Weeding with Colin
Colin Lambert

Colin Lambert on this year's Lord Howe Island Weeding Tour. Photo: Ian Hutton

Some berry-producing exotics

Cotoneaster grows anywhere a bird drops the seeds. Thickets under tall trees displace local native plant species and shade the soil, leaving it vulnerable to the invasion of other weeds. Photo and weed info: Weeds of Blue Mountains Bushland

Blackberry is highly invasive and rapidly forms thickets with a dense canopy of shade which exclude and replace native vegetation. Photo: Weeds of Blue Mountains Bushland

One privet plant may produce up to a million seeds, which are spread by birds and are also washed down waterways. Photo and weed info: Weeds of Blue Mountains Bushland

We look at our backyard – or our neighbour’s backyard for that matter - and wonder what should be done first to control our weeds.

Think of the birds and the wind - two of the most effective agents for weed dispersal – and of shielding the soil in your garden.

1) How to tackle berry producing plants

So if you are blessed with any of the berry producing plants which can infest our bushland, parks or reserves, it pays to harvest and bag the berry fruit and dispose of the bags in land fill (deep burial).

Examples are the Privets, Cotoneaster, Kratigus, Ground Asparagus Fern, Climbing Asparagus Fern, Ochna, Blackberry, Nightshade.

To prevent the labour of yearly berry harvest & disposal please consider removal of the plant – we can come back and do this later.

2) What to do about wind dispersed seeds

You will need to watch your garden carefully to learn when the offenders come to flower (eg Thistles, Crofton Weed, Mist Flower, Thickhead).

Handpull them and add them to your compost heap before they develop flower heads. If you missed it, and flowers have developed, simply cut off the flower heads into your disposal bag & handpull the weed.

3) How to keep weeds out for good

The last item in the top-priority list is mulch. Please leave none of your garden’s soil bare. A mulch layer of 50mm thickness will conserve precious moisture, encourage the soil micro flora and fauna and help to control or suppress weed regrowth. Mulch material can be anything that has once lived, but keep weed seeds (propagules) out of your mulch material.

In future newsletters we will get closer to weeds. But please remember the priorities: all propagules in the bag for safe disposal & cover the earth with an effective mulch layer.

Happy weeding,
Colin Lambert

For more weed information and images visit "Weeds of Blue Mountains Bushland"

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