New gardener

[Wikky]

Hi everyone, I've only just recently moved to a property with a garden and, as such, I'm a complete beginner at everything! My main problem is that there seem to be weeds coming up in the flower bed which climb up round the plants. I've tried pulling them out but they just break off and leave the roots in the soil. Is there a weedkiller that I can use which won't harm the flowers. I've heard of a substance that you paint on the leaves of the weeds. Are these any good. Your help much appreciated.

[songbird]

yes, you can do that, but if it runs or drips off the leaves of the weed onto the flowers the flowers might die back too.

if you keep removing the new growth from the weeds eventually they will give up as the roots run out of energy. it may take several seasons, but it can be done.

to speed things up if you can follow the weed from the stalk down to the roots then you can remove as much of the root system that you can find. even if it is only a part of it that is something the weed will have much less to come back from and also it has to recover from the destruction.

be persistent and patient, if there is one thing a gardener must be it is both of those. ;)

songbird

[Billy]

You are undoubtedly thinking of Glyphosate (Round-Up).

Don Huber, recently retired from Purdue University, and co-author G.S. Johal, at Purdue¹s Dept of Botany and Plant Pathology, stated in a paper published in the October 2009 issue of European Journal of Agronomy that the widespread use of glyphosate in the US can ³significantly increase the severity of various plants diseases, impair plant defense to pathogens and diseases, and immobilize soil and plant nutrients rendering them unavailable for plant use.²

Best advice is to dampen soil, and pull weeds before they go to flower (seeds).

[despen]

Sounds like a vine.

If you yank off the top and are persistent, you'll suppress and eventually kill the vine. If you follow the vine down to it's roots and work your fingers or a tool around the root area, then pull you'll speed up the process.

Vines are tough. I just got through a short session of pulling an unknown vine out of a large area of Vinca . The issue there is Vinca is pretty vine like itself. It's a dense ground cover. I do a little vine pulling each year and make slow progress. My attitude is, if I make progress, I'm happy. I don't want a perfect garden right now, plenty of time for that.

I use weed killers on walkways where I want everything dead. Painting the leaves should work, but be careful to only get the plant you want to kill.

I recommend getting in there and communing with nature, wrap your fingers around the offending plants body and yank. Ignore any imagined screams.

:)

[lannerman]

Hi Wikky, sounds to me that what you have is bindweed ! Its a deep rooted perennial weed that grows from thick white fleshy roots ! Yes, your only hope, is to treat each shoot with a systemic weedkiller. Let the weed grow until its about 12" tall and get a weedkiller with a chemical in it called 'Glyphosate' (was sold only as 'roundup' but now available in many forms as the Monsanto licence has expired) mix this up and as you say, paint it onto each leaf. Now as this chemical is inactivated on contact with the soil, you wont harm the other plants as long as you dont touch them ! This is very effective at killing bindweed but you might find odd bits keep appearing for a while so, just keep treating those as well and eventually it will disappear.

Lannerman.

[Billy]

7

[GardenerBlog]

Hello Wikky, the only best way is try digging out the weed roots with a small peel. Make it regularly and don't let weed flowering. Their seeds will make your bed more and more baby weed next season. Don't try to use chemical, it's not good for your health, soil, and flowers.