Control Bindweed in the Organic Garden
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Posted by Jamie McIntosh Jun 4, 2009 |
While watching my sons ride their bikes in the street in the evenings, I can rarely resist getting out my pruning shears, dandelion digger, or watering can to tend to some needy tenant in my front yard flower garden. Tonight, as I observed that my Russian Sage is about to bloom, I noticed an invader that required immediate attention: the delicate tendrils of a bindweed vine were reaching toward the sun. If I don’t get this weed under control before the sage blooms, I had better rent a beekeepers outfit to work on the problem. My neighbor is a beekeeper, and her bees love the bluish-purple blossom sprays of this perennial best of all.
Don’t let the delicate appearance of the bindweed fool you: this perennial weed will wrap its twining stems around every piece of foliage within grasp, until your garden is covered in a blanket of heart-shaped leaves and small funnel-shaped flowers. These vines look pretty when scrambling across a field, but terribly shabby in the flower garden. Pull the seedlings as soon as you identify them, and definitely before they flower and drop seeds. If the infestation is severe, cut the vines to ground level and smother them under a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard.
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