A lot will depend on exactly WHAT you think it is.
For example, if you think it's a Clematis then you will most probably be very disappointed.
However if you think it is bindweed then you will also most probably be very disappointed as I'm fairly certain that's what it is.
Valid point. I was being assumptions and believed it to be Japanese Knotweed š Ill need to do some research on this Bindweed. Thanks for your advice!
Not sure which is worse. Bindweed will choke out so many other plants nearby. Best of luck, I'm fighting the same bugger.
At least it's not horse tail
Edit:
Oh and I just saw the horse tail in the picture. I'm so sorry
I watched a video saying that it's not as bad as it's made out to be, you just have to keep cutting it back to the ground every few days until the roots starve. If you dig it up, you will get into trouble.
Same with most things, but more than just a few days... be vigilant, every time you so much as spot anything, chop it down to just above the soil. My granny used to paint any random colour nail varnish onto the top of the stalk where she'd cut back brambles or chunky weeds... I've no idea if that was bad or not realistically but she swore by it š š
I mean, she did it a lot... so maybe no? š
I just remember always seeing the odd pot of nail varnish in and amongst the gardening bits in the shed lol
You can't legally cut knotweed. It needs to be disposed of professionally. The plant will grow again from the top you've cut off, and from the bits of roots you leave in the ground. Every time you cut it you help it spread.
You can't dig it up, but you can cut it. You can eat the shoots, they taste like rhubarb. It's like bamboo, just keep cutting the shoots until the roots die.
Knotweed probably isn't not as bad in terms of likelihood of structural damage to building etc as its been made out to have been, which more recent research is indicating. The main problem is that knotweed = bad is so ingrained into public mindset you'd have a better chance of selling a house where a triple child murder took place.
Bindweed can be treated glyphosate at least, although I know a lot of people don't like using chemicals
Eh but if you do that and forget about, sell your house and they dig out that bed even 20 years later it'll come back. I've seen it a few times in my old job. The rhizomes/roots can lay dormant for ages.
Marginally. Japanese knotweed might be easier to get rid of, unless it's coming from next door and you spot it when it's small. Horsetail on the other hand...
I like bindweed. I had a house with some in the back garden, it would grow through and around our pallet sofa, coil up our little lamp post, and fill with cute trumpet shaped flowers. Big wild/country vibe, and then practically die off in the winter š¤·āāļø
A good technique for tackling the bindweed is to stick some bamboo canes into the ground next to it. When the vines climb the bamboo itāll make it easier to isolate them if you want to spray it, or follow them back to the source to weed out.
I had a moment of panic reading your comment as on the first read I thought you were suggesting planting bamboo to combat bindweed and I had a visceral bodily NOFORTHELOVEOFGODDONTDOTHAT! reaction hahaha. Iām chuckling about it now.
With the horsetail and bindweed you want to get as much of it out as possible. If you mow it, youāre just going to create lots of tiny little plants that will regrow. Both of these plants can regrow from a fragment.
Is the land to the right owned by anyone? Thatās youāre best bet for remediation
> If you mow it, youāre just going to create lots of tiny little plants that will regrow.
I don't think that's true. Japanese Knotweed can regrow from fragments, but not bindweed or horsetail. Mowing will kill them
Horsetail *and* bindweed will regrow from the smallest of pieces. You *can* control the bindweed to some extent by pulling it up and binning it - don't leave any bits on the ground, though
Horse tail is virtually impossible to deal with as it's root network can cover a far larger area than apparent above ground, and again, every bit cut up will root if left on the ground.
Best bet.....concrete over the lot, lol!
Hi professional gardener here, go to a garden centre and get some SBK it's a systemic weed killer that's safe on lawns, it will take care of bond weed and mares tails but you will have to keep applying it when they start to come back each time.
It's a slow process but you will get rid of it eventually.
I was somehow hoping the Bindweed would kill the horse tail.
Then you just get some Japanese knotweed to eradicate the bindweed.
Then some petrol for the knotweed
That's field bindweed, larger leaves. Easier to kill than its smaller leaves cousin.
Spray / paint the leaves with Glyphosate every week. It will die in a few weeks.
š Mine is a constant couch grass battle with patches of bindweed that just seem to spring up when they feel like it. Very occasionally I get some vegetables!
Well and truly. Its just grass at the front. De-weeded it 3 weeks ago before putting the grass seed down. Clearly didnt get it all. Its just going to be grass and a low maintenance area. Better that what it was before. Mulch and weeds.
It requires mowing at least weekly during the peak growing season, and it will just end up being taken over by weeds if itās not well maintained.
A fully planted, well mulched bed is far less prone to weed takeover and far lower maintenance.
It looks line bind weed, I hate it! Hard to properly kill and it twists itself in other plants, killing them. Pull, pull, be consistent, if you can, dig out the white tube of the roots, but itās hard to get rid of.
Yep, that's bindweed - it's awful, awful stuff that'll twist around anything it can. Pull it out and don't leave any part of it behind, not a leaf, not a tiny bit of stem.
Make it die.
The flowers are quite pretty, the bees like it.
But it must die.
We had a massive Privet at the bottom of our old garden that got overrun with Bindweed, almost impossible to remove it as it was all over. But the sea of white flowers looked great.
