Help!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have just taken on a plot which has been abandoned for about 2 years. I'm told the grass like covering is bindweed.
What is the best way to remove this?
Being as green as grass to this allotment lark I need all the advise I can get. ???
i've got loads of it. I'm digging the plot at the mo and removing any white strands I can get my hands on, trying not to break em, but I can already see more that are too fine to remove. I think you just have to keep plugging away.
maybe .. dig it with fork/spade to remove majority, and keep it hoed till you plant, that's what i plan to do
I agree with Larry, dig, pull, dig, pull .......
And after you've planted, if more comes up, pop a cane in and train it up that, rather than letting it suffocate your plants. Then after you've harvested, dig up all the roots of the bind weed too.
What I plan on doing this year in my garden is to train them up bean poles as suggested, & them paint them with a herbeside, maybe several times, just to make sure they're dead. :D
If I try to dig them up I'll be sure to leave part of it in the ground. :-\
Quote from: scumpy on January 31, 2005, 22:12:17
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have just taken on a plot which has been abandoned for about 2 years. I'm told the grass like covering is bindweed.
What is the best way to remove this?
Being as green as grass to this allotment lark I need all the advise I can get.  ???
I would not describe bindweed as "grasslike", far from it in fact.
If it is bindweed it will look like this
(http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/bindwd1.JPG)
At this time of year the top growth will be non existant having died back last autumn. The roots will still be below the surface, white and brittle and can go down a couple of feet deep easily.
If it really is grass like there is a chance it will be couch grass.
(http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/couch.JPG)
A very different beast but still hard to control. At this time of the year the green leaves will still be visible above ground. It is also not so deep rooted.
If bindweed, remove as much of the root now before it gets active in warmer weather, repeat hoeing through summer to weaken it further or spray/paint with round up.
With couch do much the same. As it's roots are not so deep you can remove more by hand. Also the roots are less brittle and most can be pulled from the ground with a fork or mattock.
Hope that helps.
Jerry
Thanks to all for your advise.
Jerry, it looks like it couch grass.
Thanks for the pic's.
I think i've alot of reading to do
Scumpy :o