Bindweed nightmare.

[Gettingbysomehow]

I normally have a lovely garden but I've been ill and unable to do anything for 2 months.
Bindweed has poured in under the fence from the elderly people next door and has covered everything in my courtyard garden. I could weep.
I really don't want to use chemicals to get rid of it as I have 2 cats, hedgehogs and foxes.
I'm going to have to pull it all up and keep pulling it up aren't I unless anyone knows any organic gardening tricks for getting rid of it?

You can use shears to cut it between next door and yours, and leave it to die off [should be 2-3 days to die and start shrivelling] and then use a rake to drag it out and anything that didn't die has somehow rooted so you can just dig those roots out.

Yes you are going to have to keep pulling at it, but the other week on gardeners world they suggested putting something like a pea stick teepee up near where it’s coming through, it will climb up the support and you’ll know exactly where the roots are.

Perhaps because you're feeling less than yourself as you been unwell this task feels like an uphill battle. The answer is to keep pulling it up, but could you get someone to help you with the initial clearing of the two months backlog? Having another pair of hands will make it light work and then keeping on top of it won't feel so bad. Great that you're feeling well enough to get back out on your garden to enjoy the wildlife.

I hear you. I have left our lawn for about a fortnight and half of it is covered in the stuff. I spent 2 hrs digging it up today and barely made a dent!

apparently digging up is the only way to go. Only glyphosate works and even I won’t use that!

I feel your pain as I have bindweed constantly coming under the fence from the neighbours garden. I have resigned myself that it will probably still be here long after I've gone so just pull up bits when I see them, luckily they're easy to pull out and if you just keep regularly pulling it up it will eventually weaken.

I hate using weedkiller too but when I first moved into this house it was so rampant I decided I had to go the chemical route. I just gathered as many long stems as I could, stuffed them into a carrier bag still attached to their roots and soaked everything in the bag with weedkiller. Then tied the carrier bag handles and left it for a week. That kept the chemicals only on the bindweed and got it to a more manageable state.

Spray the tip with weed killer. Wrap up in clingfilm tight. Elastic bands and let die

Takes a long time and looks very strange but it has halved the bind weed in our garden! I am defeated though