If you’re an avid gardener, you know that dealing with weeds is a standard part of the job. But aggressive plants like bindweed sometimes need a little extra push.
In the r/Allotment subreddit, a Reddit user asked for advice on managing a plot of land for personal gardening use. They explained that they have had their plot for years and recently visited it after a long period of not using or maintaining it.
“The plot is of course massively overgrown now so the first job will be a big grass and weed clear. Plot is absolutely riddled with bindweed (always has been, the whole site suffers with it),” they said in the post, adding that they haven’t used a weedproof membrane and the weeds will make it through a layer of cardboard to repeatedly pop up.
“Given I’m effectively coming back to the plot ‘fresh’ this year after my hiatus, if there is ANYTHING I can do to fight back this awful weed during the winter I’d like to do it. It’s a bloody nightmare in summer as it just throttles everything if I don’t constantly come back to check.”
Bindweed is an invasive plant species that’s native to Europe and Asia. It’s a common garden nuisance that spreads fast and is tough to get rid of. Invasives like bindweed compete for resources with native plants and can choke them out. Rewilding your yard with natives can be a good place to start as a defense against invasives.
Commenters chimed in with advice for managing the frustrating weed that can be threatening to your local ecosystem.
TCD Picks » Upway Spotlight
💡Upway makes it easy to find discounts of up to 60% on premium e-bike brands
“My top tip, get yourself a hori hori [knife]. Go through your beds with the hori hori, evict and drown any rhizomes, making sure to follow the roots as far as you can before pulling them to get as much up as possible. Then just keep an eye out for new growth popping through and keep pulling it, eventually it’ll die back as it expends all its energy,” one user said.
“You can dig out roots as much as able and covering with something like pond liner will help weaken the plant whilst not letting it grow through like cardboard,” another commenter said.
“I spent a good amount of effort and mental energy trying to find a permanent fix for it. The stuff is basically the terminator of weeds,” one user commented. “In my experience though, once I’d cleared the plot, got planting and was active on the site, it was less trouble than I thought.”
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices — and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD’s exclusive Rewards Club.
TCD Picks » Stasher Spotlight
💡Stasher’s reusable food storage options make it easy and affordable to live life with less plastic
Comments are closed.