We brought our place back at the start of March and it came with its own Garden mission, including a big patch of Bamboo!

Now thankfully a suggestion to get in touch with Wellington Zoo has paid off as they have been coming weekly to harvest it and got about 1 truckload left to go (its for the Red Panda at the Zoo). Now the problem I have is to kill the root system, I've had a suggestion of amitrole which I'm using when I kick new shoots over then spraying them but looks like this mission will take a few years unless I go hire a digger to rip the root system out.

Pretty sure getting rid of your bamboo is much like our convolvulus problem. You can dig out the majority of the root system, but any piece of rhizome that is left will shoot away.

You have to spray/paint any new shoot as it rears its ugly head. Eventually it should disappear. Will take awhile.

Our problem is compounded because although we have killed most of it on our side of the fence, our neighbour hasn't.

irongarment:

DjShadow:

We brought our place back at the start of March and it came with its own Garden mission, including a big patch of Bamboo!

Now thankfully a suggestion to get in touch with Wellington Zoo has paid off as they have been coming weekly to harvest it and got about 1 truckload left to go (its for the Red Panda at the Zoo). Now the problem I have is to kill the root system, I've had a suggestion of amitrole which I'm using when I kick new shoots over then spraying them but looks like this mission will take a few years unless I go hire a digger to rip the root system out.

@JayADee we planted some non spreading Bamboo to provide a small screen. It has smaller leaves and has never spread. It goes semidormant over winter. It provides an attracktive living screen.

Ok I'll join in

1) Kale chips are suprisingly edible, i have grown kale for a number of years, but no-one else will eat it, so most goes to the chooks, but yep kale chips went down a treat with everyone

2) Ventilation in GlassHouses, what is everyone doing, i don't particularly want to spend much money, i have a 3m-ish by 3m-ish glasshouse and it was about 38 degrees in there today, i open the roof windows when i remember, but to be honest i would prefer something a bit more elegant that auto raises with the heat, i have seen some Hydaulic? arms that are about $40 on 1day that seem to be temperature controlled, just curious if anyone has used something like this

3) Got a pile of Kumara coming away, what do you plant yours in as mine didn't bulk up last year, and they where planted in an old sandpit with a hard base and lots of soil, produced a tonne of vine but didn'ae get fat tubers

 
I wouldn't mind some other unusual salad plant tips if anyone has some, preferably dual purpose as decorative.

Calendula petals are an option in salads, and the plants are pretty drought tolerant.

Rather more common, rocket actually has quite attractive flowers if you let some go to seed, and one plant will probably be enough to keep you in seed for the next year. I like rocket as it grows so fast it makes a good option to suppress weeds.

VirtualKiwi:

 

 
I wouldn't mind some other unusual salad plant tips if anyone has some, preferably dual purpose as decorative.

 

Calendula petals are an option in salads, and the plants are pretty drought tolerant.

 

Rather more common, rocket actually has quite attractive flowers if you let some go to seed, and one plant will probably be enough to keep you in seed for the next year. I like rocket as it grows so fast it makes a good option to suppress weeds.

 

On seeds, I hear that these days many seeds are hybrid. Genuine seeds are heirloom. Hybrids may have better yield, and disease resistance, and may taste better, BUT the kicker is you cannot use the seeds. They will not reproduce like for like as heirlooms will. Tomatoes are the obvious candidate here but I could never find how widespread hybrid seeds are for other veges.

Slugs. Do I put pellets say 5cm apart around the patch, or also around every plant? Workmate says slugs prefer pellets, then they die.

VirtualKiwi:

 
I wouldn't mind some other unusual salad plant tips if anyone has some, preferably dual purpose as decorative.

Calendula petals are an option in salads, and the plants are pretty drought tolerant.

Rather more common, rocket actually has quite attractive flowers if you let some go to seed, and one plant will probably be enough to keep you in seed for the next year. I like rocket as it grows so fast it makes a good option to suppress weeds.

tdgeek:

Slugs. Do I put pellets say 5cm apart around the patch, or also around every plant? Workmate says slugs prefer pellets, then they die.

JayADee:

tdgeek:

 

Slugs. Do I put pellets say 5cm apart around the patch, or also around every plant? Workmate says slugs prefer pellets, then they die.

 

Depends how bad your slugs are. Most years we sprinkled them randomly throughout near susceptible plants and that was fine. Two years ago they were so bad we had to make a complete unbroken ring around each lettuce and young pumpkin plant and every morning the garden looked like Normandy Beach right after the landing. It was disgusting. The following year I grew the lettuce in pots on the front porch. This year we seem back to more normal slug levels and are using less again, sprinkling around susceptible plants.

Thanks!

Its not bad. I have 4 raised beds, the Bok Choy have a few holes, but not Normandy Style. Two other beds have lettuce, cauli, silver beet, courgettes etc, plenty of leaf, but holes are rare there (so far). I might try sprinkling around each plant without being pedantic

Morgenmuffel:

 

3) Got a pile of Kumara coming away, what do you plant yours in as mine didn't bulk up last year, and they where planted in an old sandpit with a hard base and lots of soil, produced a tonne of vine but didn'ae get fat tubers

 

Where in the country are you? Kumara need warm soil to form decent tubers, so what you're describing is consistent with warm air but cool soil. If so, only way to resolve would be planting in tubs.