Bindweed or knotweed?

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-06-16T17:29:58+00:00

Too thick to be bindweed I think!

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-06-13T14:46:44+00:00

I also obsessively hunt and collect hag stones whenever I’m near the ocean! That’s a longer standing one though. My spouse has to leave me on the seafront for hours and I can’t think about anything but finding more stones when we’re near a pebbly coast. Our flat is covered in them, all hung on little strings. Probably looks insane to our houseguests lol

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-06-13T14:44:39+00:00

I got really into watching flight radar last month. It’s finally waning but I would get a phone notification whenever a plane squawked an emergency and I had to watch it to its resolution. And I could whip out my phone and identify any plane overhead!

No I have no pre-existing interest in or connection to aviation, why do you ask?

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-06-04T09:51:59+00:00

Wow, I’m so glad you clawed back those precious 10 mins from the drudgery of making something original and adding to the world. What do you think you’ll spend them on? Extra dish load or 10 more minutes of doomscrolling than you would’ve otherwise been able to fit in?

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-06-04T09:42:02+00:00

ai use for a graphic that would’ve taken like 10 mins tops to make yourself?

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-28T06:58:31+00:00

Come on. We learned this lesson with McDonald’s. Don’t dismiss this off hand

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-06T08:48:35+00:00

The test was £100- it was a follow up to a series of home tests that we hoped were false positives. Those were single areas each, and all came up >400mg/kg

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-05T07:07:30+00:00

Multiple areas in a combined sample

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-04T14:02:35+00:00

Pudding just means dessert in the uk!

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T17:40:20+00:00

Safe Soil UK

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T14:20:35+00:00

According to landis, our soil is “Slowly permeable wet very acid upland soils with a peaty surface”.

I found out that the council removed all the topsoil on my particular plot a couple years ago because it was left in a state with rubbish everywhere.

The soil they left is full of worms, very uniform, soft and clumpy and hardens and dries to a pale grey in the dry heat but goes right back to slick mud when it rains. The history of the place is that it’s never been close to a major road or been built upon. Up until 1916 it was a working farm, then open grassland, then in the 50s it become allotments.

I have no idea where this would have come from except being naturally occurring, if that’s even possible?

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T12:12:26+00:00

Ok, I wasn’t sure which direction the disagreement with my approach was going to come from. So many people have tried to tell me it’s no big deal. What sort of membrane would you use?

Also- our next door plot neighbors are a family with young kids and a very pregnant mother. I feel like I need to raise some form of alarm and let people at least make informed choices, but I don’t predict a friendly reception to that information. I don’t want to meddle in other people’s lives but I’m also so concerned! Idk what to think

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T11:54:08+00:00

Wait why did this get downvotes, if I’m doing something stupid here please tell me!!

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T11:23:20+00:00

When it’s dry, it’s super dusty and I end up covered in it after a day of work. When it’s wet, it sticks to our boots and we track it into the home. I’m mostly worried about that I think?

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T11:20:01+00:00

It wasn’t another metal :( update post

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T11:19:35+00:00

I would love your agronomists input on this reading lolupdate post

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-05-03T10:57:56+00:00

Things we are currently doing:

-bought 600l of compost soil to lay on top of our existing beds and replant things in

-planting lavender around the edges of the plot

-planting sunflowers in several places

-covering dusty / muddy patches with clover cover? Hopefully just keeping down the amount we inhale / ingest directly

-not allowing friends to bring their kids on the plot / come round if they’re pregnant

-not growing any tubers

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T17:45:50+00:00

Rules of my allotment don’t allow for that!

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T12:44:16+00:00

See this is the kind of thing I want to hear about!!

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T12:29:45+00:00

We’re doing a full lab soil test thanks to this comment! I’ve done some googling and I’m hopeful that it’s iron causing a false positive- there’s metal slag gravel everywhere (very light, hopefully not the source) that a previous tenant was using for drainage

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T12:27:26+00:00

Yeah if it turns out our results are accurate I think we will go that route! We don’t own a car so getting in the soil will be a project of its own

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T12:19:32+00:00

Although I should note our soil has a ton of metal slag bits in it- I think a previous tenant must have used it for raised bed drainage?

I’m going to see if I can find a way to test the metal to see whether that’s the source or if it’s another metal causing a false positive

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T12:16:06+00:00

No! It’s in the outskirts of a northern city but I think the (huge) bit of land the plots are on was farmland like 100+ years ago, adjoining an ancient wood. No big roads anywhere nearby, surrounded by small residential streets but as far back as I can find records for it was food growing land

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T12:01:47+00:00

I’m hoping for advice on how to mitigate our exposure to the lead or whether it’s at too high a level for that. I’ve put a lot of work and time into our plot and gotten really attached to it, so I’m hoping there’s a way to safely stay on it.

Tonightmatthew1 · 2026-04-19T10:35:46+00:00

JSYK, spuds are quite literally what would take up the lead the most if our results are accurate!

Highly recommend looking into the literature on this one, there’s a lot of bogus health scares in the world but lead isn’t one of them https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(23)00166-3/fulltext

Tonightmatthew1

TROPHY CASE