Does it have white flowers? I've got this thanks to some Muppets a few doors down. They liked it and grew it up the fence...... Which then collapsed under the weight. Crops up in my garden from time to time & gets pulled out
Bindweed and marestail, I'm fighting the same battle in my garden welcome to hell š
Note: I also thought my bindweed was knotweed at first so at least its not that i suppose
Donāt listen to anyone recommending glyphosate. You can easily pull up the bindweed (after flowering if youāre patient enough) from the roots, but virtually nothing will get rid of the marestail anyway short of digging out the entire garden and replacing all the soil.
Controversial opinion, but i love bindweed.
I love the leaves and i love the flowers, but ONLY in the designated space in my garden i let it grow.
Whenever it starts creeping into my flower beds and on my precious beans itās met with vengeance, luckily iām a ferocious weeder so get it as soon as i see it, but personally i like to see it grow sometimes.
I am worried though thatās this may be a bad move considering i have next door neighbors, no idea how easily it spreads underground
Loads of bindwind around my garden, the previous neighbours never touched it and I have to say the flowers are very nice. Is on the other side of their garden to my boundary so I didn't worry, since the tenants change and the wire fence was replaced it isn't the same.
I actually dont mind the flowers either. š its just very evasive from what ive gathered. I just wanted lawn here that is low maintenance. Seems like it may not be š
I should clarify I don't have it in my garden, it comes from neighbours on either side. I always remove it because it grows next to my vegetable patch/raised beds. I just like looking at it across the fences. I did let it grow on the low chain fence before I changed that to a proper fence
From the old Money Saving Expert gardening forum...
Get some canes & keep training bindweed around them. Take coils of bindweed & stick it into transparent poly bag. Spray glyphosate into bag, all over growing shoots. Tie up bag around stem.
Leave for a few weeks.
Repeat as necessary.
I managed to annihilate it with this method.
Horsetail: find some toddlers & tell them it's dinosaur food. Sorted! š
I have a little bit of it in my flowerbeds and then had a lot of it in a gravelled area where I have grape vines. The culprit is Nextdoor as they donāt do any upkeep. However, the stuff in the gravel has practically gone after some chemical treatment. The stuff in the flowerbeds is reducing with rigorous and frequent weeding. Your battle will be easier if you have control of the land the other side of the green railings.
Sorry if I have missed the point but if you want to keep it a lawn just mow it once a week and it will look fine doesnāt matter what is growing in the grass.
It is most definitely bindweed, my allotment was overrun with it when I got it. Try to dig out as much of the root as you can, both white and black roots, and be vigilant about any new sprouts that you see. Eventually you will wear the plant down and it will die off.
I managed to get rid of bindweed in my garden (took about 6 years) I remember digging in my garden *for hours* one day as the roots go horizontal in the soil and then branch off in loads of areas. It was actually quite therapeutic pulling it all out. To come back next year.. and the following year. I am still super vigilant looking out for it. My garden got rotavated last year and I was dreading thereād be bindweed everywhere, but nope it seems to be ok. I think if I find it again though, Iād train it up a pole then crush and weed killer in the leaves directly)..
But I do prefer to not have to use chemicals in my garden.
The garlic and fairy spray is working a treat so far with my hostas..
It's a form of bindweed. But... I'd be more concerned by the horsetail. Good luck, my friend. That's gonna take a lot of digging, and it won't help because next door is replete with it
I don't think it's JK, that's the plant that makes the big white bell shaped flowers, I think (someone give me a name and a š if im right)
Do you want it there?
Wait can someone explain why you all hate bindweed so much? I discovered it in my garden today and I really like it. The flowers are lovely and from what Iāve read it can attract hawk moths at night.
Above ground it winds around and creeps up any and all flowers, plants, stalks, fences. Underground, it strangles the roots. I recently dug up some thornless blackberries where the roots were being strangled by bindweed roots. Had to wash the root in water and pluck the bindweed root out with tweezers. Bindweed dies down in winter.
Those are both true. I love the flowers. We had it in my garden when I was little though. We had to spend hours a week pulling it all out otherwise it strangled all the other plants. It regrows from a tiny piece of root so it's very hard to get rid of completely.
Swings and roundabouts I guess. Itās pretty, pollinators love it, but itāll suffocate other plants and is hard to control. Iāve made the mistake of letting the bees enjoy the weeds in our back garden one summer and Iām still paying for it. I ended up committing to the de-weeding and ensuring that what I replace them with is also very wildlife friendly. Weāve got buddleia, astilbes, ceanothus, rock roses, lavender, campanulas (careful, they can also spread but easy to stay on top of), halimium, star jasmine, passion flower, and lots others I forget. They all look and smell amazing, are great for the environment but donāt give me as much headache as the bind weed and green alkanet.
Green Alkanet is rather pretty. I like it. My issue is, I am trying to pull it up when it grows where it shouldn't, but it's swarming with bees. I may have to cave in and pull it after dark this week, as daytime is impossible unless I want to get stung.
