Great article on planting a bee garden

[SparksBee]

http://www.motherearthnews.com/moder...x?newsletter=1


Good tips on placement and varieties, etc.

[Apiator]

I'll take one issue with that article. They recommend planting bindweed.

NO NO NO! Bad! Bindweed is the devil!

[tsmullins]

I'll take one issue with that article. They recommend planting bindweed.

NO NO NO! Bad! Bindweed is the devil!

I am not familiar with bindweed. Is bindweed another name for morning glories?

[Apiator]

They are related somehow I believe, and I've heard it called "wild morning glory." However... domestic morning glory will stay put. Bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) will take over everything. It's the western version of kudzu. It spreads via seed or rhizome, outgrows most any food crop, and is very difficult to eradicate. I don't use chemicals, but I'm told you can hear bindweed snicker at Roundup.

[JulieBee]

Jen - Very nice article! Thanks for sharing.

Apiator...I think bindweed it what we call "hen and chicks vine" here in TN. But its not invasive here. I baby the stuff and try to help it grow, but it won't take and only grows in one tiny corner of my property. Wait...maybe babying it is the problem...it takes it from weed status to wanted-plant status. I need to go baby some bermuda grass and see if it will die too!!

[kincade]

For the love of all that is good, do NOT plant bindweed. It is the most invasive species of plant I've ever seen. Our entire yard is infested with it and after 4 years of no chemicals I actually was driven to use weed killer. It didn't even touch it, and now we have learned to just live with it after 6 years.

Bindweed = fromhell.

[JulieBee]

For the love of all that is good, do NOT plant bindweed. It is the most invasive species of plant I've ever seen. Our entire yard is infested with it and after 4 years of no chemicals I actually was driven to use weed killer. It didn't even touch it, and now we have learned to just live with it after 6 years.

Bindweed = fromhell.

Hmmm...it doesn't seem to like our area very well. Used to see a lot of it when I was a kid, now it's a rarity. It may not like our heavy clay soil. What kind of soil do you guys have out in the Western side of the country?

[kincade]

Hmmm...it doesn't seem to like our area very well. Used to see a lot of it when I was a kid, now it's a rarity. It may not like our heavy clay soil. What kind of soil do you guys have out in the Western side of the country?

Heavy clay here too. Not sure why, maybe our climate is just right?

[Apiator]

JulieBee, I kinda doubt it. Check this for comparison.

Kincade, there is hope. Maybe not in your generation, but there is hope. This makes perfect sense once I read Alan Savory's Holistic Management. Bindweed, and all the other weeds we hate, are pioneer species. Their job is to colonize damaged or new soils, put down roots, grow and reproduce quickly, grow in the worst conditions possible, stop wind and water erosion... hold the soil together for the next wave of species to come along. In its turn, each species leaves the soil with more nutrients that it was previously lacking.

So, eventually, bindweed, left to its own devices, improves the soil to the point where it can't live there any more. But if all you do is chop it and throw it in the trash, all its hard work goes for naught. And yours. (And mine, before I took up lazy gardening!)

[kincade]

Thanks for the article. I consider our soil to be exceptionally healthy to be honest with you; our crops grow very well on their own, it is well balanced, etc. The problem is that it will literally grow up around our tomatoes and other veggies and choke them out if not removed. We've learned to live with it but we don't really have another choice. I won't use chemicals again, and horticultural vinegar just burns the visible parts and leaves the root system intact.

I should add that we are next to a canal, and that is the likely source of the root system. I doubt we'll ever be able to get rid of it.

[Spark]

They are related somehow I believe, and I've heard it called "wild morning glory." However... domestic morning glory will stay put. Bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) will take over everything. It's the western version of kudzu. It spreads via seed or rhizome, outgrows most any food crop, and is very difficult to eradicate. I don't use chemicals, but I'm told you can hear bindweed snicker at Roundup.

It is part of the morning glory family ( another Asian invasive weed) but as you said a weed straight from hell. Roundup (some nasty stuff) will only inhibit it but won't kill it. Planting pumpkins has the same effect as roundup but is organic.

It's listed as invasive and should not to be planted at all.

[SparksBee]

I wish "babying" the multiflora rose around here would make it die. Ugggh. That stuff is unbearable.

[waynesgarden]

Just the thought of bindweed makes me shudder. I fought that evil plant for years back in the Adirondacks. In fact, it is the only thing that I do not miss since moving.

Nearly impossible to kill. Its roots go down 40 feet or more. Almost to Hell, itself.

Wayne

[JulieBee]

I wish "babying" the multiflora rose around here would make it die. Ugggh. That stuff is unbearable.

I've never heard of multiflora rose. But a quick search on internet brought up an interesting fact, "multiflora rose has been planted in highway median strips to serve as crash barriers"
Wow!! That must be a serious superplant!