The Battle of the Bindweed

Most of us will have seen some action in the age old war between Bindweed and gardeners. Once established even in a small area of the garden, this highly successful native will become intrenched amongst the roots and clumps of garden plants and is almost as difficult to eradicate as the dreaded Japanese Knotweed.

Here at Cwm Weeg, Bindweed has for years managed to cling on amongst the roots of an old pink shrub rose (on the rt margin of the photo below), a relic of the small garden of previous owners. From the safety of this hideout, it sent out raiding parties every year deep into the surrounding border.

After 2 decades of trying to eradicate it I decided this summer that only drastic measures would do! We hired a 2 ton digger and Dave (the Gardener) used the small digger bucket to dig out all the existing border plants we wanted to keep and then dug the whole border to a depth of about 30 to 50 cm. During the whole process I grubbed up all the roots of the dreaded Bindweed, making sure to catch even the smallest root fragments.

laying down the ground protection mats before the digger work

the digger in action!

the dreaded bindweed

Needless to say that the old rose which had harboured the weed for many decades, had to go…

all clean!

The whole border will be scrutinised for any remaining bindweed in the coming spring and should then be ready for re-planting around May!

All the perennial plants from the border divided and potted up in over 400 pots.