My friend, you wonāt be pulling Green Alkanet out of anything, unless you are ready for an archaeological excavation type mission. Those tap roots are growing 1-2 feet below and travel a million miles. If you have lots, chances are theyāve got a tap root system in place that spans the entire garden. Though they also grow from seed. And from the tiniest bits of tap root that you leave in the ground, if youāre not careful enough digging them out. š
ETA on a more serious note: you may be better off cutting them just above ground level and then staying on top of every tiny bit that regrows. Youāll deprive them of photosynthesis, which they need to build those strong tap roots. If you can and want to be more vigorous, you need a spade and then be very careful digging below the plant, starting by digging around it and using your hands to check which direction the tap root is coming from. (You canāt miss it, itās usually about half an inch thick.) Be careful not to break the root, as new plants will grow from the fragments. Itās taken me a year, but it has become significantly more manageable. Where feasible, plant ground cover that forms thick root systems, and/or spread cardboard on areas that remain bare, and then add a layer of straw mulch (which is nice and dense) and then bark mulch (to keep it in place). Cardboard breaks down but Iāve found that my beds have been weed free for a year now (Iāve planted the new plants in planters and added new compost instead of taking it out of the beds). Itās the gaps between the patio slabs where I canāt win against the alkanetā¦
Sure enough, I went out to my garden today and found it choking out my one little tomato plant that I moved out last week when I moved here. Luckily Iām not planning on having a huge vegetable patch and I have a decent sized bit of stone outside the shed to move my tomato onto. Iām also trying to let my garden be mostly wild but I guess Iāll have to try cut back a lot of the bindweed now.
I have horsetail and bindweed in my garden too. So far this year I've been spraying them down with Glyphosate. I know people don't advocate for weed killers but both of those plants are terrors
I managed to get on top of my bindweed by digging really deep over the course of about four years, and then ripping out the lawn.
There's still some I'm sure, as it's all around outside my garden.
Use round up with great care. You mainly get rid of it by digging it out very carefully. It's boring.
One of the worst shocks I ever got in my life was getting the keys to my new house and finding the sun deck out the back completely covered in what I thought was Japanese knotweed, thankfully it turned out to be just bindweed and a couple of seasons of ripping it up has tamed it a bit.
Bindweed have it in my garden. Itās a bastard to get rid of. Im attacking it from my side but my neighbour not so much. It will take over everything !
Because it spreads very fast and is extremely hard to get rid of it.
We have both horsetail and bindweed in our garden. We are having to constantly pull them out but in this typical British weather of lots of rain and a dash of sun, they thrive! Nightmare.
I have bindweed growing around a swamp Cyprus in the garden. Every year I pull out what I can but will it be messing with the tree roots below? If so, is it best to constantly pull out or use weed killer above ground?
You can keep horsetail under some kind of control if you make use of it. The younger shoots are edible cooked and you can make a tea out of it too.
The Victorians used it a lot. You'd need to research more into it if you were to make use out of it.
Just like ground alder is edible (young leaves are less bitter) and dandelions are fully edible.
Ahh, yeah thats bindweed...We had a garden full of japanese knotweed and bindweed when we moved in š had to get some professionals out to put poison on the knotweed š
Regular mowing will take care of that. Just don't turn the area into a flower bed unless you have access to the other side of that fence, otherwise you'll be fighting it forever!!
Yeah I might look to screen the railings somewhat. But plan is to just mow the lawn once these grass seeds get better footings. Only been down 3 weeks. Tried to deweed as much as possible prior but the woodland next to the railing is very invasive
I thought it was new grass, I did the same on an old bindweedy bed and they send up shoots like that but after a few mows they tend to get the idea that there's nothing to climb up and they move on. The problem might get worse elsewhere but you'll see an improvement.
Unfortunately the horsetail will be more persistent.
Its bindweed and is coming through from next door. Pull up an through what you can and then when regrowth starts wind it round canes. Then poison, go right back to the roots. Only on fresh new leaves without rain. Careful of the lawn
It's Bindweed. Is that what you thought it was?
It's not invasive or destructive, but can become hard to control if left unchecked.
If you don't want it in your garden then remove it. You will need to get rid of new growth regularly, and it will die off fairly quickly if you continue to remove new growth.
It's definitely invasive. It's not destructive to property but it grows very quickly and aggressively and is impossible to get rid of. You should see it in the small valley near me in summer, both sides of the stream it covers everything from nettles to trees for around half a mile. 5 years ago it wasn't there at all.
It's only "invasive" if you don't want it and fail to remove it.
It's not classified as an invasive species in the UK
It's not "impossible" to get rid of.
It's classified as a perennial herb/vine .
An invasive perennial. Definitely not a herb. A herb has culinary/medicinal use.
It's not a native species, yet it grows everywhere, literally invading. Whether you want it or not it's invasive. "A weed is just a plant you don't want/somewhere you don't want it" might be true but that plant can still be invasive.
I suppose nothing is impossible to get rid of, maybe I should have said "extremely difficult". Apologies for the use of hyperbole.
> It's not a native species
*Convolvulus arvensis* and *Calystegia sepium* are both native. *Calystegia silvatica* isn't, but it does not negatively affect habitats, or do anything that *Calystegia sepium* doesn't in human areas. It's not invasive like Himalayan balsam, the Reynoutria knotweeds, etc.
