Topic: I have been very bad re weedkiller

[Digeroo]

I have been more or less organic for 25 years but have been loosing the battle with nettles, dead nettles and bindweed.  So I have been very very bad and got out the roundup.  I have decided to blitz the back garden get rid of the bindweed etc and hopefully start another 25 organic years next year.

I have to admit I am pleased so far with the results.  The loganberry and red currants, and a beautiful salmon pink cydonia have been liberated from the stingers, I just could not remove the stingers sfrom around their roots.    I only sprayed the outside leaves and they are dieing right into the centres of huge clumps.  It will also so be much easier to pick the apples without fighting with the stingers.  

I have also spot weeded the front flower garden, and only put a tiny squirt on each nettle.  And even more satisfying is watching the perennial forget me not withering away.  I can now feed the loganberry without getting gigantic stingers as well.

I do not buy all organic produce so I suppose I am eating this stuff already.

[lewic]

LOL I'm sure your post will start a few arguments here!!

I also resort to Roundup occasionally, not least for the neighbours weeds which invade my plot through the fence, and (being shared rented flats) nobody bothers doing anything about.

[Digeroo]

I still wished I had actually blitzed the bindweed while it was still only in one small area, now it is all over the garden front and back.

[Bugloss2009]

well i'm going to do the same for the first time. The couch grass and dandelions round the fruit bushes are so bad when I try to pull them up it moves the roots of the bushes......

[BarriedaleNick]

Bind weed and ground elder have also bought out the killer in me!

[Ellen K]

Hey Digeroo you are leading an exodus out of the closet.  I use roundup too, on path edges mostly.

Unfortunately, Roundup is the perfect commercial product: it works well enough for you to keep on using it but not well enough that you can ever stop.  But as killers go, it's quite benign.

[Squash64]

I'm another one coming out of the closet.... I've used it for dandelions and other weeds which I don't know the name of.  I haven't used it for bindweed yet but I am going to.  I just noticed today that there is a massive amount of the stuff coming up in one particular area. 
Oh, I've just thought - is it harmful to cats?  The bindweed area is near where I feed them and where they relax while they are waiting for their next feed.  Might not be such a good idea after all.

[Bugloss2009]

well if you can say hand on heart that you've tried everything else and it hasn't worked, then  it's perfectly OK to zap the b*ggers. And if anyone says anything, tell them you're practicing Integrated Pest Management

[Digeroo]

No one is going to say anything.  I feel on the one hand I have let myself down, but one the other the improvement to the garden is do great that I feel an suddenly added enthusiasm to get it back under control.  Loosing the battle was so depressing.

[Gadget]

Drastic measures are sometimes needed!! after getting roughly about a million stings this weekend from the nettles >:( I too have gone from thinking lovely fluffy thoughts about nettle tea and soup to a 10 minute rant on killing them ;) 

[lincsyokel2]

No one can be totally organic, the last 20% takes 80% of the effort. Almost organic is close enough.

[SMP1704]

I offer this advice to newbies on our site - be organic when you have the weeds under control :D

I gave the dandelions and bindweed a blast this weekend and was satisfied this evening to see them starting to shrivel up

[Jeannine]

Didge, stop beating yourself with a damp noodle,you did it, you fessed up, now give yourself a break, you aint started world war 3 sweetie..enjoy your clean spaces.. if this is the baddest you can get you  are doing just fine.

XX Jeannine

[lavenderlux]

I'm also owning up to using weedkiller this year;  spent several days in early February digging out nettles and cow parsley on our wildlife area but in some areas it was impossible to get to dig.  Still got a few odd nettles showing in one particular area so will probably give them a dose to kill them off.  Noticed yesterday that in one area there's also the large flowered bindweed coming through so will give this a treatment too

[saddad]

I haven't used any for about ten years... but OH does weed wand the main path. I did use Amcide on a very overgrown plot... once we had removed 15 years of self set trees... before starting on a "new "Plot...   :-X

[Morris]

Yep, I use glyphosate as well to clear persistent weeds in new ground, and in our gravel garden where creeping buttercup is a problem.

I don't think being 'organic' should be as strict as joining some cult (there was another thread about this recently, wasn't there?) polarising the debate.  I look on it like my own health. I eat mostly my own veg and organic foods and am careful to have a healthy lifestyle, but I use antibiotics/antifungals etc from the GP if I'm ill. Very occasional use of carefully selected non-organically approved chemicals is OK, imo. It's not OK if your soil is so poor crops only grow with lavish use of fertiliser and there is no healthy balanced eco-system meaning routine pesticide sprays are required, ie in conventional intensive farming. And the same for antibiotic reliance in intensive animal/fish farming.

Off my soapbox now....

PS Geoff  Hamilton, who greatly influenced me, always said glyphosate was OK. It is claimed to break down on contact with soil and to be safe for pets/children once dry.

 

[Emagggie]

Oh, I've just thought - is it harmful to cats?  The bindweed area is near where I feed them and where they relax while they are waiting for their next feed.  Might not be such a good idea after all.

Betty, someone on here told of a cat proof way to use weed killer and it works very well. you need sandwich bags and rubber bands. Paint the weedkiller on to weeds, (with bindweed I got as many tendrils as would bunch together) and stuff into a sanwich bag, securing the end with a rubber band. Best to have this on your wrist ready. It looks a bit alien but it does the trick. :)

[Squash64]

Oh, I've just thought - is it harmful to cats?  The bindweed area is near where I feed them and where they relax while they are waiting for their next feed.  Might not be such a good idea after all.

Betty, someone on here told of a cat proof way to use weed killer and it works very well. you need sandwich bags and rubber bands. Paint the weedkiller on to weeds, (with bindweed I got as many tendrils as would bunch together) and stuff into a sanwich bag, securing the end with a rubber band. Best to have this on your wrist ready. It looks a bit alien but it does the trick. :)

Thanks for that Maggie.  :)