First Bindweed of Spring!

[Mal]

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'!

[prison break fan]

Oh me too!! Also ground elder! pbf.

[Mrs Moustoir]

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

I hate the stuff!

[Thomzo]

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

[lazyspice]

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

[JustinFun]

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)

[prison break fan]

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

[Annpan]

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

[MuddyWitch]

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