Knotweed in the garden - curse or blessing?

Table Of Contents:

Knotweed in the garden can be both a blessing and a curse. So here is an explanation of how you can cut and remove the knotweed.

The robust knotweed is an excellent climbing plant that can be used to green large areas extremely quickly - because during the growth phase knotweed grows up to 30 centimeters per day. Which is why it is often planted along public paths to green walls.

Unfortunately, the knotweed often spreads so much that it crowds out other native plants and can hardly be tamed. Then the greenery, which blooms beautifully in white from July to September, becomes a problem. Especially since the deep roots (up to 2 meters deep) cannot be removed easily. For example, this climbing plant can cause major damage to trees.

So you now have to decide for yourself whether you want to remove the knotweed from your garden or care for it properly and keep the growth under control. Both options explained in more detail.

Cut Knotweed

From the first days of frost, the hardy knotweed loses its yellow or green foliage and leaves only bare branches. Before it forms new leaves again next spring, you should prune it back boldly. The ideal time for this is February to March. You should then use pruning shears to cut back the knotweed.

Then it is important that you set up climbing aids for controlled knotweed growth. However, these must be particularly stable, since knotweed is a fairly strong creeper.

Remove Knotweed

With chemical herbicides, you can of course effectively break down the knotweed. However, this measure has the disadvantage that the ecology around the plant also gets out of balance. In principle, you only have two options to remove the knotweed:

» digging up the garden:

The root system of the knotweed often branched out extensively underground. Therefore, to completely remove the plant, you will have to dig up your garden completely.

» Hot steam:

Another way of removing is that youfight the knotweed (preferably the root system) with hot steam. However, living beings that are in the immediate vicinity of the plant are also damaged or even killed.