Simplifying Life

Pip-squeak_3

mary43 wrote: »

We aways moan about bindweed yet happily plant Morning Glory and thats a close relation.
Where ours grows we put up a small tripod affair for it to climb up........that way it seems easier to get at it and funnily enough while its climbing up there its not trailing around the garden.............it actually looks quite pretty.

Just been and surveyed the back garden. Its turned chilly these last two days and the osteopurnams I bought on Thursday are looking a bit 'unwell'..........maybe they'll perk up when we get some warmer weather......weekend the weathermen said.

Love your take on bindweed and think I will have a go at making it into a feature. I take the view that anything in my garden that looks OK is a bonus whether it be weeds self sets or planted. Makes for an interseting but not very tidy garden.

Greenshieldstamp_2

Thanks for the ideas on bindweed.

Ceridwen - Hadn't thought of eating it. Will have a look at the website you suggested. You are really good at finding things. Thank you. If, in your browsing you come across any great blogs or sites to do with herb gardens or growing herbs then I would be very grateful.

It is great getting different points of view and ideas.

You never know bindweed could become the next trendy "must have" for the garden. If so our garden is already trendy!

Best wishes and thanks

mary43

As far as I'm concerned, to be honest, if something choses to make its home in my garden and provides me with a few flowers as a 'thankyou'............I can live with that.
Always preferred a sort of 'rambling' garden anyway and really,if you look closely at a lot of so called 'weeds' they're really quite pretty.

Thats how I see it anyway. Why waste time and energy trying to get rid of something that looks so good.
Not sure about the eating of it though..............but then I'm not very good at 'experimenting'.

My day so far today is a bit on the 'negative' side..............soc.workers I need to speak to aren't there, other places seem to have a queue or ten minutes waiting time................given up on trying now.

So, as a 'random act of kindness' I'm letting a young girl use computer to do a few very necesary money type things..............:j

Charis

A word of warning on eating bindweed. Apparently it is a purgative.

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=421
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Calystegia+sepium

Charis

Thanks for that off grid webpage link Ceridwen. This alternative refrigeration is a clever idea http://www.off-grid.net/2008/05/24/low-energy-refrigeration/

mary43

Charis - thanks for the links..........will have a good look later......our lad here is currently being very noisy outside the house with his mates and OH has gone to sort them out.................then the noise will come indoors as our lad has started work and lost his national insurance card...........I've got nothing among his papers with it on so he'll go off his head about it.............oh joy !!
Just after I've had a lovely day at my friends..........popped into the village and looked at a few of the 'gift' shops there, sun was shining............I come home to clouds and our lad shouting the odds !
Oh well, no one said life would be easy..............just not always this hard.

(Oh dear that quote makes it seem all doom and gloom and it isnt really........just that our lad's just got this job and is, shall we say, a bit full of himself to say the least..............lol He'll get over it...........lol)

ceridwen

Charis wrote: »

A word of warning on eating bindweed. Apparently it is a purgative.

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=421
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Calystegia+sepium

Just as well you told us Charis...:cool: :eek: I do wish these purveyors of info in books and/or the Net would get their act together....as I'd read that webpage on the site I mentioned and it was just down as foodstuff...but didnt include that fact!

Had the same problem with the author not getting their facts sorted the other day - when the author of a book I currently have on loan stated that tomato leaves are edible...but other info on the Web says they aren't.

I suppose its a bit like the "received wisdom" that these lightbulbs marketed as "eco-friendly" really are - but once one starts reading-up a bit further then up comes the fact that they have mercury in them and are a problem if they break in your home and a problem to dispose of and dont even last as long as they say they do. Duh! Experts - who needs 'em? How do you suss out which of them are telling it like it is?

EDIT: have sent GreenshieldStamp a P.M. telling them re the webpages you found - so she knows about the conflict of opinion between them BEFORE she tries eating it. (Cor - and I was going to have a go myself!)

Greenshieldstamp_2

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to say I haven't tried eating the bindweed and am fit and well! :j

As I mentioned to Ceridwen who kindly sent me a Private Message, I was thinking of only as a solution to getting cheap salad leaves as we eat a lot of salad, and I am trying to cut the cost. Have bought my salad leaves and radish seeds today and think this might be safer!

Hi Mary,
Hope you day ends well with the National Insurance card.

Thought:
Something that makes me smile is that almost everytime I search for something that I need to know recently about cooking, growing things etc. the first websites on the list are the Forums for Money Saving Expert and the Old Style section.

I am having a dabble in the Green fingered Money Saving Section too, which is proving interesting. Definitely saving money by not buying magazines etc. and looking up what I want to know on the Internet individually.

mary43

greenshield - glad you didn't try the bindweed...........watch t.v. prog last night about food in the 1600's and they used to use Tansy............not realising that too much of it was poisonous...............

I pop on and off the greenfingers board and there's a lot of useful info there. You can't beat picking up tips from folk who've already tried and tested something.Wealth of knowledge there.

National Insurance number I'll have to phone DWP about tomorrow and see what I have to do to get another one if our lad can't find it among the stuff in what he laughlingly calls a bedroom............lol

Oh well...............least the noise has stopped outside...........peace reigns for a while (apart from OH's snoring -after dinner doze............lol)

ceridwen

It could be that the webpage on the site I mentioned states bindweed is edible because they are quoting a historical fact - as in - it was eaten in previous centuries. But, as Mary states re the tansy, the fact that something was eaten in previous centuries doesnt necessarily mean its suitable food for the 21st century - as maybe we have subsequently learnt more about the item in question.

I know on weezl's thread I was mentioning remembering that watermelon rind used to be eaten (I think still is to some extent - as I found modern-day recipes for it - but all the recipes I came across for it included alum or something similar. I believe alum might be aluminium - hence I decided it was not suitable for this century - as some of us are now aware that aluminium is a bad idea.). I also remembered that some ferns had been eaten - so checked that out and found it was another "not for this century - as we've learnt better since". This could explain the conflict of opinion.