Dig out the perennials and anything that's setting seed.

Thanks Stera, that's ok for most things, but I have never been able to dig out all the roots of bindweed and I don't think I ever will! They grow so deep and snap off so easily and every tiny piece left behind will grow. Maybe 'no dig' would just make things worse?

certainly remove perennial weeds first but plants like bindweed will still grow. the only solution would be to use a systemic weedkiller every time it gets to about 6" high. eventually you will kill it.

Bindweed- oh dear. Put the canes wherever it appears and let it climb up until theres goodly growth. Then lay the canes flat and spray with systemic weedkiller, protecting anything you want to keep.. You have to keep at it - it can the several years to eradicate it. The country name for those horrible white roots that can go down at least six feet id Devils Guts - you can see why...
Sorry about that. At our last garden I was just winning after five years...it does work in the end. You can grow round it as long as you protect our crop before you spray.

Yes, I've done a bit of that when growth first starts but tend to get overwhelmed by it as the summer progresses.
Will try with more perseverance this year!

Locally there are ironstone mines 40 feet below the ground.
The men said when they had to go down them the Bindweed roots trailed on their heads from the roof.
I always pull out every bit of it.
Want the Butterlies to come, no chemicals, so its done by a small border fork.

Stick with it PF - its the only way...

"No dig" refers to no tilling or breaking up the soil clods, but I think it's required when you initially prepare the bed as well as eradicating tenacious weeds. It's about maintaining soil structure which is habitat for earthworms and beneficial microbes. Drag the garden hoe through the beds once in awhile to take out weeds before they become noxious problems.

Sorry but in the UK a hoe is not much use against bindweed...that methods fine when the perennial weeds are gone.

I think you over-dramatize the situation. It's not quite that bad. We have morning glories here in the US too. Mine are banished to the back fence and really don't grow beyond that. The best way to get rid of morning glories (or bindweed in the UK) is to decapitate it at ground level, such as you would do with a garden hoe. That's what it's made for.

UK bind weed that is being talked about here, is one of a few species, the commonest is Calystegia sepium, is a pernicious perennial and produces a rhizome that will grow from less than a 1/2" of rhizome. So hoeing it off just encourages more growth from other growing points on the rhizome. The rhizome needs to be fully removed.

I have been slowly eradicating this for 20 + years now. Still not won the battle.

Morning Glory is a general name for a range of plants in the genus Convolvulaceae. Some are annuals and easily hoed off when they self seed eg Ipomoea

So you'll have to do a little work in the garden to keep it up to snuff.

Seaburn, when I was a nipper my Dad taught me about bindweed, he told me if you leave a tiny bit in the ground it will root, it sure does, horrid stuff.
Hogweed is my most hated, huge roots, I tried Roundup one year but failed, maybe I used too it too early in the season?

when I used to teach botany and asexual reproduction my garden supplied bindweed, creeping sow thistle and couchgrass, enabling the students to identify nodes. they were amazed at how little creeping sow thistle and bindweed was need to create a new plant.
I used to use this as an excuse for them being in the garden. one of the other plants is a wild vetchling that was used for root nodules and the bacteria rhizobium. the compost bins provided material for minibeast safari. [enjoyed by all ages from yr7 [11yr olds] to year 13 [18 yr olds]

weedkillers tend to work better on older plants rather than first fresh new growth Dawn. I find late summer spraying on bindweed is best for me. the posion gets translocated to the rootstock especially as it prepares to overwinter.

Fascinating Seaburn, I wish I'd had teachers like you.
Couch grass grrrr. Nightmare, especially in clay.
Brilliant advice, I will put a note in my diary for late summer to spray the hogweed, its in the woodland, I never allow them to seed, I will spray just as flowers are facing? Then there's cow parsley, ok in small quantities but enough is enough, then the dreaded false geum.