Japanese Knotweed, how do I loathe thee ....

... let me count the ways.


1. It grows fast, anywhere and through anything, including, we're reliably informed, tarmac.
2. It takes over large areas with triffid-like alacrity.
3. It has no normal predators. Apparently it can be eaten, but it grows too fast for grazers to keep it down. The only thing which really keeps it under control is an insect from, as the name implies, Japan. This has been introduced in the South-West, and we really hope the people responsible know what they're doing!
4. It grows fast (we didn't mention the 20 cm a day), anywhere, etc etc.


When we came to the area, we'd not come across the plant before. We were soon told that we had it in the garden, and that we had to eradicate it. It's actually quite attractive, with a pinkish stem and a bamboo-like structure: as per this photo ...

But it grows so fast, that, once it's taken a hold, it takes over large areas. So the only way to eradicate it from the land the orchard should cover is to use industrial-strength weedkiller in successive doses. We've just had this years done, which makes that portion of land look like the proverbial blasted heath:

A Blasted Heath

This all raises the obvious question, if it's so important to get rid of the stuff, why didn't the previous owners do something about it? We were, after all, given the impression that we were under a legal obligation to get rid of a much smaller amount from our garden.


A possible answer came from a cheerful conversation that Richard had with someone from Stroud District Council about the whole thing. We paraphrase, but it went something like this:


Richard: "We've bought some land with J*p*n*s* Kn*tw**d on it and wanted to know what our legal obligations are."


Man from the Council: "Well, it's classified as a pest, so you do have to get rid of it. But you're not required to do anything if it's on private land."


Richard (after a pause - not being entirely quick on the uptake): "Half a mo. How much land in England is NOT privately owned?"


Man from the Council (with a giggle): "Ah! That's where the people who worked on the law didn't think things through!"


One of those moments where two people understand each other without the whole thing having to be spelled out.


So we're most of the way through a 3 year extermination project. The whole site looks messy now, but will eventually be a part of the land that's easier to cultivate, because it's not on a slope.