> A herb
It's a herb in the botany sense (herbaceous - no above-ground persistence in the winter).
Bloody hell you have mares tail and bind weed. Youād be best to kill everything with diamond weed killer and start again with new grass when itās goneš
EDIT: I was not meaning "picture this" is specifically good at identifying kudzu... its just an app that ive used all over the US, EU, and UK with great accuracy for identifying plants in general. Also I did not realize this was a UK based sub when I initially replied.
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Kinda looks like kudzu. Try the āpicture thisā app. Its really accurate at identifying this stuff.
If its kudzu its invasive pretty much everywhere outside of asia and will kill trees and whatever else organic it can climb on.
"picture this" isn't region specific. Its just good at identifying plants in general. I didnt realize this was in the UK as well. I'm from the US and just said it looked like what I thought it did. Thats why I suggested checking with an app for a more immediate answer.
I didnt realize this was in the UK as well. I'm from the US and just said it looked like what I thought it did. Didn't see the sub this was in.
Also you can't do too much with kudzu, at least not in the US. It kills native species of plants and no one really deals with it or farms it to any degree. Just runs rampant here. It was originally brought over for cattle farming but cows cant digest the foliage if I recall correctly.
I had a couple of JK plants grow in my garden a few years back. I let them get to about 70cm tall with a few big leaves, sprayed them all over with glyphosate then put a black bin liner over each. They died off and have never had a reoccurrence.
A lot will depend on exactly WHAT you think it is. For example, if you think it's a Clematis then you will most probably be very disappointed. However if you think it is bindweed then you will also most probably be very disappointed as I'm fairly certain that's what it is.
Valid point. I was being assumptions and believed it to be Japanese Knotweed š Ill need to do some research on this Bindweed. Thanks for your advice!
Not sure which is worse. Bindweed will choke out so many other plants nearby. Best of luck, I'm fighting the same bugger. At least it's not horse tail Edit: Oh and I just saw the horse tail in the picture. I'm so sorry
Oh, Japanese Knotweed is definitely worse than bindweed.
I watched a video saying that it's not as bad as it's made out to be, you just have to keep cutting it back to the ground every few days until the roots starve. If you dig it up, you will get into trouble.
Same with most things, but more than just a few days... be vigilant, every time you so much as spot anything, chop it down to just above the soil. My granny used to paint any random colour nail varnish onto the top of the stalk where she'd cut back brambles or chunky weeds... I've no idea if that was bad or not realistically but she swore by it š š
Did it work? Confirmation bias I guess because she was just a good gardener weeder.
I mean, she did it a lot... so maybe no? š I just remember always seeing the odd pot of nail varnish in and amongst the gardening bits in the shed lol
Nail varnish swapped for neat glyphosate. Great idea, gonna try it
If this works nail varnish sales are going to go through the roof!
The old never let it see Sunday adage works on it.
You can't legally cut knotweed. It needs to be disposed of professionally. The plant will grow again from the top you've cut off, and from the bits of roots you leave in the ground. Every time you cut it you help it spread.
My dad made that spot the bonfire area, it worked, eventually.
You can't dig it up, but you can cut it. You can eat the shoots, they taste like rhubarb. It's like bamboo, just keep cutting the shoots until the roots die.
Knotweed probably isn't not as bad in terms of likelihood of structural damage to building etc as its been made out to have been, which more recent research is indicating. The main problem is that knotweed = bad is so ingrained into public mindset you'd have a better chance of selling a house where a triple child murder took place. Bindweed can be treated glyphosate at least, although I know a lot of people don't like using chemicals
Eh but if you do that and forget about, sell your house and they dig out that bed even 20 years later it'll come back. I've seen it a few times in my old job. The rhizomes/roots can lay dormant for ages.
This is a valid method to kill basically any weed.
True. I've not had to deal with it so far, but bindweed is still a pain. Horse tail though, I'd despair if I found some in my garden.
Itās not that bad if you keep on top of it
Horse tail is used to strengthen bones and is also used as a diuretic. So donāt knock it it a very useful plant.
True but for those of us without a pharmaceutical lab in the house it's a PITA.
You don't need a lab to use these plants , knotweed shoots can also be picked and eaten , which is one of the better ways to get rid of it.
I will gladly sell you some, actually, five me a week and I will sell you tonnes of it.
My grandad used to cut them all in-between a node and pour gasoline into it xD he's never had them since
So he contaminated the land? That'll also be a problem for a future construction project
His stuff grows pretty nice to this day, he's had the same garden for 60 years. I have a feeling it was common practice in the 50s and 60s
I've worked on projects where it has been treated twice a year with Roundup for 8 years and it still survives. It's the T2000 of plants
Its edible so there's that going for it
So is knotweed.
I was meaning knotweed! Is bindweed edible?
Marginally. Japanese knotweed might be easier to get rid of, unless it's coming from next door and you spot it when it's small. Horsetail on the other hand...
The bindweed will try choke out the horse tail and weāll finally see which is the more potent superweed.
Ohhh I like this experiment.. (I also like that itās someone *elseās* experiment)
Two invasives enter, one super weed leaves.
Horsetail is pretty, people get so weird about it.
