Japanese knotweed encroaching into our garden?
Question:We recently moved into a house where the garden backs onto a railway line. The screen of what i thought was bamboo turns out to be the dreaded japanese knotweed. The vast majority of it seems to be behind our fence, on the track verges, but shoots are showing up in our garden. I assume this will be the council's responsibility to sort out?
Answers:
It is illegal to allow or cause the spread ofJapanese Knotweed in the UK. Find out who owns the land - probably British Rail. You could easily take them to court over this. In the meantime you want to stop this spreading into your property. Pulling it up isnt the answer as then you have to dispose of it as 'specialised waste' - otherwise YOU are breaking the law. The easiest thing to do is to spray it with Glyphosate at the start and end of the growing season - that will cool its courage. Do this over a few years and you should kill the plant but dont forget, it will still keep coming into your property from the railway side if they do not take measure to eradicate it. The plant can spread from small fragments of its roots and stems so IF you do decide to start cutting it, the best thing you can do is burn the material in a brazier or old oil drum.
the council wont do anything about that. once the roots have gone under your fence theyre your problem. Dont even think its anything to do with the council if its on a rail track anyway, its not their property. Good luck, your gonna need it to get rid of knotweed.
Ask a gardening expert.
Their advice wil be - move!
Don't hold your breath waiting on the council !!
The only thing that you can really do is rip as much as you can out, as soon as it reappears do the same again. Nothing much else you can do about it, don't expect ure council to do anything about it, my experience with my local council shows them to be lazy, difficult b*****ds :) Good luck u'll need it
I saw somethign on telly about a way of getting rid of it which involves injecting the plant at the root. I think it involved a specialist contractor though. Ask at your local garden centre they’re often really helpful.
The railway belongs to the railway company. As the landowner, they have a duty to solve this, especially as the plant can damage walls and buildings etc.
No it wont be the councils responibitley to sort a few weeds out get ride of it buy putting bin bags over the shoots and I'll think you find this is Bindweed (check google) hope this helps.
Don´t waste any time trying to find out who is responsible. Go right out and buy Roundup and keep applying it to each and every bit on your land, and if you have to spare, on bits outside your property as well. This is a massively invasive weed. Get rid of your side of it asap and sue the culprits who let it get there. Maybe that is why the previous tenants moved out.
Yep, Use roundup. Don`t mess around with the B&Q variety. Go to an agricultural merchants and buy a litre of the concentrate.
About a capfull to a wateringcansworth will do. Spray the stuff as soon as it is coming up or whatever stage it is now. don`t cut it back, let it die back. when it comes up again give it some more of the same, Do this for as long as it takes untill the stuff has all gone. Keep some Roundup back in case it raers it`s ugly head again.
If you are in England or Wales get a solicitor to serve an order to Network rail under the Pernicious weeds Act. This will force them to treat the knotweed. (there may be a similar bit of law in Scotland but I do not know what it is).
It is illegal to allow knotweed to grow where it could cause problems.
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