Stupid mistake

Hi all.

I thought I'd share with you all a stupid mistake I've made, in the hope that it stops someone else make the same blunder.

Some of you seasoned readers will be aware that last year bindweed was such a problem in my garden that I took the drastic action of blitzing it all with Round-Up. I kept some plants that I'd dug out and put in containers (quarantine).

This year I waited until bindweed elsewhere in the neighbourhood was growing good and strong before I decided that as there was none in my garden, I must have won. I reckon I did (ok the odd shoot comes up from time to time, probably from seeds left in the soil, but nothing major).

I left it a few weeks longer before I replanted the quarantined plants straight into the flower beds, having examined them very closely first for any sign of bindweed.

Bindweed growth in our neighbourhood is now in full swing, and I have been finding (and spraying) more and more shoots in my garden. See if you can guess where must of these shoots are growing from. You guessed it, the soil that came with my quarantined plants that I replanted.

So the moral of the story is this: If you quarantine your plants after a bindweed assault, keep them in quarantine at least until about July before concluding it is safe to replant them.

Oh well. It keeps me busy I suppose.

Oh, and just for the avoidance of doubt, I WILL defeat it.:thumb:

 

Im going to start my battle ( again ) with Bindweed tomrrow. I`v even got it in the lawn this year, so even that is getting blitzed.:gnthb:

 

Good luck.

 

Thank you.:gnthb:

 

when I had it in my lawn I mixed a small amount of round up and sprayed the clump sprinkeling grass seed at the same time as one died the other grew and you never noticed a dead patch

 

Its not a stupid mistake, its an "experience gaining moment" and we all have them,I've gained lots of experience this last year...soooo much! :lollol:

Steve...

 

I've got a surplus-to-requirements shrub someone gave me in a pot because it had some ground elder growing in the pot too when it arrived (Thanks friend!!). Anyway, I ignored it with a view to washing the solid from the roots when I had time and yesterday I happened to notice that the ground elder had flowered :( The shrub looks pretty dead (not been watered etc.) but the ground elder is in the peak of health of course. Grrrrrrr .... seeded all over the garden I expect :(

 

Hope you checked for vine weevil

 

Clueless don't be so hard on yourself after all life is it's self a huge learning curve and frankly it would be so very boring if things were so easy.

I'm pretty sure you will indeed win your battle against the dreaded horde that is bindweed!:thumb: Hel.xxx.

 

Here's an update. On the last few bindweed patrols, I found in total 5 new bindweed shoots, plus one creeping in from next door's jungle, so six in all. That's not bad going considering last year my garden was a bindweed jungle after I temporarily lost my mojo and gave up fighting it. The five new shoots are all young and thin, suggesting that they are mostly from seed rather than established root (which puts out thicker, stronger shoots). Plastic tubes and half an old pop bottle were deployed, being slotted over the perpetrators and left in place. These tubes act as markers so I can easily find them again for repeat sprayings, but they also fulfil the more vital role of prevent the spray from drifting onto neighbouring plants.

Considering we are now in the peak growing season for bindweed, and I've only got 5 young shoots that until a couple of days ago had remained undetected, I think it has certainly lost its foothold, and by next year I might find that the only threat is from the boundary with the neighbours jungle, although even that threat is mitigated slightly by virtue of the fact that I have taken to spraying over the boundary every couple of days, and their bindweed is starting to take on a lovely yellow colour now.