Noxious weeds

#45 - Nov 2020 - Garden Stuff - © - Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz

NOXIOUS WEEDS 
November/December: Late spring/early summer. Warm. Wet. Weeds galore. This month your ‘nasty’ weeds. Not a good idea to put these bad boys on your ‘eco-pile’ nor on your compost heap. They’ll thrive and spread.

Weeds: = Any unwanted plants. Weeds are usually vigorous, well-adapted to the conditions, grow fast, spread fast and are hard to kill. They do all this by seeding prolifically or regrowing from small stem fragments or from persistent underground propagules (tubers/corms/bulbs). Many weed seeds and propagules are not killed by ‘warm’ composting. Many are resistant to common weedkillers. My problem weeds are tradescantia, buttercup, bamboo, oxalis and onion weed. You could name others…

Noxious weeds: = Weeds that are especially damaging to •agriculture, •natural ecosystems or •humans/animals. Many NZ noxious weeds are garden escapees. We live close to bush and beach, so should be extra vigilant.

Killing noxious weeds: Some noxious weeds are easy to kill using organic ‘knockdown’ weedkillers, others require glyphosate (to get at the roots), others need greater sophistication. www.weedbusters.org.nz offers good, species-specific advice. Weedbusters is the go-to website for NZ weeds.

Disposal of noxious weeds: Misanthropes dump their noxious weeds around Eastbourne adding to the ecological disaster overtaking New Zealand’s native plant and animal life. So, what do you do with your noxious weeds?
	• Eco-pile (cool): Doesn’t kill all weeds. 
	• Composting (warm): Doesn’t kill all weeds.  
	• Leave in sun on concrete: Doesn’t kill all weeds. 
	• Bag + leave bag in sun: Doesn’t kill all weeds. 
	• Bury: Kills all weeds - but must be deeper than 1 m, so impractical. 
	• Bonfire: Kills all weeds - traditional but smoulders/smokes for days, HCC says ‘no’.  

Bin/transfer station: For small amounts of noxious weeds use a Hutt City Council red-lid landfill bin (landfill is buried deep). For regular amounts use an HCC green-lid bin ('hot' composting ensures these are killed). HCC offers their 240 L green-lid bins for $95 p.a. loaded on your rates bill and emptied monthly. For large amounts of noxious weeds go to Seaview Transfer Station, car $20, trailer $30 (‘hot’ composting kills all). 
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