Strawberry Patch Makeover (Part 1) Removing bindweed and ground elder
My strawberry cages are out of control with invasive weeds! It's finally time to give this patch a huge makeover. Join me on this two part series to get rid of the weeds and start over with a new collection of strawberries. In this episode you'll see how I control the original ground elder and bindweed infested patch with an organic approach.
Apologies for those who notice a few wobbles in my video and audio - I'm getting use to some new gear. All will be revealed soon!
Part 2 - • Strawberry Patch Makeo...
- SUPPORT -
If you enjoyed this video please consider making a small donation to support my channel.
☕ Buy Me a Cuppa - www.buymeacoffee.com/2YckPLx1G
🎁 Paypal - www.paypal.com/paypalme/Katri...
Patreon - COMING SOON!
- SOCIAL -
Instagram - / homegrown.garden
- MUSIC -
'Fractal of Light' by Chris Haugen, 'Where I am From' by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena. All licensed under Creative Commons.
That bindweed will be back!
Exactly. Back with vengeance
I hate bindweed, I call it the devils guts. One thing sticks with me was watching Geoff Hamilton with my mum many years ago, he nailed a piece of bindweed root to garden shed door, then 8 years later got it down and planted it. The root still grew!
😮
I had a patch of ground elder.... pulled them all out , covered with thick cardboard, covered with thick layer of wood chips...it worked!! Only now,ivy is starting to crawl in😂...nature doesn't like emptiness 😊
It's so uplifting to see that I'm not the only person with ground elder problem :D ;)
Anyone who claims to have an allotment with no bindweed can’t be trusted in my opinion 🤣
Hiya Kat - 100%. Agree totally. Honestly that’s the best approach for anyone who is setting up an allotment or veggie garden. Let nature deal with the weeds. For new gardeners I always recommend exactly what you’ve just done there. Be patient and grow in tubs for year 1. Once you’ve got your pots going you should build three bay compost heap pronto. Fill two bays with horse, sheep, cow and chicken dung. Bay three gives you a place for all your garden and kitchen waste. Then you have a whole year to sort your shed, water butts, nice place to shelter, potting bench etc etc. When your beds are ready and the weeds are pretty well zonked, you’ll have two cubic metres of first class compost on your lot. Worth more than gold. And you’ll have grown plenty of veggies in your pots, which you can continue to do. I only grow spuds in tubs now. One minor problem we have where I live is that mice tend to move in under the plastic. Then the brown snakes move in to get the mice 😖. You have to be dead careful when you lift it up…. I reckon a gardener is a compost grower and the compost grows the veg. Had a chuckle when I saw you putting the chips down though. Crossed my mind that the red ants are gonna love that condo you’ve just built them 😊. As always great to see your happy, smiling face. Many thanks.
Perfect timing. I just bought some seascape bare root strawberries. Looking forward to part 2.
It's amazing the difference it makes! Your allotment is looking lovely.
Bind weed travels under ground quite a distance. Will pop up under ground again and again. But it does need to photosynthesise . To stop I that just keep pulling and digging out. In the end it weakens the weed as long as it doesn’t get too photosynthesised. Bloody awful stuff. I think Wiltshire is full of it 😂
It's unbelievable isn't it? I have some admiration (grudging) for these indomitable foes, bindweed, brambles, dock, nettles, even dandelions seem to have gone a bit more bonkers than usual.
@@sroberts605 I agree. We can only do what we can do. I’ve learned more regarding this gardeners nightmare. The roots of bindweed or bellbind may penetrate up to 5m (16ft) deep or more and spread rapidly, but most growth is from white, shallow, fleshy underground stems. Established colonies can spread outwards by 2m (6½ft) or more in a single season. Now I’m sitting thinking I didn’t dig deep enough 🤨 😂😰😭
@@joannahart1604 Another weird thing people do here is after digging up the roots, they hang them up to dry so that they can then add them to the compost. I just find this too much to stare at and send them to their doom at the local tip!
great job, thanks for sharing. i'm growing strawberries this year for the first time.
You will NEVER be free of bind weed.😂😂 I have been digging it up for years. Have you heard of solarizing? Use clear plastic instead of black and sunshine basically fries the weeds.
I haven't yet in 10+ years (I did inherit a completely infested plot). So... no I haven't heard of that, and does it work? (Have you tried it?)
@@sroberts605 solarizing helps a bit, bit bindweed still remains. You kill all live on the solarized patch (live you should bring in back) bit the deeper bindweed root will still remain, and in a couple of months it will pop up again 😂😂😂.
When I took my garden over it was covered in bindweed but now due to removing every single bit has not appeared in the last 15 or so years.
