Temporary fix for borders

Hi all

Last year, having got sick of fighting a losing battle against a bindweed infestation, I dug out my favourite plants and put them in containers and then blitzed the borders with Round-Up. Then I dug it all over. My plan at the time was to wait until this year's growing season was underway, watch out for any surviving bindweed, zap it, then plant established plants in the border. I will probably still go with that plan.

In the meantime though, it is starting to grind me down when I look out over my sorry lawn, and seen great wide areas of bare, freshly dug soil.

Has anyone got any ideas about a cheap and temporary solution to brighten it up a bit until about April time, when I will blitz it all again and start implementing my new design? I will consider pretty much anything so if you have any ideas, please spill, even if they are not text book solutions.

Cheers

 

Spring and early summer bulbs would have been a good choice, not sure you'll find any available now though.

Its just a thought but I think you may need to wait a bit longer before the blitz with roundup, bindweed is not the earliest of plants to get going, especially with it being mostly dug out last year.
I would have thought at least June before there is any growth capable of taking in roundup.

 

Astro turf? only kidding, but hopefully its made you smile.

I thought bindweed had to be dug up not zapped...and my understanding of it was that by digging it into many pieces makes more of it grow. Hopefully someone else will come in and tell me I'm daft.

Steve...

 

The Roundup should have done it - provided it had time to get down into the roots before the digging started.

But in my experience a single application doesn't get rid of it all.

I wonder if covering the ground with weed control fabric, and planting through it, might be the answer?

 

Biennials would have done the job...lupins, foxgloves etc. Toolate now... wish I could send me my trays of baby foxgloves, that will go to waste :(

 

I spent a good couple of months at the back end of last summer and autumn periodically zapping the bindweed with Round-Up. All the while I was carefully not to physically damage it so that it could take up the lovely herbicides. I didn't dig the ground until I was sure I'd killed the bindweed that was in my patch. The trouble is the next door neighbour neglects their garden and they have bindweed, so it is only a matter of time before it comes back. My plan was to watch for it and zap it as soon as I spotted it, and keep doing so.

The trouble is the garden currently looks awful. It is not a particular pleasant place to be. I just need to do something with the bare soil. I have put some daffodil and allium bulbs in but they won't be out for a while yet, and I only put a few in anyway.

I know it sounds desperate but I even considered buying some artificial plants just for the time being, but the trouble with that is that I will know they are artificial. That said it might be better than bare soil.

 

Couldn't you have things in pots sitting on top of the border? Its not great, but better than bare soil. If you planned it, you could incorporate them into the border at a later date too.

 

That's an excellent idea. I wish I'd thought of that. That may well just work. Next weekend I shall head down to the local nursery and see what they've got in.

 

You could post them to me inside a moss roll, I can always find room for foxgloves. Course, I am also always on the cadge. Look nice amongst some hydrangeas.


But to the case in point-really there isn`t anything to stop you from using some planters in the interim.

 

Most herbaceous perennials will do fine in a pot for one season and if your border is bindweed free by this autumn you can plant them up then and have a great display the summer after. I'd even say don't bother with expensive pots-enough plants and cheap plastic ones won't be noticeable

 

I can always find a space for foxgloves too!

 

You can dig pots into the borders, I do this every year.

This year I have between 10-15 x 6 inch plastic pots filled with spring bulbs (daffs Tulips, bluebells, snowdrops crocus) and they will go in "holes" in the garden, ie where there is space or around and about the place for some early colour. I do the same with summer bedding too, growing from seed, any that dont have space in the garden, go in the pots which fill in corners of the garden later on.

I just dig a hole and bury the whole pot.

Steve...

 

I like the buried pot idea. I'm going to go with that I think. I reckon I will do it with lots of plants initially, and then once I'm sure my bindweed infestation is sorted I will put many plants permanently in position, and leave some in pots for easy relocation.

 

I bury pots in my borders, especially invasive plants (crocosmia, bamboo) and tender plants that need overwintering in the Greenhouse...

 

" I will put many plants permanently in position"

The "plunge-pots" approach will also help you fine-tune your planting layout, before actually committing to it :gnthb: