Allotments 4 All

well, a good part of it!
this little lot came out of a small part of my mate's front garden
[attachment=1]

and this is a piece of the root section, which has just sprouted hundreds of growing tips!!
[attachment=2]

Looks like my allotment, I have removed a pile the size of a family car from my plot. Amazing plant, truly aweful and awesome.

If GM scientists really wanted to help the world, they could create a bindweed/sweet potato hybrid which grows tonnes of sweet potatoes on marginal land.

Looks like my allotment too  :( :(

Lovely.. ::)I'm in the middle of the job like that.... ::)

I'll swap it for my international ground elder collection.

Quote from: Tulipa on May 11, 2010, 12:40:04
Looks like my allotment too  :( :(

And mine >:(

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on May 11, 2010, 18:18:58
I'll swap it for my international ground elder collection.

:) :) :)

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on May 11, 2010, 18:18:58
I'll swap it for my international ground elder collection.

I share your grief, this is my back garden bain.

One day I will work some land not afflicted by penicious weeds, one day.

Out of interest how are you disposing of it Tony?

Quote from: 1066 on May 11, 2010, 18:35:23
Out of interest how are you disposing of it Tony?

It's not mine!!   It is a friend's garden, he actually composts it!! (a few local garden contractors supply him with loads of grass cuttings, leaves etc)
He usually builds (and fills) a couple of 8ft X 8ft by 4 ft high compost heaps per year from plasterboard pallets. (constant filling and shrinkage, throughout the gardening year)

Blimey! That's some compost making set up!!!

Quote from: 1066 on May 11, 2010, 18:50:43
Blimey! That's some compost making set up!!!

I'll post some photo's if you like!!

Compost bindweed away....april the 1st?...no wonder it is that bad...I need nuclear explosion to kill what I have dug up... ::)...first I leave on path to dry out and later on they will be burned..I do not give it a chance of return.. >:(

I always compost it. A really thick root will take two years, but they all die in the end. Anything I find alive just goes straight back in the bin.

I experimented with the roots, I stacked them all together on plastic and mixed some other garden waste in with them, they rotted down without regrowing. Robert is right.

i compost everything too - for about, oh, five minutes, i separated perennial roots out of all the weedings before I got very bored. It might take a bit longer but it all dies in the end.

The best method of destroying bindweed and twitch grass (spear grass in Norfolk - couch grass for the rest of you) is to dig it out and burn it.

I was told that during the WW1, in the fens, a farmer had harrowed out twitch from a field, made heaps of it and set it alight. A German Zeppelin flying overhead at night, thought it was a village and dropped a bomb on it (waste of time harrowing it out only to get it spread all over again).

Bindweed is a pain here too. If you do decide to burn it, make sure that it IS all burned though. One year, I thought I'd burned it, spread the ashes from the bonfire, and had bindweed coming up everywhere.

The thick white roots of bindweed look quite juicy, and so productive - can't we eat them?

Quote from: pigeonseed on May 16, 2010, 20:28:36
The thick white roots of bindweed look quite juicy, and so productive - can't we eat them?

Yes leaves & roots can be eaten but it's not recomended to eat them very often due to the purgative effect, the leaves often have a bitter aftertaste dspite what PFAF claim.
See the PFAF site for further info on edible uses:
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Calystegia+sepium