Anyone got some good tips on bindweed.
I've been through the google searches and it seems to be a right pain in the you know what to get rid of..
Just wondering if someone might have their own suggestions.
As far as I can figure out it's the convolvulus arvensis species.

https://mraybould.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/bindweed3.jpg

Apologies if this is very obvious advice but one surefire way of helping moss is by cutting the grass too low. Overhanging trees will certainly help moss and it may be unavoidable but allowing grass grow higher might help. 

Boiling water will kill the root but it will also kill the roots of nearby plants. if it's any consolation, the roots of bindweed are nitrogen fixers, like beans and peas, so they do a bit of good. 

Hi Caz.

Your comment reminds me of a tale my old Gran [born in the late 1800s] told me.

She said one year they had a cracking crop of tomatoes because they had been burying "night soil" from the privy in the garden! Apparently the seeds...... Errr....

Roger

At least the bloody stuff is good for something.

Like the story my dad told me about how he'd nurtured and mollycoddled a mushroom growing project but it failed, so he emptied the compost in the front garden. A few weeks later a young lad knocked at the door and asked if he could go and pick the mushrooms from the front garden. 

Nice, Caz.

My father-in-law told a story about a cottage where he thought the privy might be contaminating the well - so they installed a flush toilet and septic tank.

The well went dry.....

Hmmm

Roger

By then they had mains water, Caz - for taps as well as the toilet - but the realisation of what had been happening......

And when you think of where our water comes from today - not so very different!

Roger

I shouldn`t have read these last few posts just before Sunday tea. 

Yay!  My Gojiberry is flowering. I was looking to see if the plums were ripe and noticed the Gojiberry was growing into the plum tree and went to get the secateurs.  Then I spotted the tiny purple flowers on a bough and inspected the rest. Sure enough it's laden. It might be too late for them to set so I might not get fruit this year but it's saved itself from being cut down. 

Our back garden lawn gets no sun from November to the end of February. Not surprisingly the grass becomes patchy. I am going to scarify and oversow with a shade tolerant grass seed mix soon after an application of autumn feed which contains a high potassium content. Will be interested to see the results at the end of the winter.

Apart from that the garden looks great this year but dahlias have not been as good as last year and blew over in the recent gales. Sunflowers look terrific this year though.

Nick

On the last  rasp of raspberries and the  wild strawberries now..     Plenty of herbs to keep us happy through Autumn. The heathers at looking nice. Still some lavendula in flower  the scent sachets will be welcome gifts for the festive season.  

Still having trouble keeping the pots watered, although the lawn- despite September warmth- has damp brown earth due to the recent humidity. Tomatoes are ripening dark red without any blight; walnuts, although not fat, are plentiful; runner and French beans can't be picked fast enough. We have a 17 inch runner- not a world record of course, but I wonder if it challenges Roy Gunning's 'longest bean'. A pumpkin is huge, weaving and exotic but this is its third fruit that set, fattened, swelled then failed.

Twice-fruiting raspberries my wife bought me for Fathers' Day are budding to flower.

What's it like in Torquay, Kent, Lincolnshire, Lancashire and Lanarkshire?

After a stunning year in all but the plums, the garden is taking on that tired look slowly. Still bounty to be had- chillis, tomatoes, runners,sweet potatoes (only the third year we managed to grow these) and pumpkins- and the late summer borders are still flowering colourfully, but- do you know what I mean by the 'tired' look? Sort of pale, straggly, less alive. Beans losing shape, a few toms are blotchy or blighty, pumpkin stems look like straw.

That look is Autumn! 

Our plum tree is looking very autumnal & it didn't have a great harvest this year either, just token jam & chutney as opposed to previous years when it's had copious amounts of fruit that I'd have to give bags  of them away to family & neighbours cos we had more than our fill & I'd have plenty of jars for Christmas gifts, but not so this year. 

Yes my garden has that tired look although my hanging baskets still look spectacular. 

I had a good crop of garlic this year and I'm thinking it's time to plant cloves for next year. Mine go in the borders as I'm tidying out the summer bedding.  It can make harvesting a bit tricky as I try not to uproot summer bedding in full bloom but aphids don't like garlic so mixed planting has its advantages. 

Herbs are still doing well. The raspberries still have green fruit on but I do not think they will turn red. Nearly time to cut my variety down to ground level. Collecting fennel seeds at the moment. Still cookers to pick.     

With a heart heavy with the reluctance of a fourteenth century maiden going to her nuptial chamber, I pulled out the tomatoes (except one) today. They were still shoving forth fruits- and these ripening albeit slowly in the low, wan light of October- but their spindly arms, yellowed by the season and this uncommon dryness that has, with minor interruption, prevailed these few months, and that tatty brown-ness about the grounds in general, it seemed humane to proceed with the seasons' own agenda; one cannot hang on to summer forever.

Just a few grape sized small green ones left.

Gonna' miss picking a few a day.

Had a great crop this year it just kept giving.

We have has an excellent tomato and cucumber year - good sweet corn too. Beans were quite good - more than enough. The Victoria Plums did well and we have harvested our quinces - not as many as last year.
Everything is very back-endish now. I'd like to give the grass a final good cut, but the wet will not let me just now.
Planning to give the bees a final feed this week - to top them up for the coming winter.

I noticed yesterday the hedges were heaving with fieldfares - 50+. A very good year for hips and haws here and they are tucking in.

Roger

Had the last of the raspberries. Have now cut down the canes. The new strawberry plants from the runners have now filled up some empty spaces in the big wooden pallet planter.  A couple of cotton bushes and a some Heuchera  have been added for winter   colour.