Knotweed problem

[Mrs Gumboot]

Not really sure where this is best stuck, but it's not really a gardening question, more a bureaucracy one.

Our property borders a high school playing field. To my horror a couple of weeks ago I spotted a large stand of knotweed close to our boundary. Not having time to sort it out at the time I put it on my to-do list. Have rechecked this weekend & it's now made it onto our side. There's a bit of an odd situation regarding the land ownership at the bottom of our garden & if it gets too far it's going to be the devil's own work sorting out who's responsible for what & before you know it I'll have a garden full of knotweed.   >:(

I clearly need to break out the chemicals, but it's only going to be held up at best & unless I can get the council to take responsibility for their patch I'm onto a loser anyway.

So, does anyone have any experience of dealing with issues like this? I'm not sure who to target, the school or the council. I'd rather go for both & then I've some chance of success, however I can't figure out who to target at the council. Is it likely to be parks & gardens or whoever deals with school maintenance?

I've got some problems with the fence as well so I suspect I'm not going to be very popular  ::)

Any advice welcome. And don't anyone say move, we've not long since moved in.  ::)

[Mrs Gumboot]

[Bugloss2009]

if you have Japanese Knotweed on your land, it is a criminal offence to allow it to spread onto other properties, also to allow it to spread into the wild. So there's a start for you. Contact the Environment people

[Ben Acre]

Just spray it, lifes too short to argue about it ::)

[Emagggie]

We had a similar problem here. We live next to a pub car park and have a brick wall between us (ours). The knotweed (pub side mostly)pushed the wall so it was dangerous. The brewery paid to dig it all out and rebuild the wall. It has taken about 5 years of me killing off any residue that dares to appear either side as I know the pub wont bother. Only 2 shoots so far this year, so I'm hoping I've cracked it. Having said all that, we have the local council plant nursery at the bottom of our garden. They have knotweed on their premises (luckily not near my garden). They just chop it down every now and again :o I don't think they know what it is. I sincerely hope yours do!! Go for them both and do something pretty quickly.Ask how they will be treating it and check that they do actually do it. Once the killing spree gets going it will soon be fairly easy to control.

[Ben Acre]

As an ecology consultant this is one of my big issues, Getting rid of it is a long drawn out job.

You can pour down a weedkiller down the stems dying the fluid with re food colouring so you know which has been treated.

[Mrs Gumboot]

Thanks Bugloss for confirming my suspicions that it was actually enshrined in law!! Hope fully that'll give me a decent lever.

I'm certainly going to spray my bit, and was planning to bash it first & pour directly into the stems, but I'm buggered if I'm paying out for litres of expensive spray to control something that is someone else's problem. Plus I'll never get it under control if it's still coming through from their side. Also if I win the other argument over the fence it'll be increased in height & I won't be able to climb over  ::)

Mine will know what it is since I'll blooming well tell 'em! Something else to give me nightmares over - it's heading for a large retaining wall which holds my garden up. Joy. At least there's a ray of hope if you've managed to get it under control, albeit that it's taken a while.

Will get on the phone first thing in the morning & try environmental health. Cheers guys.

[bluecar]

Hello Mrs Gumboot.

Have a look at these sites.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/environment/natural_environment/biodiversity/japanese_knotweed.htm

http://www.jknotweed.com/services/japanese-knotweed-eradication/identification

My advice would be to start fighting it now. The longer you wait the worse the problem. Contact all three, but by the time you get a solution your wall could be at risk if you do not take action.


Regards

Bluecar

[Mrs Gumboot]

Thanks for those, will have a gander later.

Have emailed env health this aft (complete with photos). Am going to drop a letter into the school later on as well.

In fairness, thanks to the weird land ownership thing, it's not actually my wall, it just holds my garden up. Don't ask, it's a long story.