Archive for the 'Weeds' Category

The ABC TV Gardening Australia programme tonight featured an article about Bridal Creeper, a member of the asparagus family (Asparagus asparagoides). This plant was brought into Australia as a garden plant and now is one of the most rampant and damaging weeds all over Australia.

There are a couple of patches on our block, growing in the shade of the Eucalypts. According to the programme, seed can be viable for at least 4 years. Which accounts for the occasional plants seen. I neglected one and it flowered and seeded so I keep getting the pesky plants popping up. I have been able to get rid of most of it with glyphosate spray.

The programme mentioned a fungus that has been released in many parts of Australia which is having a successful affect on the plants. It is specific to Bridal Creeper.There is also an insect which feeds only on Bridal Creeper. The spray unfortunately will kill all green plants.

The presenter was urging that all plants of the Asparagus family be removed from gardens before they escape to bushland.

I came across a great web site whilst looking for possible garden uses for horehound. Not that we get much of it now. When we first moved here the horehound had tree trunks! After years of pulling the plants out and occasional spraying with glyphosate it is under control. A friend informed me that the seed had at least 22 years viability, and that after sitting on an iron roof roasting in summer temperatures! I nearly gave up at that point. Knowing how sort after it is as a medicinal herb, I did have thoughts of actually cultivating it for sale, except that it is a noxious weed here!

Anyway, back to the website. It is an identification site for weeds in Australia. One of my phobias is to find myself actually cultivating weed grasses and it has happened. This site gives a listing of weeds state by state with photos. Most useful. The weeds are divided into categories, eg herbs, grasses, vines etc.