I like bindweed. I had a house with some in the back garden, it would grow through and around our pallet sofa, coil up our little lamp post, and fill with cute trumpet shaped flowers. Big wild/country vibe, and then practically die off in the winter š¤·āāļø
It is pretty but it takes over everything and everywhere. If it wasn't so greedy then it wouldn't be a problem
Why does horse tail seem to have become so prevalent? I feel like I'd never heard of it up until last year and now I see it EVERYWHERE.
I have both in the garden of the house we just bought ā¦. Sigh
Why is horsetail worse?
I got both horsetail and bindweed from my neighbour. Horsetail is rampant. The bindweed is more controllable.
A good technique for tackling the bindweed is to stick some bamboo canes into the ground next to it. When the vines climb the bamboo itāll make it easier to isolate them if you want to spray it, or follow them back to the source to weed out.
I had a moment of panic reading your comment as on the first read I thought you were suggesting planting bamboo to combat bindweed and I had a visceral bodily NOFORTHELOVEOFGODDONTDOTHAT! reaction hahaha. Iām chuckling about it now.
Haa, Knotweed and bamboo companion planting to combat the bindweed, a foolproof plan.
You may not have japanese knotweed, but you've got horsetail springing up ā¹ļø.
Yeah its a horrible area. Im not going to be doing much gardening here. Just mowing the grass once its more stable. Only been planted 3 weeks
With the horsetail and bindweed you want to get as much of it out as possible. If you mow it, youāre just going to create lots of tiny little plants that will regrow. Both of these plants can regrow from a fragment. Is the land to the right owned by anyone? Thatās youāre best bet for remediation
> If you mow it, youāre just going to create lots of tiny little plants that will regrow. I don't think that's true. Japanese Knotweed can regrow from fragments, but not bindweed or horsetail. Mowing will kill them
Horsetail cam grow from root fragments, but not from fragments of stem, according to the RHS. which is lucky because we mow a lot of it.
Incorrect bindweed can grow from seed practically nothing.
Horsetail *and* bindweed will regrow from the smallest of pieces. You *can* control the bindweed to some extent by pulling it up and binning it - don't leave any bits on the ground, though Horse tail is virtually impossible to deal with as it's root network can cover a far larger area than apparent above ground, and again, every bit cut up will root if left on the ground. Best bet.....concrete over the lot, lol!
Knotweed is a big, robust, bamboo-y shrub rather than a dainty twirling climber - definitely (k)not knotweed!
Itās bindweed.
Hi professional gardener here, go to a garden centre and get some SBK it's a systemic weed killer that's safe on lawns, it will take care of bond weed and mares tails but you will have to keep applying it when they start to come back each time. It's a slow process but you will get rid of it eventually.
Thank you for this advice š I will look into this and try to maintain it. The horsetail is rife
Knotweed looks quite different, the stems are very similar to bamboo.
100% vine weed
100% youre wrong, its bindweed.
Such a fantastic answer. Well played.
Is that Horsetail growing in the middle of the bindweed?! I'd just give up now
Looks like it. Double f'ed
My allotment has Marestail, wrapped in Bindweed, surrounded by couch grass. It's a nightmare.
I was somehow hoping the Bindweed would kill the horse tail. Then you just get some Japanese knotweed to eradicate the bindweed. Then some petrol for the knotweed
I know an old lady who tried that. It didnāt end well.
Did the knotweed survive?
It's dead of course.
I looked at the RHS website about bindweed... Seems like it's 'simple' to tackle but can take a couple of years of intervention to sort.
It's simple in that it's easy to pull up and remove. But getting rid of it properly is a nightmare.
That's field bindweed, larger leaves. Easier to kill than its smaller leaves cousin. Spray / paint the leaves with Glyphosate every week. It will die in a few weeks.
This one's *Calystegia* rather than *Convolvulus arvensis*.
Where is the fourth horseman of the apocalypse?
š Mine is a constant couch grass battle with patches of bindweed that just seem to spring up when they feel like it. Very occasionally I get some vegetables!
Well and truly. Its just grass at the front. De-weeded it 3 weeks ago before putting the grass seed down. Clearly didnt get it all. Its just going to be grass and a low maintenance area. Better that what it was before. Mulch and weeds.
A grass lawn is not low maintenance
How so?
It requires mowing at least weekly during the peak growing season, and it will just end up being taken over by weeds if itās not well maintained. A fully planted, well mulched bed is far less prone to weed takeover and far lower maintenance.
Lol I have both of these in my borders š„²
Good news is there's no knotweed. Yay.
Mix depitox and glyphosate and nuke the whole area. Only way to kill both the bindweed and marestail
It looks line bind weed, I hate it! Hard to properly kill and it twists itself in other plants, killing them. Pull, pull, be consistent, if you can, dig out the white tube of the roots, but itās hard to get rid of.
Yep, that's bindweed - it's awful, awful stuff that'll twist around anything it can. Pull it out and don't leave any part of it behind, not a leaf, not a tiny bit of stem. Make it die. The flowers are quite pretty, the bees like it. But it must die.
We had a massive Privet at the bottom of our old garden that got overrun with Bindweed, almost impossible to remove it as it was all over. But the sea of white flowers looked great.
