garden news-bane of our existence

GARDEN NEWS-BANE OF OUR EXISTENCE

this pretty white flower growing in our garden is called bindweed or wild morning glory
i call it the bind of our existence
or 
morning gory

this plant will last in your garden up to 20 years
its roots can go deep in the ground to around 10 feet or more
break the roots off and they grow new plants
its almost impossible to remove them
no
its impossible to remove them
they will spread up to 6 ft
they grow around surrounding plants and tangle them up choking them out
thus the term bindweed

if you saw the biggest little farm they talk about bindweed
they had a huge problem in their orchards
they used sheep which kept the bindweed chewed down to the ground
that wont work in our garden since the sheep or goats would love all our veggies too much

once you got bindweed you got bindweed forever
you cant dig it out

we have spent endless volunteer hours hoeing this stuff
it has to be hoed every 3 weeks

our large pathway down and around one side of our garden is 120+ feet long
it is covered with the bindweed

we tried laying down cardboard and covering it with mulch
that lasts for almost a year then it eventually breaks through the cardboard

you could use that r word stuff but we are organic

here is the innocent looking bindweed just starting up
leave it there and it will take over
forever

so i would call it a forever weed

here is another bane of our existence
its bermuda or some here call it crab grass
arkansas texas folks its bermuda
it ranks up their with the bindweed as our biggest nuisance

if i had to chose from getting rid of bindweed or gophers
i would say bindweed since at least you can catch a few gophers
well maybe they are just as bad on second thought


here is the first part of the pathway which is about 40 feet long
i laid down a double layered heavy landscape fabric that is 6 feet wide
stapled heavy with landscape staples on the edge


then we placed a real thick layer of mulch over the fabric
those bags there on the left are donated soil amendments from our local home improvement center that i will put on the bed to the left when i redo it


here is the second part of the walkway that is about 80 feet long showing some mulch laid down over the landscape fabric


here is the finished product on that second side

we have done this in front of my garden plot 3 years ago and it is still working to block this bind of our existence

this should save us hours of weeding for a few years

now
what to do about those gophers
i plan to rewatch caddy shack to see what bill murray did

below is the flyer for our annual fundraiser at the garden


it is renaissance themed but not a fair
food and drinks and music will be scattered throughout the garden
plus you get to enjoy the beauty of our garden at sunset and dusk

please donate and or join us for the event

the organicgreen doctor