Tuesday 9 February 2016

Forest through the Weeds



Did I ever tell you I hate weeds? Well I do. A lot.

As I walked through the nursery today I was reminded of my hatred. I kept wandering off to pull weeds out of our stock, in particular Fireweed (pictured above) a plant I have a deep hatred for.

On the way home this afternoon, as I pull up the traffic lights near a new sub division I see swathes of Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana) lining the road verges, most likely planted there to stabilize the roadsides during and after earth works are carried out. A very effective grass indeed but it does tend to spread into areas where it becomes an issue.

Due to the good rains we have had during the middle of summer, weeds have exploded around the Sydney area. Weeds by nature are opportunistic, spread freely and set numerous viable seeds - if plants could get jealous they would certainly get jealous of weeds.

So what is a weed? Back when I was studying, a weed was anything classed as a 'plant growing out of place'. Certainly you could say it's any unwanted plant, or something not native or endemic to the particular area - but what about the exotic selection in the average home garden or the non-native trees lining our streets?

A weed to me is a plant that colonizes and is persistent in an ecosystem that it did not once belong. Weeds in general show many of the same characteristics - weeds can be native and exotic. You can find a lot of good weedy information at the Weeds in Australia or Grow Me Instead websites.


Weeds in Australia (and around the world for that matter) are spreading at a rate that far out weighs the management of them. Controlling weeds consumes a large amount of resources and of course money - it literally costs billions a year. It's hard to put a figure of course on the actual cost to the natural environment but in Agricultural/Horticultural terms, it is estimated at around $4 Billion dollars annually - that's a lot of peso's!



It's not all doom and gloom though, weeds are, in some cases playing there part in alternate environment. Take Lantana camara for example, a significant weed Australia wide. A true 'Frankenstein' of a plant, a hybrid that its true origin is fairly unknown. Though it has provided habitat for small insectivorous native birds and smaller mammals like possums but unfortunately also for foxes. Lantana also serves as a pretty useful buffer between disturbed bushland and intact good bushland.




My daughters often make comment about to all the "pretty flowers" they see , most of these are weeds like Purple Top (Verbena), Gazania (pictured above), Coreopsis & Dandelion flowers and the fluffy seed heads they enjoy to spread (come on, tell me you didn't also do this) to name a few. I think the attitude of my daughters is fairly reflective of the general consensus - weeds are so common now they are simply tolerated.


Where would you start when faced with the above? Yes, it's a big problem, bigger still when you stand back and take in the whole thing. It's the overwhelming sense of futility that we all feel when faced with a garden, paddock or bush full of weeds. Where do we start?

Though like a lot of problems facing society today, it's something we all have a part to play in - Think Globally, Act Locally they say, its a great saying but I prefer an old gardeners saying when thinking about managing weeds is: "One year of seeding equals seven years of weeding".




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