Garden maintenance is always part of the whole scenario. So far this year I've dug up and divided a couple delphinium that were getting old, not flowering as they have for five or so years. Too I've dug up and divided a younger peony that was completely overgrown with witch grass and marjoram. Putting down black plastic, as you did, surely smothers that piece of ground over the months. That will be nice having several varieties of strawberries so you have a lasting harvest over the summer months. I always enjoy your videos. Thanks for sharing and have fun in your garden. Cheers!
With all this crazy weather I think we’re all going to enjoy more weeds 😂😂 Love these projects 🤗
We sure are! The soil is still SO wet. I spent 3 hours hand picking bindweed roots from other areas yesterday 😫
@@homegrowngarden It's doing really well this year and we are only in April. It's strong and vigorous. Such a pity we can't crop it and eat the darn stuff.
@@suewilkinson910 ground elder is very edible. if you pick it when it is young and succulent it is a very tasty salad crop. when it grows bigger I feed it to my rabbits.
Beautiful! Simple plan and very nicely done. 😊
Good job!
Pots on top, yesss! 😍
Looks great with the mulch on!
I found using lots of cardboard and a heavy mulch really helped. Means it will eventually come back through but makes getting metres of it our in one piece much easier so over the next year or two its fairly easy to get the bulk out. I've always found the plastic to degrade and fly about the allotments. Very effective but I hate getting rid of it afterwards. Cardboard and and heavy mulch is my go to if possible.
Well done Katrina, that was quite an infestation, hopefully this will control the problem weeds for you. As I'm sure you know it's quite a good idea to relocate and re-stock strawberry beds every once in a while anyway - looking forward to Pt2 !
Good job
Those little fairy stomps on the wood chips .. very cute 😝
Watching a real woman doing real work REALLY warms my heart. Great to see your allotment is getting ready for more planting!
Thank you! The plot is really starting to take shape now. I’ve made a lot of progress in the last week and can’t wait to share more updates 😁
Did you just assume Katrina's gender?
Katrina‘s are always real women 😂😂😂 The video is really heartwarming and informative. ❤️🥰 (Idk what a real woman is though 😜)
@@amcluesent A real woman simply can't hide her beauty. 😀It shines forth in an aura that surrounds her.
@@LittleKikuyu You may not know what a real woman is - but when you find one you will know! They are very rare and VERY valuable.
Hiya Katrina, oh yes will be using this method for my back garden spaces that are a bit over due for care. Ontario Canada 🇨🇦🐝
Was considering doing exactly the same with a similar sized plot, great to see someone who has it completed - many thanks , new subscriber added!!
I love your plot 😊
Great update as always. That is the only way to kill those weeds. well done for showing it.
Bind weed! 😭😱 It's all over my large garden. In the herb and salad bed. In the flower borders and the shrubbery. I hate it. I can't do what you have done because it's in established garden. I find if I keep pulling it, it will eventually weaken the plant and it get's more controllable. But a year and a half ago we finished a building project I the garden and had some hard landscaping done. This involved moving a lot of soil that had been dug up for the build and putting it in the new landscaped areas. I then planted it out. And 6 months later realised that a ton of bindweed must have been dormant in that soil we moved and brought back to the top and it went crazy. I should have been out pulling it today as I had some time at home. But it was too cold with endless showers and hail and I was a wimp.
W
good luck with your weeds katrina
Great work and good luck with the strawberries 🍀
We don’t have bind weed but we do have others to deal with one is Creeping Charlie that make it into out lawns taking over green. Wishing you success and winning your battle. Thank you for sharing your gardening chores. 👍❤️🙂
gorgeous
Hi Katrina i did exactly the same as you did It worked well for me ,as 71 year old i even managed the wood chip dance , ,albeit a little slower 🤣🤣
You are a hard worker!
💪
Gosh you worked hard there Katrina, but it looks great now. Great idea using it for your potatoes! Looking forward to part 2.
Very good video and good advice! Also, your smile is gorgeous. 🙂
Fantastisch Good work Katrina you the best te moostiun te looking Top 🌱👍🧤🌾🌿⛅🏵️🌸
Ive had a patch about six times the size of that covered and woodchipped in the same way for three years now. It still comes up constantly at the edges (even the edges i secured with nails and batons to the edges of raised beds, it still finds a way through even a 0.5mm gap) i pick away any i see on a daily basis. Look under the plastic and theres a ton of healthy looking bindweed roots..three years..still there.
You sure have put in some work on your garden and it is looking good. We gardeners do like playing in the dirt. It does bring life and lots of good foods. Have fun!
