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I know I’ve only just started, but I think I may have already found my gardening nemesis…

Each week when our food waste goes out, I’m horrendously reminded of how much of it could have gone towards our future soil. So, while Shem (that’s my husband!) continues to tackle the main de-weeding, I decided to focus on a smaller project: getting the top corner of the garden ready for a compost bin.

However, this week I discovered that the corner is absolutely filled with bindweed.

What is bindweed? 

Bindweed is an invasive plant that grows quickly and can twist around other plants, choking and stunting their growth, or even killing them. Not something I would like in my garden! 

There are two types: hedge bindweed and field bindweed. According to The Wildlife Trusts, the way to distinguish between the two is by the flowers. Hedge bindweed has large trumpet-shaped flowers, while field bindweed’s flowers are much smaller. 

When our garden was growing wild over the summer, we had both large and small flowers growing. So it seems we’re infested with both field and hedge bindweed! 

Why the purge? 

Bindweed is difficult to get rid of. It’s an irritatingly intelligent and stubborn plant. If you leave any trace of the plant or its root, it will sprout back into a new plant.

Quite an amazing part of creation, but rather frustrating if you’re trying to rid your garden of it!

Dealing with bindweed (without chemicals)

According to Love the Garden, the most straightforward and effective way to remove bindweed is to use weedkiller. 

But we’re keen to keep our garden chemical-free, so it looks like it’s going to take more time, patience, and digging.

Thankfully, Gardeners’ World has given some helpful ways to tackle bindweed organically:

• In beds and borders, dig out the roots completely. Winter to early spring is the best time, before new growth begins.
• Remove every last bit of the root (a fork helps avoid snapping them).
• If it’s tangled around established plants, carefully loosen the soil on either side and pull out the roots whole.
• In summer, when digging isn’t possible, cut or pull off new shoots regularly to weaken the plant.
• Homemade weed killers and weed burners can help reduce top growth but won’t kill the roots.

My experience with bindweed

Although it takes a lot more effort getting out at this time of year, it looks like October is a good time to tackle bindweed by digging up the ground. 

So that’s what we’ve been doing – digging, digging, digging. I’ve gone about an arm’s length deep, and I’m still finding more roots! Especially in the corner where I’m planning to place the compost bin.

On the bright side, I think I’ve located where a lot of it stems from. The downside? It feels endless. And because it’s where our compost bin will be, I really want to make sure the soil is clean before we start. It would be awful if our compost becomes infested with bindweed. 

It does feel like I’m making some progress, at least there are a lot of bindweed weeds in my little bucket… 

But a lot of the roots seem be coming from under our fence to the neighbour’s garden. I’m not sure how to stop them creeping back without using chemicals. 

Help, please?

Have you had any experience with bindweed? Do you have any advice for getting rid of it naturally – or keeping it from coming back? Please do let me know in the comments or messages! I’d love to hear your experiences.