On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 08:11:38 +0000 (UTC),
(D.M.Chapman) wrote:
Glass heads to Dagenham or South Kirby. Card to Erith.
On first reading, I wondered who was recycling glass heads ...
Garden waste goes to Capel-le-Ferne (about 2 miles away) where is it
composted on a farm. This is why no food waste is allowed in there. It used
to be allowed, but now any suggestion of food waste and the foot and mouth
rules that came in bans it from being carried onto the farm site. (apparantly
no idea how true that is). Also the reason Knotweed and Ragwort are not
allowed?
Yes, that makes sense. Both are highly pernicious weeds.
The former, usually referred to as Japanese Knotweed, is devastating.
Its shoots can grow through concrete, tarmac, the foundations of a new
house, etc. If you discover that a house you are thinking of buying
has a JK problem, either avoid it altogether, or factor in thousands
for attempting to eradicate it.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...fe/130079.aspx
"It spreads through its crown, rhizome (underground stem) and stem
segments, rather than its seeds. The weed can grow a metre in a month
and can cause heave below concrete and tarmac, coming up through the
resulting cracks and damaging buildings and roads. Studies have shown
that a 1cm section of rhizome can produce a new plant in 10 days.
Rhizome segments can remain dormant in soil for twenty years before
producing new plants."
....
"The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 states that it is an offence to
"plant or otherwise cause to grow in the wild" any plant listed in
Schedule nine, Part II of the Act. This lists over 30 plants including
Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed and parrot's feather. The police are
responsible for investigating this offence and each police force has a
wildlife liaison officer who can be contacted."
Incidentally, I originally read that as bindweed, which is quite bad
enough, and can make a crop almost impossible to combine, but is a
different class of problem entirely .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobaea_vulgaris
Ragwort, like dandelions, is a member of the daisy family and spreads
itself everywhere by wind-borne seeds. There are various sub-species
of ragwort, and one of the most ubiquitous is Oxford ragwort,
so-called because it escaped from an Oxford (botanic, IMS) garden onto
a nearby railway line and thus quickly spread itself all over the
country through its seeds being carried along the tracks in the
slipstreams of trains. These days, motorways do it the same service.
The particular trouble with it is that it's poisonous to stock - it
contains an alkaloid poison. Stock - either instinctively, or learn
to - avoid it when it grows in a field, but if it gets in hay, or
more commonly these days, silage, they can't see the distinctive
yellow flowers, eat it, and may die as a result.
I always pick it now on any land that I own, and, over a few seasons,
this will reduce its incidence to what has blown in the previous year.
The best time to pull anything is usually before you first mow, and
ragwort is no exception - like many similar weeds, before being
mown, the plant grows straight and tall, and if you grab it firmly as
low down as you can get, and pull with increasing force, most times
the whole plant, including the tap-root, will come out; after being
mown, the plant thinks it has been eaten and changes its growth
pattern to hug the ground in the form of a rosette, and this makes it
much more difficult to pull, though it can be done - you have to
ensure that you've got the whole rosette.
Thistles behave similarly to this as well, which is unsurprising, as
IMS they're all daisy family.
Daisy family pullings should preferably be burnt immediately,
otherwise the plants will use the life left in the stems, etc, to
flower and perhaps produce seed, and thereby may still manage to
reproduce themselves!
--
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