Selfsufficientish.com

Still haven't seen my first swallow of spring, but was down the allotment at the weekend and certainly saw my first bindweed of the year. Gave me a sense of sinking dread, and a definite feeling of 'here we go again'!

Oh me too!! Also ground elder! pbf.

Bindweed here too. It has invaded the asparagus patch and is impossible to weed out from there.

I hate the stuff!

Yup, saw the first shoots of bindweed yesterday and there is definitely ground elder in the middle bed. I am trying to persuade the chooks that both are really really tasty.

Ground elder is edible, I gather, but I've not tried it yet.

Zoe

I pulled up loads of the evil stuff yesterday - it's like trying to hold back the tide, isn't it?

We're digging over a long neglected allotment at the moment and last night we had a very satisfying bonfire composed largely of a mountain of bindweed root. Very smokey, but grimly pleasurable nonetheless.

Bindweed must die! (as must couch grass)

I read somewhere that the Romans introduced ground elder to this country as a food, they have a lot to answer for! pbf.

Didn't they also bring rabbits?


The bindweed here isn't quite through yet, but the ground elder is - I must say, the more of the garden I cultivate the easier it seems to be to control, but still a nightmare around the rhubarb.

I am digging out clumps of couch grass every day

The Romans did bring many things across, but the Ground Elder we all know & hate was brought by the second 'Roman' invasion...Christianity. The monks cultivated it in the physic garden as a tincture of it is said to cure gout.

BTW the Normans brought the rabbits & they were delicate little things that were killed by our harsh Winter...so they selectivley bred 'em!

Meanwhile, back on thread, hubby has spent the last two weekends de-bindweeding our garden, but as its 30 ft wide & we have a wasteland on one side & a bloke that likes the stuff on the other we're probably fighting a loosing battle!

MW