Weeds Week: The "Unfriendly" Morning Glory Weed

photo from shutterstock.com

You see those morning glory vines trailing so freely up on trellises or pergolas? Beautiful aren't they? But what I am about to tackle this time is not the type of morning glory vine that brightens up anyone's day upon seeing its blooms open up at sunrise. It is its nasty vine weed cousin- the bindweed or the morning glory weed. 

photo from soilcropandmore.info

Living in Victoria has made me notice this handful of a weed. After cutting its stem and its roots, just after a few days you will find them growing back again- and spreading! They are just as menacing as the dandelions in the prairies. You will have to weed them out over and over again until you finally manage to greatly reduce their numbers.


But is there another way of getting rid of the morning glory weed? Yes there is!


For the morning glory weed to flourish, it has to have an unrestricted area to grow and spread. This is where the morning glory weed's weakness lies- it despises crowd.


Therefore, if you find the morning glory weed creeping along a bald patch of soil, fill that area up with plants that are suited for the location.If the area is somewhere in the lawn, cover it with landscaping grass of your choice. You have to literally be on top of the competition. Once the morning glory weed is overcrowded, it loses its capacity to outgrow every plant that gets in its way.


And again...MULCH!


Mulching a bald area will work the same way as filling it in with ornamental plants. Mulch will restrict the sunlight from shining on exposed weed seeds and deprive it of sunshine as well as moisture. Pretty soon, it will rot and die.