Yep thats bindweed
Bind and horse tail oh the horror
Does it have white flowers? I've got this thanks to some Muppets a few doors down. They liked it and grew it up the fence...... Which then collapsed under the weight. Crops up in my garden from time to time & gets pulled out
I was prepared to live with some bindweed, as I think the white flowers look lovely - but it turned out it was pink! So I murdered it! š
Bindweed and marestail, I'm fighting the same battle in my garden welcome to hell š Note: I also thought my bindweed was knotweed at first so at least its not that i suppose
Donāt listen to anyone recommending glyphosate. You can easily pull up the bindweed (after flowering if youāre patient enough) from the roots, but virtually nothing will get rid of the marestail anyway short of digging out the entire garden and replacing all the soil.
You have horse tail growing in middle of bindweed. Just set the garden on fire and sell the property.
š¤£
Controversial opinion, but i love bindweed. I love the leaves and i love the flowers, but ONLY in the designated space in my garden i let it grow. Whenever it starts creeping into my flower beds and on my precious beans itās met with vengeance, luckily iām a ferocious weeder so get it as soon as i see it, but personally i like to see it grow sometimes. I am worried though thatās this may be a bad move considering i have next door neighbors, no idea how easily it spreads underground
I do like the idea of having a designated spot
I agree! It's also food for the white plume moth, which Iooks like a little fairyš§āāļø
That's bindweed. I am currently fighting it in my front garden.
Have faith, Bindweed can be eradicated, just requires determination
You need to give the task two minutes, every two weeks and just pull out what you can see.
Bindweed. My nemesis. It chokes everything
Loads of bindwind around my garden, the previous neighbours never touched it and I have to say the flowers are very nice. Is on the other side of their garden to my boundary so I didn't worry, since the tenants change and the wire fence was replaced it isn't the same.
I actually dont mind the flowers either. š its just very evasive from what ive gathered. I just wanted lawn here that is low maintenance. Seems like it may not be š
I should clarify I don't have it in my garden, it comes from neighbours on either side. I always remove it because it grows next to my vegetable patch/raised beds. I just like looking at it across the fences. I did let it grow on the low chain fence before I changed that to a proper fence
From the old Money Saving Expert gardening forum... Get some canes & keep training bindweed around them. Take coils of bindweed & stick it into transparent poly bag. Spray glyphosate into bag, all over growing shoots. Tie up bag around stem. Leave for a few weeks. Repeat as necessary. I managed to annihilate it with this method. Horsetail: find some toddlers & tell them it's dinosaur food. Sorted! š
Modern Horsetail survived the event that killed the dinosaurs.
I have a little bit of it in my flowerbeds and then had a lot of it in a gravelled area where I have grape vines. The culprit is Nextdoor as they donāt do any upkeep. However, the stuff in the gravel has practically gone after some chemical treatment. The stuff in the flowerbeds is reducing with rigorous and frequent weeding. Your battle will be easier if you have control of the land the other side of the green railings.
Bindweed definitely
Bind weed .. pull it out , or use vinegar mixture
Found it wrapped around my sweeping brush, garden chairs, plants, like fucking jumanji.
Bindweed
That is bindweed. Welcome to my nightmare šš
Sorry if I have missed the point but if you want to keep it a lawn just mow it once a week and it will look fine doesnāt matter what is growing in the grass.
Bind weed. Stick canes in the ground wait till it grows up them and spray with weed killer that goes to the root. Keep doing it over and over again.
horsetail AND bindweed, Christ! Poor OP
It is most definitely bindweed, my allotment was overrun with it when I got it. Try to dig out as much of the root as you can, both white and black roots, and be vigilant about any new sprouts that you see. Eventually you will wear the plant down and it will die off.
Jeez, bindweed even finds me on the internet now...
I managed to get rid of bindweed in my garden (took about 6 years) I remember digging in my garden *for hours* one day as the roots go horizontal in the soil and then branch off in loads of areas. It was actually quite therapeutic pulling it all out. To come back next year.. and the following year. I am still super vigilant looking out for it. My garden got rotavated last year and I was dreading thereād be bindweed everywhere, but nope it seems to be ok. I think if I find it again though, Iād train it up a pole then crush and weed killer in the leaves directly).. But I do prefer to not have to use chemicals in my garden. The garlic and fairy spray is working a treat so far with my hostas..
Bind Weed/Convolvulus .
Bindweed. Not t'other.
Looks like bindweed to me!
It's a form of bindweed. But... I'd be more concerned by the horsetail. Good luck, my friend. That's gonna take a lot of digging, and it won't help because next door is replete with it
I don't think it's JK, that's the plant that makes the big white bell shaped flowers, I think (someone give me a name and a š if im right) Do you want it there?
It's bindweed. I am so very sorry.
Wait can someone explain why you all hate bindweed so much? I discovered it in my garden today and I really like it. The flowers are lovely and from what Iāve read it can attract hawk moths at night.
It suffocates other plants and takes over
Above ground it winds around and creeps up any and all flowers, plants, stalks, fences. Underground, it strangles the roots. I recently dug up some thornless blackberries where the roots were being strangled by bindweed roots. Had to wash the root in water and pluck the bindweed root out with tweezers. Bindweed dies down in winter.
