Crawling weeds in yard - help!

[perspicacious]

I'm reaching out to my castaneters in hopes someone can give me some advice. I've got a back yard that has creeping weeds that have a white flower that blooms. It has grown over my entire back yard. Pulling it reveals grass that's suffocating underneath. Is there anything I can do to get rid of this or is it too far gone?

[Queen K]

I know your weed. It's called Binder Weed, and some people name it "Morning Glory"and we've dubbed it "Evil Weed." As in, you will never kill it off by pulling. The root systems go down for miles and miles. You might be able to dig certain pieces of it down to a root clump, and you may feel like you've made progress.

You have not.

You're issue may be too far gone to pretend otherwise, but even if you took off the first two feet or so of earth, and re-placed the dirt, this Binder Weed roots would eventually grow up through the new dirt.

Unfortunately there only other way to wage war on this scourge is to paint hot vinegar water on it or Round-Up. We've used Round up on it with a delicate paint brush on the leaves and stems. But that's because we've had a few cases of Binder Weed show up, You've got a bigger problem obviously.

Might have to call in the true experts.

Just for the record, Morning Glory with the nice huge blue and purple flowers are not what this poster is dealing with, so I never call it that to avoid confusion,

[perspicacious]

Yikes! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Thanks for this QK, I knew someone would confirm what I was thinking. :(

[annexi]

Sounds like field bindweed, Convolvulus sepium. It's the hardest weed to get rid of & burgeoning in many yards I see. But the irony is... It's a potential cancer cure so maybe Mother Nature is trying to give us a gift.

[annexi]

Yikes! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Thanks for this QK, I knew someone would confirm what I was thinking. :(

I've had success with beating it back using the solarization technique. Got 90%. Then managed the rest with thick mulch (the plant needs sun) and hand pulling those that pop thru the mulch. 2-3 year process.

[perspicacious]

Can you explain what the solarization technique is? Willing to try anything here!!

[annexi]

Can you explain what the solarization technique is? Willing to try anything here!!

It's when a sheet of plastic is laid on top of soil(you'll need to scrape off the top inch or so of all plant life) for 4-6 weeks in hot sun so that the top 12 inches gets cooked.theres a great write up at ipm.ucdavis.edu Look for 'soil solarization.'

[Frisk]

Are those the ones with the little white flowers?

[perspicacious]

Are those the ones with the little white flowers?

Yeeeeeeeees!

[perspicacious]

It's when a sheet of plastic is laid on top of soil(you'll need to scrape off the top inch or so of all plant life) for 4-6 weeks in hot sun so that the top 12 inches gets cooked.theres a great write up at ipm.ucdavis.edu Look for 'soil solarization.'

Thanks! I'll read up on it.

[Frisk]

Oh wait you already said that in the title. I'm getting tired haha

[Gilchy]

Had it, as well as dandelions, chickweed, wild violet as well as any number of other weeds. Our yard was pretty rough! Nutrilawn helped big time, can't recommend them enough..

[Lady tehMa]

I like the wild violet, and clover. I'd rather have a lawn of that than grass. And the Bindweed crap - Grrrrrr