Sheri,

Bindweed comes very close to being impossible to eradicate. Nothing I have tried has completely kept it out of my garden. If you have seeds of bindweed in your soil or mulch, those seeds can remain viable for 20 to 50 years or more.

I pull up every new plant that sprouts in my mulched beds. Some of them are sprouting underneath either layers of newspaper, cardboard or black landscape-type fabric and growing upwards through those materials. The vines may look dainty but they are very tough. If they sprout in my mulch, they put roots down through the mulch cloth, newspaper or cardboard and the organic matter that covers it which may be, depending on location, chopped/shredded leaves, hay or straw, bark/hardwood mulch, grass clippings, etc.

If you continually pull up every new sprout, that will help a lot. However, you likely have seeds everywhere in your soil like we do, so every time you disturb the soil, you expose them to sunlight and that allows them to germinate.

If you use manure (even supposedly well-composted manure), you'll likely get new bindweed seeds/roots from that compost and that will give you a whole new crop of bindweed.

If you have the kind of bindweed that forms huge masses of underground roots, you have to dig out and remove all the roots by digging down a foot or more and any piece of root you miss will regerate huge plants, and quickly.

I've linked the ATTRA publication for organic farmers that deals with trying to control bindweed organically. Personally, I am not convinced it is possible to permanently eliminate bindweed using any method, whether synthetic/chemical in nature or organic in nature.

I pull out thousands of bindweed seedlings a year. I pull them out from March through November. I feel like I still have as much bindweed as I had when we moved here, and we've been here (and I've been hand-pulling it) for 13 years.

You know that I just won't hardly use any chemical herbicide at all, but if I thought one of them would work, I'd be tempted to use it. Since I apparently have seeds everywhere, even if I could kill back every bit of topgrowth with a chemical and could dig out every bit of root, I'd still have seeds sprout everytime I disturb the mulch or soil.

I felt like I finally had gotten the upper hand on bindweed and was seeing less and less every year. Then in 2009, we had 12.89" of rainfall in one day. Soil from our neighbors' higher ground (a mixed pasture/woodland) washed down into my veggie garden and settled on top of my mulched beds burying some parts of the well-mulched garden under 2-4" of weed-infested soil. Apparently that soil brought me many new bindweed seeds because I began seeing about 10 times as much bindweed as I had before.

It took me about 10 years to progress to where I thought I was winning the bindweed war, but since 2009, I feel like I am back at square one again. So, maybe ten years from now, I'll feel like I'm winning the war again. However, I also feel like I'll always have it and never get rid of all of it because seeds will continue to wash down onto our property or blow in.

This year I tried the organic pre-emergent Corn Gluten Meal. It has suppressed the sprouting of other weeds, but has had zero effect on bindweed. I pull up hundreds of them a day from my veggie and flower beds. On the rest of our 14.4 acres, it grows wherever it chooses and other than mowing it regularly, we don't do anything to it or about it. Who has the time for that?

I haven't tried a flame weeder because I am afraid it likely would set our place on fire during the typical dry weather.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: ATTRA: Bind Weed Organic Control

Check out the post by bry from England. I have tried this method on sweet autumn clematis. The purpose of using dilute Round Up is that the vine above ground does not die off fast and feeds the chemical to the root. Strong Round Up will kill the top too fast without killing the root. I have not eliminated my clematis yet but it is worth trying.

Here is a link that might be useful: others hate bindweed

Helen, I found that post last week and was tempted but wasn't sure that I could even find enough jars for sure I wish I could figure out how to post a pic on here so everyone could see that....things could always be worse for sure!! The bindweed is THICK and covering a portion of garden larger than my living room and kitchen combined!!

Dawn, thanks for mentioning the flame weeder, I'll be ordering it tonight. I know it probably won't completely solve the problem but at least I won't have to try to pull all of it.

I was lucky not to have had bindweed to deal with in my garden but in the fall of 2008, I had a two legged pest that me, my husband, nor the police could scare out of the garden, so I had to abandon my tomato patch then. My neighbors across the street have a big lot next to their home were they have a garden and I was blessed to have them feel bad for me and ask me if I wanted to use half. Yea!! I've planted a lot more heirloom tomato plants the last 2 years! I saw some of the bindweed blooming last year but silly me, thought oh some of Retas morning glories have wandered onto my side and so I did not bother pulling them up. Ha! Still learning the hard way!!

Sorry to hear about your landslide and new crop of bindweed, that is sickening to think about after all of the hard work and nearly eradicating them. I'll see how this flame thrower works out and let you know how it goes! Thanks for the much needed advice, I knew you or one of the Oklahoma gardeners would bless me with some kind of good advice. Sheri.

Sheri,

Pepper spray, especially the kind that shoots the pepper spray out as foam balls, usually takes care of two-legged garden pests. I am sorry to hear you are having that kind of trouble. There are times I have carried a gun out to the garden because of my issues with large, 4-legged carnivores, but it feels wrong to me to carry a gun into my garden and I hate doing it.

Your bindweed sounds like it is very well established like the kind the folks in Colorado have that has roots that run everywhere in their soil. If you haven't read some of their threads on their bindweed issues, visit the Rocky Mountain regional gardening forum here at GW and do a search there for 'bindweed'. They have one thread that's been going for 9 or 10 years.

It is easy to mistake bindweed for morning glories. I made that mistake my first year here because I had planted "Heavenly Blue" morning glories on the garden fence and never had seen bindweed before. Live and learn. (Ever notice how long it takes us to develop wisdom? Why the heck is that?)