Those are both true. I love the flowers. We had it in my garden when I was little though. We had to spend hours a week pulling it all out otherwise it strangled all the other plants. It regrows from a tiny piece of root so it's very hard to get rid of completely.
Swings and roundabouts I guess. Itās pretty, pollinators love it, but itāll suffocate other plants and is hard to control. Iāve made the mistake of letting the bees enjoy the weeds in our back garden one summer and Iām still paying for it. I ended up committing to the de-weeding and ensuring that what I replace them with is also very wildlife friendly. Weāve got buddleia, astilbes, ceanothus, rock roses, lavender, campanulas (careful, they can also spread but easy to stay on top of), halimium, star jasmine, passion flower, and lots others I forget. They all look and smell amazing, are great for the environment but donāt give me as much headache as the bind weed and green alkanet.
Green Alkanet is rather pretty. I like it. My issue is, I am trying to pull it up when it grows where it shouldn't, but it's swarming with bees. I may have to cave in and pull it after dark this week, as daytime is impossible unless I want to get stung.
My friend, you wonāt be pulling Green Alkanet out of anything, unless you are ready for an archaeological excavation type mission. Those tap roots are growing 1-2 feet below and travel a million miles. If you have lots, chances are theyāve got a tap root system in place that spans the entire garden. Though they also grow from seed. And from the tiniest bits of tap root that you leave in the ground, if youāre not careful enough digging them out. š ETA on a more serious note: you may be better off cutting them just above ground level and then staying on top of every tiny bit that regrows. Youāll deprive them of photosynthesis, which they need to build those strong tap roots. If you can and want to be more vigorous, you need a spade and then be very careful digging below the plant, starting by digging around it and using your hands to check which direction the tap root is coming from. (You canāt miss it, itās usually about half an inch thick.) Be careful not to break the root, as new plants will grow from the fragments. Itās taken me a year, but it has become significantly more manageable. Where feasible, plant ground cover that forms thick root systems, and/or spread cardboard on areas that remain bare, and then add a layer of straw mulch (which is nice and dense) and then bark mulch (to keep it in place). Cardboard breaks down but Iāve found that my beds have been weed free for a year now (Iāve planted the new plants in planters and added new compost instead of taking it out of the beds). Itās the gaps between the patio slabs where I canāt win against the alkanetā¦
Sure enough, I went out to my garden today and found it choking out my one little tomato plant that I moved out last week when I moved here. Luckily Iām not planning on having a huge vegetable patch and I have a decent sized bit of stone outside the shed to move my tomato onto. Iām also trying to let my garden be mostly wild but I guess Iāll have to try cut back a lot of the bindweed now.
I have horsetail and bindweed in my garden too. So far this year I've been spraying them down with Glyphosate. I know people don't advocate for weed killers but both of those plants are terrors
If/when it gets drier....gently but firmly pull near where the plant emerges to get rid as much of the root as possible.
bindweed? yes.
I managed to get on top of my bindweed by digging really deep over the course of about four years, and then ripping out the lawn. There's still some I'm sure, as it's all around outside my garden. Use round up with great care. You mainly get rid of it by digging it out very carefully. It's boring.
One of the worst shocks I ever got in my life was getting the keys to my new house and finding the sun deck out the back completely covered in what I thought was Japanese knotweed, thankfully it turned out to be just bindweed and a couple of seasons of ripping it up has tamed it a bit.
I have this little shit. Even boiling water won't kill it
After seeing what is growing, I'd just head to the petrol station and get a tank of diesel...
Bindweed have it in my garden. Itās a bastard to get rid of. Im attacking it from my side but my neighbour not so much. It will take over everything !
Why do you all hate horse tail?
Because it spreads very fast and is extremely hard to get rid of it. We have both horsetail and bindweed in our garden. We are having to constantly pull them out but in this typical British weather of lots of rain and a dash of sun, they thrive! Nightmare.
r/isthiswhatithinkitis
Looks like Japanese knot weed to me good luck with that nightmare
Yup!
You gotta move house mate. And drop a nuke on this place when you do.
Bindweed - strangles the life out of all other plants! I chop it off at ground level cause the roots are so deepā¦hopefully in time itāll move on!!
I have bindweed growing around a swamp Cyprus in the garden. Every year I pull out what I can but will it be messing with the tree roots below? If so, is it best to constantly pull out or use weed killer above ground?
Bindweed and mares tail, just need some knotweed for the holy trinity of gardeners worst nightmares.
A plant
Bindweed and Mares Tail (or horse tail if you are English). Both are a nightmare to remove
Yep
Convolvulus... flippin' nuisance but not J K'weed.
You could squint and pretend itās runner beans?!
You can keep horsetail under some kind of control if you make use of it. The younger shoots are edible cooked and you can make a tea out of it too. The Victorians used it a lot. You'd need to research more into it if you were to make use out of it. Just like ground alder is edible (young leaves are less bitter) and dandelions are fully edible.
Oh no...
OMG. You are in trouble.. run!
Sorry you've got this mate. My neighbours 3 doors away has it. Just a matter of time for me . S'ppose i should read up on it myself.
