tilled into sandy dirt to enrich the soil?
Alternatively, is bindweed useful as a ground cover for erosion control, green manure, or compost?
Tilling bindweed cuts it into pieces and then it grows more, plus soil life is damaged.
Any plant could be grown as groundcover, if the ground is not needed for other uses
Thank you for your info. I am not good at kneeling anymore so use a garden fork, follow the roots and dig that out too. Is this a good idea to help weaken the parent root? one does it strengthen it? My dear old Dad, a midlands coal miner from the age of 14 but a very keen gardener until he died, once told me they had found Bindweed roots deep below ground in the mines. Dreadful stuff.
Yes it goes amazingly deep. You are weakening those deep roots for sure.
But also disturbing soil enough to provoke other weeds into growing, I would use a trowel only if you can
I’ve been feeling like I’m losing my battle with bind weed. Thanks for the encouragement!
It looks like you’re really getting in there to remove as much of the root as possible. Have you seen that level of disturbance has any significant impact on your no-dig environment? Maybe the benefits of more aggressive weed removal are worth any potential downside of the digging?
Yes there is some disturbance but localised. To remove parent root would cause much damage and make weeds grow harder.
You will never get rid of it until you clear the jungle on the other side of the path
Done!