It is good to see you posting here again, and I hope you'll be around more often. I've missed seeing you here and seeing your list of tomatoes you're growing as well as our discussions of how they're doing.

You know, if anyone had told me when we moved here that we'd ever have almost 13" of rain fall in one day, I would have laughed hysterically. I never dreamed it would carry soil down from our neighbor's property onto ours. You know, I wouldn't have minded if the eroded soil we ended up with was rich, loamy topsoil, but all we got was silty red clay!

Dawn

Dawn,
Thanks, and Ive still gotten on here the last two years, at least to see what tomatoes everyone one growing but have had some crazy times and not enough time to post but I've sure missed it and haven't learned about anything more than the tomatoes so decided I'm going to make time!

I don't know why it takes so long to gain knowledge, I'm slowly learning to trust my instincts though because when I saw the "morning glories" that sure seemed awfully strange to me! I actually didn't put two and two together until I searched the site last week for bindweed and found some post asking how to get rid of morning glories. Haha! Then reminded myself one more time that I'm not always the sharpest crayon in the box because I remember my neighbor pulling some of the vines out in front of me prior to that. I'm just glad I didn't dig it up and transfer it to flowerbed like I was initially going too.
Thanks for the pepper spray foam ball advice, Ive wondered if that would make my pest halt in his tracks I have some on my keychain but get complacent about carrying it outside with me. I have the two Doberman pinschers and try to keep my door lockedwhen husbands not home. Just to let you know just how crazy things have been-In 2009 he saw me and my neighbor lady in her yard talking, and began circeling the block. Then started pacing in front of my house. I went in and didnt say a word to my husband as he gets really mad because he's tired of dealing with this weirdo and doesn't mind confronting him, I was in the laundry room and I hear a big commotion-hollering, and neighbor lady calling at the same time, then see the husband dash to get his gun and running through the kitchen, apparently after I went in, he came walking right through our front door! Thought mike was gone and didn't seem to care if my kids were home or not. Walked right up the sidwalk and through the door all the while my neighbor was on her front porch! I got an EPO from the judge and things have simmered down-but then they always do during the winter- and he was still in legal trouble last summer. Well see how this summer goes. Been dealing with this since the first year I started posting and started my first heirlooms. On a better note, I'll find the tomato list 2011 On here and post what I'm growing this year soon. Thanks a bunch, Sheri

Dawn,
Thanks, and Ive still gotten on here the last two years, at least to see what tomatoes everyone one growing but have had some crazy times and not enough time to post but I've sure missed it and haven't learned about anything more than the tomatoes so decided I'm going to make time!

I don't know why it takes so long to gain knowledge, I'm slowly learning to trust my instincts though because when I saw the "morning glories" that sure seemed awfully strange to me! I actually didn't put two and two together until I searched the site last week for bindweed and found some post asking how to get rid of morning glories. Haha! Then reminded myself one more time that I'm not always the sharpest crayon in the box because I remember my neighbor pulling some of the vines out in front of me prior to that. I'm just glad I didn't dig it up and transfer it to flowerbed like I was initially going too.
Thanks for the pepper spray foam ball advice, Ive wondered if that would make my pest halt in his tracks I have some on my keychain but get complacent about carrying it outside with me. I have the two Doberman pinschers and try to keep my door lockedwhen husbands not home. Just to let you know just how crazy things have been-In 2009 he saw me and my neighbor lady in her yard talking, and began circeling the block. Then started pacing in front of my house. I went in and didnt say a word to my husband as he gets really mad because he's tired of dealing with this weirdo and doesn't mind confronting him, I was in the laundry room and I hear a big commotion-hollering, and neighbor lady calling at the same time, then see the husband dash to get his gun and running through the kitchen, apparently after I went in, he came walking right through our front door! Thought mike was gone and didn't seem to care if my kids were home or not. Walked right up the sidwalk and through the door all the while my neighbor was on her front porch! I got an EPO from the judge and things have simmered down-but then they always do during the winter- and he was still in legal trouble last summer. Well see how this summer goes. Been dealing with this since the first year I started posting and started my first heirlooms. On a better note, I'll find the tomato list 2011 On here and post what I'm growing this year soon. Thanks a bunch, Sheri

Sheri,

You're welcome.

I am sorry this creep is bothering you. Please be very careful. I was stalked a long time ago, and in more recent years a friend of mine was killed by her stalker. You cannot be too careful and must never let your guard down.

About the foam ball pepper spray....what is great about it is that it really "sticks" to the attacker. However, pepper spray does not work on some people, including those under the influence of certain drugs and perhaps those with some forms of mental illness, so it is good that you have a dog and a gun.

Don't be too hard on yourself. I have had to learn the same gardening lessons over and over sometimes before they finally "stuck" in my brain. Once a "pretty plant" came up on the edge of my garden. I think it was our first or second year here. I decided to let it grow just to see what it was. It grew for a long time and I kept waiting for it to flower. Eventually I learned it was ragweed! By then it had sent roots everywhere. I bet I spent part of every spring and summer the next five years digging up roots from that experience.

Another silly thing I did was sow seeds of evening primrose. I just love how a big patch of pink evening primrose looks when it is blooming! Did I know they were invasive? Sure I did, but I planted them way down by the road far from the yard or garden. Of course, now we have them everywhere, and they have invaded my veggie garden and flower beds big time. I spend a lot of time pulling them up out of the beds. I still love the way they look, but I'll never plant them again and I do rue the day I did plant them.

I look forward to seeing your list. I am trying tons of varieties that are new to me this year. I feel like I was stuck in a rut with the same old, same old favorites so I tried to make many 'new' choices, although of course I kept some of the old faves too.

Dawn