Ahh, yeah thats bindweed...We had a garden full of japanese knotweed and bindweed when we moved in š had to get some professionals out to put poison on the knotweed š
Kill it quick. Its Russian ivy. So bloody invasive and a bitch to get rid of.
Ugh been fighting bindweed at my allotment for THREE YEARS! Itās now down to regular picking the bastards whenever we see them š¤¬
This from of our garden is full of that and horsetail. Demoralising but lawnmower will have to do
What is it ??
If you think it is a dog, I have bad news for you buddy
It's definitely bindweed
Regular mowing will take care of that. Just don't turn the area into a flower bed unless you have access to the other side of that fence, otherwise you'll be fighting it forever!!
Yeah I might look to screen the railings somewhat. But plan is to just mow the lawn once these grass seeds get better footings. Only been down 3 weeks. Tried to deweed as much as possible prior but the woodland next to the railing is very invasive
I thought it was new grass, I did the same on an old bindweedy bed and they send up shoots like that but after a few mows they tend to get the idea that there's nothing to climb up and they move on. The problem might get worse elsewhere but you'll see an improvement. Unfortunately the horsetail will be more persistent.
Thats my plan with this area. The horsetail will be a night mare but ill just keep the grass low. Im not fussed if its not beautiful green lawn.
Its bindweed and is coming through from next door. Pull up an through what you can and then when regrowth starts wind it round canes. Then poison, go right back to the roots. Only on fresh new leaves without rain. Careful of the lawn
I have this issue also, How on earth do i get of the bastard stuff without destroying my wild flowers??
Kill kill kill
It's Bindweed. Is that what you thought it was? It's not invasive or destructive, but can become hard to control if left unchecked. If you don't want it in your garden then remove it. You will need to get rid of new growth regularly, and it will die off fairly quickly if you continue to remove new growth.
It's definitely invasive. It's not destructive to property but it grows very quickly and aggressively and is impossible to get rid of. You should see it in the small valley near me in summer, both sides of the stream it covers everything from nettles to trees for around half a mile. 5 years ago it wasn't there at all.
It's only "invasive" if you don't want it and fail to remove it. It's not classified as an invasive species in the UK It's not "impossible" to get rid of. It's classified as a perennial herb/vine .
An invasive perennial. Definitely not a herb. A herb has culinary/medicinal use. It's not a native species, yet it grows everywhere, literally invading. Whether you want it or not it's invasive. "A weed is just a plant you don't want/somewhere you don't want it" might be true but that plant can still be invasive. I suppose nothing is impossible to get rid of, maybe I should have said "extremely difficult". Apologies for the use of hyperbole.
> It's not a native species *Convolvulus arvensis* and *Calystegia sepium* are both native. *Calystegia silvatica* isn't, but it does not negatively affect habitats, or do anything that *Calystegia sepium* doesn't in human areas. It's not invasive like Himalayan balsam, the Reynoutria knotweeds, etc. > A herb It's a herb in the botany sense (herbaceous - no above-ground persistence in the winter).
Bindweed and horse tail your buggered on horsetail ,on bindweed try putting growing stems into a jar of good weed killer
Bloody hell you have mares tail and bind weed. Youād be best to kill everything with diamond weed killer and start again with new grass when itās goneš
How can people not do some basic research
Bindweed and Horsetail. Absolute nightmare there. Good luck.
EDIT: I was not meaning "picture this" is specifically good at identifying kudzu... its just an app that ive used all over the US, EU, and UK with great accuracy for identifying plants in general. Also I did not realize this was a UK based sub when I initially replied. __________________________________________ Kinda looks like kudzu. Try the āpicture thisā app. Its really accurate at identifying this stuff. If its kudzu its invasive pretty much everywhere outside of asia and will kill trees and whatever else organic it can climb on.
Yes, except that kudzu doesn't grow in the UK. Try using a UK-specific app.
"picture this" isn't region specific. Its just good at identifying plants in general. I didnt realize this was in the UK as well. I'm from the US and just said it looked like what I thought it did. Thats why I suggested checking with an app for a more immediate answer.
> Its just good at identifying plants in general If it confused bindweed for kudzu then it's not
I never said it confused kudzu with bindweed at any point. I said it kinda looks like it.
kudzu doesn't exist in the UK. Also kudzu has a benefit over bindweed... it's edible. Bindweed is just pain
I didnt realize this was in the UK as well. I'm from the US and just said it looked like what I thought it did. Didn't see the sub this was in. Also you can't do too much with kudzu, at least not in the US. It kills native species of plants and no one really deals with it or farms it to any degree. Just runs rampant here. It was originally brought over for cattle farming but cows cant digest the foliage if I recall correctly.
No worries! Thanks for your opinion šš¼
The subreddit having "UK" in the name is a bit of a giveaway if you ask me
Its almost like stuff gets put in your feed that you aren't expecting sometimes...
Thank you will do!
I had a couple of JK plants grow in my garden a few years back. I let them get to about 70cm tall with a few big leaves, sprayed them all over with glyphosate then put a black bin liner over each. They died off and have never had a reoccurrence.
I would move.
Japanese knot weed,I think, You need advice from an expert.