Like quackgrass, field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) belong to this category of weeds that are hard to get rid of. Vigorous and fast-growing, bindweed winds and twines around plant stems, climbs up fences, creeps along the ground in vegetable gardens… And it teases the gardener with its pure white or pink flowers!
To go further:
Some will tell you that bindweed has a certain charm with its pure white or pink flowers and its twining stems that twist around anything that happens to be nearby. Ephemeral, single-day flowers, very melliferous feed bees, bumblebees, and hoverflies, which are very useful in vegetable gardens for pollination.
This may all be true, but above all else, bindweed has the annoying habit of overrunning everything it comes across, be it fence or plant. It often ends up completely smothering plants, killing them off in a single season! Moreover, bindweed diverts nutrients and water, depriving its neighbors.
Bindweed is a creeping perennial that is part of the Convolvulaceae family, with deciduous foliage. It has a network of underground rhizomes that resists cold weather very well. In winter, foliage dies off but the plant, underground, lies dormant. In spring, it resurfaces, more vigorous than ever before!
Bindweed usually grows in compacted soils that have high levels of nitrogen. It is therefore considered a bio-indicator plant, useful when trying to identify the soil in a given location.
Bindweed has deep roots that easily spread thanks to buds that give new shoots. In addition, seeds scatter by wind, overcoming every obstacle. It’s safe to say that the soil of your flower beds, borders or vegetable garden can quickly get overrun with this weed.
To avoid aiding its spread, it’s vital to know the following:
No single treatment clears bindweed outright, so it helps to see what each method actually achieves. The table below sums up where each approach works and what it leaves behind.
| Method | Where it works best | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Lifting with a spading fork or broadfork | Beds and borders, at the end of winter | Works only if roots come out whole; must be repeated for years |
| Spraying pure white vinegar | Cracks in pavement and walkways | Kills every plant it touches |
| Cutting stems before flowering | Anywhere seeds must be stopped | Does not stop spread by rhizome |
| Dark tarp (solarization) | At the base of a hedge | Takes a few months to work |
| Pelargonic acid herbicide | Open ground with no wanted plants | Also affects vegetables, flowers and perennials |
| Thick mulch or mulching fabric | Slowing regrowth between clearings | Does not eliminate the plant, only softens the soil |
In practice, lifting the roots patiently and stopping the seeds are the two that pay off over several seasons.
Several methods are available:
Natural tip to contain bindweed: you can let it grow along a fence or post inside your chicken coop, mixed with morning glories (Ipomoea indica). Morning glory is a non-invasive bindweed variety with large blue flowers. Chickens will peck off any shoots that try to spread out from that little island in the center. They’ll also eat up most of the seeds that fall to the ground. The melliferous flowers will attract insects for the chickens to feed on all summer long, and stems coiled in the mesh wire will provide shade. In fall, you just remove dry stems.