GOD bless you Sister Katrina. I Love Strawberries but haven't got them to grow 😢
Can't wait for part 2 Katrina. My strawberry bed is overun with weeds too! My problem are docks with massive roots and stinging nettles. At least I can make fertiilizer with the stingers!
I’ve been fighting with grass on my raised beds. We usually try to clean our beds a few minutes per day so we can enjoy the weekend.
One way to enjoy strawberries throught the year is to grow a perpetual variety like Mara des Bois. I grow this variety both inside my polytunnel and in a dedicated bed and I get strawberies from early/mid May until the end of September .... in South Wales. I also have a bindweed problem :( I have tried to use the plastic sheet method but I found that it would travel horizontally along the ground until it found the edges. My current method involves the use of a herbicide which I almost never normally use. I put canes in the ground and the bindweed finds these and climbs up them. I then paint the leaves with the herbicide to kill the plant.
I normally leave the plastic on throughout the grow season and cut little squares in it for my seeds to grow.
Hi Katrina. Watching you from Cyprus. Hate bindweed. Thank you for your advice. ❤Xx
Very helpful 👍 I had bindweed popping up all over my border last year (coming through landscape sheeting and bark) I’m assuming that the previous owner had used this as a method of controlling it. I pulled it when I could, none has come up yet in the border, but it’s coming up on the edges of my newly made no dig veg bed!!!!!!! So I feel my efforts will have all been for nothing 😔.
Howdy Katrina, it’s been a while since I’ve seen one of your videos (my feed has been taken over by news from Ukraine and US politics and only a few gardening videos). I too have a fondness for strawberries and grow them mostly in my greenhouse. The deer ate on the ones outside but many have come back. That plastic liner should do the trick on those pesky weeds, it looks much like the pond liners I’m using for my media beds in my aquaponic greenhouse which is the biofilter for the fish tank in my garage. Living in a desert using only rainwater catchment means I’m limited in how much I can grow outside. I did plant out the dahlias outside right by one of the rainwater tanks. Dahlias are what introduced me to your channel but I like your garden, much greener than my desert, but I love it here nonetheless. Thanks for your videos!
i love that thumbnail, so cute!
Thank you 🥰
I've got bindweed, wild garlic and arum ....I'm 4 years in and still struggling to keep it at bay ! Interested to see your progress ❤
I have terrible bindweed problems in my currant patch. For a few years I dried digging out everything I could find, without success, so I've covered it for a year and three months with cardboard and black plastic sheeting. I lifted it last week to have a look underneath, and there is bindweed root growing everywhere beneath it.
save the strawberry's .. yummm
I saw rabbit9696 comment about getting rid of ground elder, and it reminded me that a old gardener at our local allotment said that Tagetes minuta Mexican Marigold, can get rid of bind weed. Personally, I have also done this method of just using either a very thick sheet. I've used cardboard. I used weed suppressant just to give myself a break because I don't actually want the hassle of dealing with that area whilst it's going through. It's decontamination of the unwelcome plant so I think this is a really constructive and positive way to deal with an issue. Especially when when going back to use that area you know you can add all the mulches and companion planning to then re activate the soil.
Looks great, especially with the woodchip! It'll make for a nice area for potted plants. I really wish I could apply this method, but unfortunately my ground elder patch is also where my aronia grows, so covering the ground with anything will be difficult (and probably harmful to the shrubs. I guess I could try moving the aronia to get it out of there, but that would be a huge undertaking as there are multiple enormous shrubs...
I'm a little late but congratulations on your marriage!! This must be the year of the strawberry I'm growing alpine strawberries by seed and June bearing strawberries by starts . I'm going to try growing them with oregano under my figs . I'm hoping the oregano will ward off slugs and other pests.
New camera Katrina? Your videos always have superb quality and editing but this one is on a whole other level. Felt like I was watching a gardening TV program! Excited for your new strawberry patch, hopefully less tackling of the weeds in the future lol
You noticed! Thank you 🤩🥰 Yes, I will reveal more about that soon but I’m having so much fun with it and can’t wait to share more soon 📷 Thanks for watching 💚
Definitely a new camera, my guess is that it's a dji pocket with a tracking option. Did I get it right?
Love your garden .l enjoy you videos .
