THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Nargleblast

mardatha wrote: »

I've googled bindweed and I haven't seen that here. Not complaining though. My main moan is chickweed - was ok when I had chickens to eat it but now it's a pest.

I am sure I have read somewhere that you can eat chickweed as a medicinal plant (must go consult Mr Google)

[Deleted User]

Persisting down with rain here atm.

[Deleted User]

You can eat chickweed as a pot herb and a salad plant, it's very nice as is Hairy Bitter Cress which grows equally prolifically in most cultivated plots. Chickweed has tiny white flowers which are also edible, it gets leggy and the stems are fibrous so it's best to eat them young. It used to be sold bunched as saladings in the spring after the hungry gap when there isn't much fresh green about and also as food for poultry hence the name Chickweed!

GreyQueen

ancientofdays wrote: »

Quite satisfying pulling the roots out though. Or maybe I'm strange, I love stripping wallpaper too, which has little to do with allotments well nothing at all really.

Snap! I find some tasks of this nature quite theraputic, but I do suffer from an over-busy brain so slow, painstaking work is very relaxing.

I did up the horsetail roots and dry them out. Then I burn them, mwah ha ha. Let's see them regenerate after that!

DigForVictory, that Bunny Guinness (sp?) off gardeners world is dead against rotovators. Says they ruin the soil structure and chop up the little critters, not to mention slicing and dicing perennial weed roots.

Bindweed (both kinds), horsetails, docks and dandelions can all grow completely new plants from a couple of mm of chopped root. :eek: Why would anyone sane want to create more of the dadblasted things?!

:j Mother Christmas has just treated me to a digital camera and I will take it up there and create a record of the Before, the During and the After, as well as the Weird S**t and the Produce.

DigForVictory

Looking forward to the Weird! My lads have never forgotten the first time we dug the back garden, exhumed an Action Man, photographed him, did a bit of research, listed him on eBay & had watchers within 10 minutes.

The Weird is Fun!

(Huge relief rotovators are not always held up as The Answer but may indeed be part of The Problem.)

thriftwizard

The friend whose kitchen garden I helped with last summer has plenty of cause never to wish to see a rotavator again! Her ex's answer to everything is to rotavate, which neatly spread greater bindweed, field bindweed, couch grass & nettles throughout the full-size plot, as well as the previous year's un-dug potatoes, complete with eelworm. Towards the end of the summer we just gave up on it; she's tiny & has a bad back, and I was busy with our own plot, my mother & my vague attempts to earn a living; it would all need to be double-dug & sieved to get halfway on top of it organically. I did manage to introduce her to woven polyprop, which kept big patches clear, but we soon realised that it needs to be used in specific woven widths as the cut edges shred & tangle terribly - a big danger to wildlife.

If we'd had any assurance that she'd still be there in five years' time, we'd have approached it quite differently, covering over areas & clearing them one by one to make raised beds that she could reach into the centre of to weed and crop. The soil desperately needed to rest & be "fed" with compost or the well-rotted-manure we couldn't get at thanks to the senile & delinquent goats; it was reduced to dust in any patches where the weeds hadn't taken hold, and was full of half-burnt bonfire debris. Yes, wood ash is good for the soil, but burnt tins, broken glass & melted plastic don't do a lot for it, or for the gardener who slices her hand open on it. The more I think about it, the crosser I get with the ex who left it like that & specified that she should keep it neat, tidy & in full production if she's to stay in her home... and whose answer was "just let me rotavate it again for you!"

mardatha

How do you get rid of eelworm? I have them out the back garden and had to give up tatties for the last 2 years because of them.

JamesO

mardatha wrote: »

How do you get rid of eelworm? I have them out the back garden and had to give up tatties for the last 2 years because of them.

Good sanitation practices in the garden

Once the presence of stem and bulb eelworm has been confirmed, dig out any plant material showing signs of damage and also other apparently healthy host plants within a one metre radius. Removed bulbs and foliage should be treated as diseased material and not be disposed of in a garden compost heap.

Leave fallow: If possible leave infested soil bare for at least three years and during this time continuously remove weeds that could be potential hosts plants.

Hot water treatment: Hot water treatment can destroy the eelworms within the bulb. However, this is a difficult procedure without professional equipment, and usually limited to commercial production. Eelworms in bulbs can be killed by immersing the dormant bulbs in water held at 44.5°C (112°F) for three hours. Too much heat will damage the bulbs, while too little will allow the pest to survive. An insulated water tank with thermostatic controls is needed to maintain the correct temperature. After treatment, the bulbs should be planted in a different part of the garden with uninfested soil.

Chemical control
There are no pesticides available to home gardeners for dealing with stem and bulb eelworm, and so cultural methods should be used to lower infestation and minimize damage.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=659

thriftwizard

I suspect she'd do best to fence that patch off & put the goats - or better still, a couple of pigs - on it for 3 years, and start another veg patch round by the manure mountain! But that would take resources that she just doesn't have.

mardatha

Thanks James, it has been empty for 3-4 years now and the only thing that grows there is chickweed. I'll wait till it comes through and dig some up and have a look at it. TY!