Chores in the garden

[Admiral Puff]

12 hours ago, Stef N. said:

I remember years ago clearing a patch of land in Australia for some bloke. He had some weed called Lantana that he was trying to get rid of. A real pest. Lo and behold I saw it in an English garden centre a couple of years later being sold as an exotic garden plant.

Yes, another import, another garden escapee - originally South American, but ours probably came via the UK with white settlement. 

 

If you really want to learn about the extent of exotic weed invasion here, try Field Guide to Weeds in Australia, by Charles Lamp and Frank Collet (Inkata Press, Melbourne, 1976, several reprints, ISBN 0 909605 53 X). My copy dates back to 1993, and was in my late wife's library. More than three hundred pages, one species per page ... An amazing anthology of what doesn't belong here!

 

10 hours ago, Mick4350 said:

You forgot Tiger-Pear cactus ( Opuntia aurantiaca ), that's truely a pest around the state. The spines on this cactus are up to 5cm long that have a barb near its tip and thus breaks off very easily. It causes injuries to humans, livestock, working dogs and pets. It has many stem segments that break off and are moved around the area by livestock and the barbs are so sharp that they will even pierce through leather footwear. I used to help my neighbour on his farm near Cooby Dam on weekends to clear the stuff from a 200 acre paddock, usually by digging out with a shovel as you can't pull it out with your hands, as the plant has hundreds of sharp barbs all over it.

Hadn't heard of that one, Mick, but I see from Lamp & Collet that it's a form of prickly pear. At least these days we have the Cactoblastis moth to help control it ...

[Rob G]

<cough> Mimosa pudica aka sensitive weed. Try that for a fun plant to eradicate. 

[roginoz]

Took the best part of 20 years to clear our 10 acre block of Patterson's Curse [Salvation Jane ; Vipers Bugloss ], but still we get the odd plant poke its nasty little head up !

 

Believe we're the only green paddock in our immediate district in early summer when it's at full thrash. Thanks a lot, neighbours, ya lazy sods !

 

Prickly Pear is a major problem a few k's south of us but thankfully not around us.

[Bullbasket]

6 hours ago, roginoz said:

Prickly Pear is a major problem

Not if your name is Baloo.