The best way I have found is, to dig out the weeds and roots the best you can. Then apply a covering of compost mixed with wood chips. Then cover it with the plastic. When you remove the plastic you will find that the weeds have by and large gone, now the bed is super fertile when you do plant. The worm population will have exploded improving soil structure, drainage and oxygen root availability. The wood chip will have rotted and fungal activity will have been activated to ensure maximum nutrient availability to your plants. I almost forgot to mention water the bed before putting the plastic on. 10:01
Hope this works 😊👌
You are adorable 😊..love all your videos 📹 wow super fantastic 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
Just found your channel and can empathise on the bindweed! Got several patches in our garden and amongst established plants which makes it hard reach. I just put some canes in yesterday to grow some up and am going to try weedkiller and wrapping it in small plastic bags, see if it makes a dent. Awful stuff! As an aside, fair play for putting up with some of the creepy and rude comments, just seeing the ones on this vid alone made me furious.
i did exactly this across my whole allotment in between my beds, bindweed will continue to spread untill it finds light again, i had bindweed spread from one end of my allotment to the other hidden under the plastic then popped up in all of my beds! i had to remove all woodchips and plastic to get at the parent roots, nightmare!
Oh dear, this doesn’t bode well for me 🙈 I’ll be keeping an eye on the perimeter of the bed and pulling any that pops up. With persistent removal, it will hopefully lose energy by trying to find the light.
@@homegrowngarden keep an eye on the edges!
@@homegrowngarden The only thing I've found to keep it under control is unfortunately a combination of digging up the roots at least every 3 years, and removing all shoots in between. How it manages to get enough energy to keep growing roots is a mystery I have yet to fathom!! Such a pain when you want perennial crops.
Fantastisch Good work katriena you te best te moostuin te looking Top 🌱👍🧤🌾🌿🌤pellets
😻
3 more constructive solutions - garlic, leave in for 2 seasons, will kill off groung elder, or broad beans, 1 season or potatoes. All will eradicate ground elder. Not sure about bind weed - I suspect the right companion planting should work- only difference is you're looking for ones that don't get on, and you get a harvest too.
Nothing, not even Armageddon, will kill off bindweed. It mocks you everywhere in the garden. And it hides. You sometimes don't see it and then you realise the darn thing is flowering 6ft off the ground. It's a very annoying weed.
I use a weedkiller called Grazon PRO. Two weeks after spraying you can plant out a new crop.
Sure you can do that, but she did say without chemicals. A lot of people nowadays grow their own food to get away from herbicides/insecticides.
If you want to reuse the silage tarp, it is better to leave it uncoverd. It will become brittle and fall apart under the woodchips… not so bad that you have small pieces of plastic, but bad enough so you can’t reuse it. I had lots of bermuda grass in my garden. Good luck!
Im not sure on that, I feel if it’s left exposed to the sun it will damage quicker via UV damage.
@@homegrowngarden I used new uv treated silage tarp and put mulch over it, left it for 2 years. I also used the same black plastic to kill bermuda grass on a big field to prepare for corn, no mulch, exposed to the sun. The last I still re-use after many years. The piece with mulch over it I had to trow away after removing the mulch. Sounds strange, but that is my experience. I hope yours will be fine of course…
@@simonallins6010 Interesting - silage tarp is made to be on top in the sun, whereas dpm is meant to be sandwiched in concrete floor, not exposed to the sun, and honestly I would think the only difference is UV treatment. Would this make it susceptible to breaking up under cover? I wouldn't think so myself - perhaps not great quality plastic? I've used both, both uncovered, and found the silage tarp more robust over time. The cons? Foxes make holes in it (chasing mice?), and bindweed doesn't seem to mind at all - just travels to the other side!!
@@sroberts605 I was surprised by this as well…
Thanks Katrina. Just thought any update in your decision for the orchard?
I did the same thing last year and it just grew under the plastic and appeared on the other side 😂😂 I’m sick off pulling them out every week
Yeah I’m going to have to watch those sides carefully. Think I’ll get the strimmer around it every week and it should give up!
Thank you for your video. Sadly PVC is a really toxic type of plastic. Leaching chemicals into the soil. There are other types of plastic less toxic to use.
Great video as always Katrina. Informative and entertaining.
Hi does this work for nettles as well. My garden has been taken over by them!
Hi Kat, lovely video as always! The space looks transformed and I look forward to seeing how it works out. Also, I really love your dungarees - would you mind sharing where they’re from? Thanks so much! 😊
Thank you! Almost all of my dungarees are from Lucy and Yak 🙂
I made the mistake a few years back of actually buying Creeping Jenny from a garden centre after being attracted by the thought of its golden flowers to carpet some areas. Error !! As ground cover it gets everwhere & chokes out most other plants, though not unfortunately couch grass which spreads interminably in my sandy loam garden beds. I also have the smaller convolvulus bindweed but it is small & easily removed so does not present the same scale of problem as the vigorous couch grass or Creeping Jenny. This year I am gonna try eliminating it with repeated spraying with full strength white vinegar.
