Obliterating Bindweed

Hi, I recently inherited this garden:

It is approx 15m x 12m, and is covered in bindweed â?? everywhere! I am planning to start from scratch, and ultimately lay turf over a lot of it leaving beds round the edges. There is nothing to â??saveâ?? in the garden so I donâ??t have to be delicate and can obliterate the whole place. I have been advised that for bindweed on this scale I should use chemicals (Glyphosate) as digging it out will not be possible.
I wonder if anyone can tell meâ?¦
1. Is this the right way to do it?
2. Any ideas where to get a very large amount of Glyphosate from?
3. Will I need to do it more than once?
4. How long should I wait before I put down turf / lay seed?
Any advice very gratefully received!

 

Hi and welcome to GC.

1. Yes

2. You won't need that much. At garden centres you can buy Round-Up as a concentrate that makes about 10 gallons. One such bottle will be enough for the area you describe

3. Yes. Don't damage the plants, spray once, wait for them to go yellow and then rip them out. Some will remain, that was hiding under the foliage of others. These will need spraying again. It is a bit late in the year now to get it all, as it has to be actively growing for it to work, but you can make a start. Next spring loads will come back, both from roots that survived the blitz, and seeds that will be unaffected by glyphosate. You will need to spray again to get rid of all these. When you think you've got it all, it would be worth watching the local area to see when the bindweed is coming up, and make sure yours isn't, before you move on to the next step.

4. Ideally next year, to make sure your bindweed has gone, otherwise it will just infest your new lawn.

 

"1.Is this the right way to do it?"

Provided you don't mind using chemicals this Glyphosate will be best

"2.Any ideas where to get a very large amount of Glyphosate from?"

You won't need that much :D I use a generic type from Bayer which is much cheaper than Round-up

"3.Will I need to do it more than once?"

Getting late in the season to have good success with it now. You will definitely need multiple applications to get a really good kill, and its going to be next season before you can embark on that (even if you fill 100% everything that is there now there will be seed that come back next year :( )

"4.How long should I wait before I put down turf / lay seed?"

You don't need to wait to lay turf. The turf won't be bothered much by the bind weed - particularly this time of the year (the bindweed is dying down); when it comes back next year regular mowing will pretty much take care of it.

Ideally wait 2 weeks after spraying, to give it time to take effect, and then start preparing the ground for turf / seed,

You'll still have to deal with it in the flower beds next year though.

Are your neighbouring gardens infested with it? If so its going to re-infest your garden from next door I'm afraid, so an on-going battle, and use of chemicals, will be needed

 

One trick with small patches of bindweed, particularly in flowerbeds. Stck a cane (or canes) close to the bindweed and it will grow up the cane. Then either spray the bindweed or wear a pair of rubber gloves with a pair of cotton gloves on top. Make up weekiller (Glyphosate) in a bucket. Dip gloved hands into the weedkiller then transfer the liquid to the bindweed by grasping the cane and weed moving the hands up and down repeating the dipping to totally wet the weed. Wait for the weeds to die. The gloves method reduces the chance of drift onto flowers.

I get my Glyphosate from Wilkinsons.

 

Another useful trick for tackling the odd bindweed vine is to take a two litre plastic pop bottle, cut the bottom off, Carefully place it over the young bindweed like a cloche, and leave it in place for a couple of weeks. You can put the nozzle of your spray gun right into the top of the bottle and spray. That way there is no drift. Leave the bottle in place until you are sure the bindweed inside is dead, spray periodically until victory is assured. Apart from preventing the spray drifting onto neighbouring plants, teh bottle also serves as a marker of the location so that it doesn't get lost under all your other plants, where it could build up strength ready for another attack.

 

Tthanks very much for your help, I thought I might have left it a bit late for this year, but I'll givbe it a go anyway and see what happens for next summer.