Property News · June 3, 2017

How to deal with bindweed | Alys Fowler


If left unchecked, it will weaken even large shrubs and small trees within a seasonI am reuniting myself with bindweed. Or, put another way, bindweed has been reuniting itself with my garden. I’ve always had a bit; it comes under the fence from the neighbour’s plot and pops up to say hi when I least want to converse with it. It’s taking over the bottom of the garden, creeping around the apple tree and weaving itself into every nook and cranny, as if to say, “Well, it didn’t look as if you minded me coming in.”Hedge or greater bindweed, Calystegia sepium, barely needs a description. It’s a twining plant that wraps itself around anything it can to see the sun. Once it finds sunshine, it sends out large, white, trumpeting blooms that are very pretty. But it binds, often creating a rope of numerous stems twisted together and doesn’t give up until it has smothered whatever it clambered over. If left unchecked, it will outcompete even large shrubs and small trees for light, weakening them within a season. The roots can grow up to three metres long and the seed (though thankfully not often produced) can persist for 30 years in soil. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…How to deal with bindweed | Alys Fowler

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