Battle of the invasive species!

[spandit]

I've got a sneaking respect for invasive species - makes me feel comforted that whatever we do to the planet, the plants will always take over again.

There is a corner of my garden that is fenced off so the dogs can't wreck it or go in the pond but as a result, it's been neglected. I call it "the jungle"

Was doing a little bit of maintenance in there today and noted that there are several invasive plant species that are all competing for space:

• bamboo
• willow (both grey and goat)
• sycamore
• bramble
• bindweed
• mint

Apart from the mint, none of these were deliberately planted and I'm sure in a few years I'll have thick enough trees to hang a hammock from! Pity we're moving really

 

[Lou]

Don't you have Japanese knot weed then? Good thing you don't as you may not be able to sell your house

 

[spandit]

Don't you have Japanese knot weed then? Good thing you don't as you may not be able to sell your house

Fortunately not!

 

[franglais]

I would get rid of the bamboo, as it may put some people off, you usually have to burn the roots to get rid of it, it's quite a problem in Parts of France and Spain.

 

[Lou]

We hv bamboo in the garden but thank goodness it gets severely cut back by the cold every winter and has to start from scratch again, so it is actually not a problem, but in MILs garden it has taken over. Not good.

 

[John Fenna]

Where I work the bamboo has taken over - it has lifted paving slabs, appears INSIDE the garden shed and has pretty much ousted all other life!
Horrible stuff - and too thin for making much out of!

 

[xylaria]

The empty house next door has knotweed. We cut it back and lob our most competative weeds over where we have cleared. It is making that patch a lot more diverse. We also have ground elder, himalyan balsam, horse tail and bindweed. It is like a game of top trumps.

 

[Lou]

Should I then feel bad that I have planted buddlieia in our garden? I wanted to attract the butterflies, but I don't want it to invade the river banks around here. Japanese knot weed is not up to our section of the river yet from the town, but I don't want to be responsible for letting buddlieia loose. It would be easy to uproot the bushes, I only planted them three months ago.

When the knotweed gets up to our part of the woods, I am going to eat it.

 

[spandit]

When the knotweed gets up to our part of the woods, I am going to eat it.

Hope you're hungry - it's fast growing...

 

[Lou]

*chuckle* miles irving says the shoots are nicer than asparagus apparently in his Forager book. But I would be paranoid about going anywhere near it just in case I spread it around, I don't let my children touch it.

 

[spandit]

You can also eat bindweed and bamboo (it's river cane as far as I can tell - a North American species). The brambles, if they grow back, will produce blackberries and the mint will make tea. The willow and sycamore will produce fuel eventually.

Not planning on removing most of it, just interested in seeing what triumphs.

 

[xylaria]

We eat knotweed, when it is little shoots. It tastes like rhubarb. You can eat too much of it though. The ground elder i really like too.