Inge Leonora-den Ouden

Kevin Feinstein II wrote:Has anyone tried cutting back the vines during the growing season? Sometimes the weeds get out of hand and often I have them pots and they quickly grow crazy in a tangle, and often I have thought of hacking them back. Wonder how that would affect tuber production?  

I'd like to know too.
I 'inherited' this plant (these plants) in my rented allotment garden. The roots seem to spread under some square meters of garden beds and paths. The new stems popped up in different places during the season. So I often need to cut them back. But I don't know what this does to the roots underground ...

Long ago I did some dyeing wool with plant materials. I used mostly 'kitchen waste', like onion peels and the green of carrots. I did not like the use of 'mordant', but for some of the plant dyes it seemed to be necessary (was written in the book I had back then, around 1980).

Many years not dyeing at all. But then I saw some videos on eco-printing, tea-dyeing, a.a. (k3n clothtales, Kathryn Chambers). I wanted to try it (again). But without mordant.
Onion skins dye very well without any addition, on all kinds of fabrics (but with different colours). I have no problem using my soup pot for dyeing with them, and then use the same pot for making soup ...

I think I'd avoid plants (or other natural materials, like fungi) that are poisonous (when cooked) or give toxic fumes. If it isn't safe to use ... why use it?

It's good to see I'm not te only one who has problems growing carrots.
It isn't that they don't grow at all in my garden, but it's never certain if they do. One year they don't even germinate, other year they germinate and grow but after some time they all die (of something looking like a fungus). Most often part of the seeds germinate and part of the carrots grow well, and part of them do grow but don't produce any substantial 'carrot'.

This year I was very lucky to have a handful of nice carrots at the end of Summer (but the ones I tried to grow earlier did not do well).
And there are still nice looking plants of the Winter carrots (they can go on growing as long as it isn't freezing. In my climate 'first frost date' can vary from September to December and this year it looks like it's late).

I think the most important with carrots is patience. They are slow to germinate, slow to grow plants and then slow to grow real carrots. It's probably true to say it's cheaper to buy them then to grow them yourself ... But I'll go on trying, best-tasting carrots are the ones from your own garden!

Hi. I noticed today that the e-mails had a new style. Nice ... but for me it wasn't needed, I like getting e-mails from Permies anyway!

I don't know if it has something to do with the new style, but in one of the e-mails I got today was a wrong link. The message was about a new post in my personal thread, but the link went to an article about lawn mowing (and I don't even have a lawn LOL). Luckily I know how to find my personal thread, so I was able to answer to that post. But I think you (who? Moderator? Paul?) need to know about that wrong link.

there are only a few 'weeds' I like raw in salads. And then most of the salad is a lettuce (can be lamb's lettuce or miner's lettuce from the garden) and a little bit of wild herbs are added to it, to spice it up. For example dandelion leaves (one large or two to three smaller ones), wild rocket, garlic mustard, chickweed.

My favourite way, for almost all vegetables, is:
Cut a mix of onion, garlic, often half a leek and a mix of different vegetables (picked wild, grown in the garden or store-bought);
heat some oil (sunflower oil, olive oil, sometimes a little butter mixed in);
fry the onion first, then add the garlic, stir a little and then add all other vegetables;
go on frying on high heat until it smells nice and the colour has changed a little;
then add a cup of bouillon (stock), bring it to boil, then lower the heat;
let it simmer, stir sometimes, when it's almost dry it's ready to serve;
serve with pasta, rice, other cooked grains or potatoes, whatever you want that day.

Ac Baker wrote:

Kathy Gray wrote: I had 2 (Autumn Olive Shrubs)—-Service Berry …
Much to my dismay, one of my neighbors cut one of them down to the ground!☹️
They came on my property!

That is pretty scary.

What community support might you be able to find, to hold your neighbour accountable for such harmful behaviour?

I don't know about laws where you live, but here the neighbour could be fined (by the police) because he was on your property and cut down your trees! The only problem is: there must be proof that this person did it.

How to define 'weeds'? I think 'a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it'. With that definition there are no 'weeds I like', because they are only 'weeds' if they are in the wrong spot (and I don't like that).

There are many wild/feral plants I do like ... if they grow where I like them to grow. Even if I need to 'weed' them out of a garden bed often I can take them to the kitchen and use them as part of my food.

There are so many 'edible wild plants'!
A few I have growing here: purslane, winter purslane or miner's lettuce, hairy bittercress, chickweed, stinging nettle, ground elder, ...

And then there are wild plants with beautiful flowers too. I prefer to enjoy them growing in the wild.

The 'plant licorice' (we call it 'zoethout', meaning 'sweet wood'), I love the taste of it. But I can not just put such a stick (piece of root) in my mouth, it would break or harm my 'fake front teeth'.

I had a teeth problem in my youth and then got those 'crowns' on three of my front teeth. And two years ago it became an 'implant' with four teeth.

Because I like the taste of licorice root, I have it in tea bags, so I can make a 'tea' of it.

Thank you 'gir bot' for approving my BB