I'll be looking forward to the vid on taking care of strawberries & the critters that prey on them. This is the second year my strawberry plants have fallen victim to vine weevil grubs & I'm thinking of giving them a miss this year, I rescued two plants out of twenty-two strawberry plants, the rest were decimated by these grubs 🙁I'd be really glad to get some tips on how to control them. Thank you for the video.
Oh no, do you grow them in pots?
@@homegrowngarden Yes, I grow them in pots.
They say the best way to get rid of ground elder is to move house! We're surrounded by it so much so we harvest it for mulch (the leaves) by strimming it and form Ruth Stout method potato beds.
I don't see too many people using a mattock nowadays. When I was a lad every home had one . Get as much of that woodchip as you can Katrina and pile it up over your plastic to rot down. Most of the commercial composts are made from 100% wood chip .
Good luck trying to get rid of that bindweed. I'm not convinced that your method will work - I hope you prove me wrong though!
Awesome video. Could do with your expert gardening here in Sheffield
How do you stop the ground elder migrating to all the beds around the plot? It can spread for miles !!
Was going to suggest spuds in pots but then you said it lol
Why not try cardboard sheets to keep light out. This will rot down and make good compost. I suggest multiple layers over time to overlay.
Cardboard is fantastic. However the thick plastic will kill these weed roots faster and more effectively by turning the soil uninhabitable to all plant life. Once done sure remove and then start the no dig method of no dig with cardboard and mulch on top etc to suppress any seeds from germination.
What happens after you remove the plastic, I wonder? Do you dig it up? I want to do this in my pollytunnel autumn to spring to kill bind weed and little purple spreading weed, but not sure it will be enough time.
Autumn to spring won’t work unfortunately as it will be dormant then anyway. if it’s inside a polytunnel the bindweed will find light around the edges outside and that will be a pain to remove. Might be easier to hand weed all the roots im afraid
@@homegrowngarden thank you. Yes, that’s what we do, massive manual job every spring 🙈
Great job, but are you not concerned that you will have plastic disintegrated overtime ?
It’s a good quality, thick plastic. I won’t be leaving it there forever!
Your covered area needs to be much larger the shoots will reach the cover then grow on the surface until they reach the light, you won't get rid of it there will be seeds in the ground and very deep roots that will grow so only use that area for annual crops. I would have forked out every scrap of root first never use a spade that will make more plants, modern weedkillers will give it a headache but not completely kill it
Bonjour, quel dommage de mettre les copeaux de bois sur la bâche et non sous la bâche. S'ils avaient été en dessous, les verres de terre auraient pu les manger et enrichir le sol, rendant ainsi la terre plus fertile. Bonne continuation à vous dans votre potager.
you should look at the Back to Eden way, they put woodchip on the bottom then manure then compost, [or other way round] Great growing way and you can use waht you done already . I have bindweed, best advice ive seen is dig it up as much as you can and not let it grow , evntually it dies out, If you see a speck pull it up,dont let it get light or water dont let it flower, its hard at first but you eventually keep on top of it. but you will always have it,put the bindweed in a bag let it compost right down, or burn it
Covering the land with plastic is a terrible thing on many levels. Firstly it does not kill bind weed, it harbours the root systems which then spill out at the sides, the plastic wilslowly degrade over years and leave fl🎉cks of plastic in the earth. Not cool. You wanna get rid of bind weed? Dig it out, burn it, grow potatoes. Following year smatter mustard, and plant fennel within. Don’t sweep it under the carpet , roll it up, sweep it up , dance and grow 😀
Best reply yet!! Thanks for the advice as I’ll be using your advice in my garden (we had a proper membrane under the kids playground and the ground elder just grew under it …..) A dig and a burn, Potatoes and fennel once I’ve dug up the kids playground!!!!!
D M P Cheaper at ToolStation
eh ? what's " summer " ?
Dungarees- very Felicity Kendall-esque. If you’re too young to remember look up The Good Life 😂
Are you gonna leave the plastic or dig it up later When weeds are dead and woodchips have turned to Earth? 😮
I would never leave plastic in the ground forever. One of the reasons I kept the plastic in one piece is so when I pull it out, I can reuse it for other projects.
Youll never get rid of ground elder ive tried for years including your method. After 2 years removed the black plastic and ground elder was back in 3 weeks
Haircut video soon.
Prat.
first? sorry had to
When will we be able to enjoy your baby with you?
Just my belly, not a baby 🙄
@@homegrowngarden that note was not about belly (I am sorry), but you had weddings so thats why 🙂
Seriously? You put woodchips on plastik that won’t let water thrue? Have you try thinking for a bit?
We tried to get rid of the weeds in our strawberry patch without plastic. We'll see if it will work.