bindweed and quackgrass holding me back

I have had bindweed for years, it was readily smothering  indeterminate tomates, grape vines, hardy kiwi, mint, jchokes,raspberries, Rose Of Sharon,etc.
This year, it's hardly around.
Why? Chickens.
They don't seem to like the adult plants but their scratching and pecking has destroyed every annual plant they can get to.
I'm growing onions,garlic and comfrey in milk crate "tractors" ,and annuals under snowfence and pvc frames.
Some bindweed shows up in the franes, but I pull it and throw it to the chooks.
This is how i plan to replant the whole yard in chicken forage.
My wife is just wanting greenery,having suffered through  a back yard made barren by my massive junk...collection,which is being relocated.

We have tried everything we have at our disposal to get rid of quackgrass. It's because the land was neglected for at least 80 years. No one would try to deal with it which gave it a life of its own. I have tried everything. I have seen it grow under cardboard with wood chips piled on top of it in the heat of summer. By fall, which was 9 months after we put that down, it was still green underneath all of that. It was very disheartening. But we have tried for 8 years. We do not have money for cover crops, or a bulldozer, or machinery of any kind to try to pull it out. We would lose all of our top soil to pull it out. Then I'd have to pay to have top soil back in. That's expensive and sad. We have fantastic top soil.
I'm watching to see how people are dealing with this - that land back there used to be a living orchard, this area was - and people chopped them down because I guess they figured the horse or cow couldn't find their way around the trees.
So I believe the land is sad, and has just grown out of control. The best time to remove it is in February when it's just become unfrozen. It comes right now. It would take ten to 20 people to remove the entire area of it. We are trying wood chips and card board but it's nasty stuff, the smallest hole and it will grow.
Disappointed and frustrated,
Cat

I've been working with quackgrass for 5 years and there is no sign of it going away. I can dig the stuff out by deep turning the grow beds but that only triggers the germination of  a gazillion wild buckwheat seeds dormant in the soil, followed next spring by a fresh crop of quackgrass. And it destroys the soil structure.

If I sheet mulch I get about 1 growing season in before the quackgrass punches through an entire newspaper. If I deep mulch with hay it just keeps on coming.

For annual beds I really am at a loss about what to do about it. I'm coming to the conclusion that I will simply have to pull the stuff until one of us dies.

Nick Kitchener wrote:I've been working with quackgrass for 5 years and there is no sign of it going away. I can dig the stuff out by deep turning the grow beds but that only triggers the germination of  a gazillion wild buckwheat seeds dormant in the soil, followed next spring by a fresh crop of quackgrass. And it destroys the soil structure.

If I sheet mulch I get about 1 growing season in before the quackgrass punches through an entire newspaper. If I deep mulch with hay it just keeps on coming.

For annual beds I really am at a loss about what to do about it. I'm coming to the conclusion that I will simply have to pull the stuff until one of us dies.

Quack grass is hard to deal with.  The way I have handled it is to smother it for as long as it takes to die with heavy sheets of rubber (pond liner) or cardboard or carpet or whatever wherever I want a garden to be, plus a foot or so extra all the way around.  It can take a year or more, but I leave it until everything under it is completely dead.  Then I fold in the sides of the smother-material about 6 inches and plant a border of comfrey all the way around, about 6 inches apart.  Let the comfrey come up and get at least a few inches tall before you remove the smother-material.  During that time, keep the quack grass pulled from between the comfrey.  Once the comfrey is established, it should make an area of protection around the garden bed that will keep the quack from growing back in from the sides.  After the comfrey is growing well, you can pull off the smother-material and plant the area immediately.  If you used cardboard, you can just pile compost or soil on it and plant right in it.  I try to keep everything covered with wood chips from then on, but if you don't have wood chips, just try to keep some kind of mulch or something growing in it all the time.  It worked really well for me.

My bindweed went away as my soil got better, so I can't really comment more on that.

Duane, I don't know about that hardpan theory... maybe true in some places... but I have very sandy soil, down to 8 feet, according to the septic tank installer!  And 'my' bindweed/quack grass grow very happily!

I'm in South Australia where we have Kikuyu grass. It's a real pain.
I guess it's our equivalent of 'quack' grass?
I'm lucky though, in that my soil is very sandy so pulling the rhizomes is very easy.
That said, I'm not young and clearing an area of it is still hard work for me.

After a couple of weeks of filling up the municipal green waste bin I thought maybe I could hot compost it instead? I'll make a separate pile away from everything else and also let it cure properly. Maybe turn it into a resource?
Has anybody done this? 🤔

Here, in maritime Washington State, US, in our hot months (now!) I can leave quack and bindweed roots on the pathways to dessicate... hopefully totally devoid of viability   At other times, I use 'drowning' in a large barel of water, weighted down, which creats 'pongy water'... a good, if smelly, fertilizer.   I keep it covered, due to smell, and assume that the anaerobic process is not producing dangerous chemicals.

But, William,  bindweed is a determinedly perennial plant!  My chickens reduce 'all' to bare soil, too... but, if they move off for a few months, up comes the bindweed!  Sure wish I could mak eit palatable to chickens... cook it?  chop it?  ??

The rhizomes are too deep for chickens to dig up. I guess they'd need our help to fork over an area for them at a time.

I know this is an old post, but I haven't seen anyone share what my observations have indicated. First, I can confirm that pigs will eradicate bindweed, wild blackberries, or any other pest rhizome species. I raised pigs for a few years rotationally in 1/4 acre paddocks, and have zero bindweed in those areas now. My 1/2 acre garden is adjacent to these paddocks and is nearly overrun with it in some areas.

The next observation is there is no bindweed where I have grass as a groundcover. I believe someone said this earlier. However, in weedy patches, my wildflower beds, etc, its everywhere. The only other exception is around my comfrey plants, which are growing somewhat randomly through the garden area.

I suspect this indicates that bindweed does not compete very well for root space. So Orchard grass, another lawn type grass, comfrey, or something else with similar characteristics may end up being the solution. I am going to plant several beds in oats for a winter cover crop, and let the residue stay all next year, observing the results pertaining to bindweed and how long it takes it to establish (or not) in those beds next spring/summer.

Great info!!  Thanks  Holding my breath for your results!  (will have to breath a little before next spring

I have bindweed popping up in random places in my grass, but it is certainly smaller and less dense in grassy areas.

It is, however, a bit of a nightmare at the edges of my property. Your comments on comfrey have given me the idea to possibly just line my property with it. The previous owner covered the perimeter fence with a barrier but this keeps wildlife out as well as most (some) of the bindweed. If comfrey is effective (and with experience trying to split that dense root network I think it might be), then I'll just have tons of mulching material. It's such a robust plant that I wouldn't be concerned about pulling bindweed up near it.  
Thanks for the inspiration!