Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Has it come from a neighboring property? Could they be part-liable, if they allowed it to spread? (IANAL)

Otherwise, I'm sure I read somewhere that it's actually edible?

Knotweed is a pain but imo not as bad as mailonline etc can make out

If you are getting it cleared make sure the removal firm is insurance approved with a 5 year guarantee so when you come to sell it will be covered. Some mortgage providers won't lend if knotweed is withing 5 meters of the boundry (fuck you Virgin Mortgages!)

It is a weird situation, having it on your land is not illegal but allowing it to "escape" is, however it can get transferred by birds, cuttings and it growing through so really hard to prove.

My elderly neighbour has had it in the front for about 5 years, it was treated by the freeholder but they got really shit at repeat visits so I now spray it myself with some super strength weed killer that is pretty effective. It does kill everything else in his front garden but he isn't bothered by that and would rather not have knot weed

anyone looking to do a bit of top dressing in the olympic park area , there is a huge pile of well rotted chicken farm waste piled high at the very south end of hackney marshes, across the dual carriage way, ruckholt rd, from the hockey centre, its almost like flour in consistency. i guess they'll be spreading it on the footie pitches in the coming weeks

i've grabbed 3 rubble sacks full this morning and chucked a bit all over my garden, i hope it doesn't give me some horrible respiratory disease, have i done a sensible thing here or could i be bring pests and disease into my garden
it may well have been pasturised or maybe it decomposed at high temps to kill everything off ?

..boy, this thread is so fucking disgusting lately..

high nitrogen content stuff does seem to be waste products doesn't it

but most gardeners would go gaga over a well rotted manure pile i'm sure

#thesearchfornitrogen

Mature horse poo. Dark, rich, crumbly, like a lovely Christmas pudding.

Better photos of poo.

It's a fucker because it's right on the walk to the compost bin and near where I've put the hooks for our new washing line.

Cats? Fox? Phantom?

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If it smells of fish it's probably an otter.

Yes, we need you do describe the smell as detailled as possibble.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/how-identify/identify-poo

get your nose right in there and inhale deeply

There's always the taste test

If it smells of fish it's probably an otter.

Amazing. Have two points.

Hey guys,

I have some big old railway sleepers that I'm going to use to build raised beds.
Do i need corner posts set in concrete or will digging down and compacting the foundations for them to sit on be enough?

How many courses, laying flat or on their edges?

I personally wouldn't bother with concrete for a raised bed.

Had railway sleepers at an old house, they just oozed oily stuff :(

Corner posts required but I doubt you’ll need the concrete.

Oi, my council tax paid for that, hands off!

You don't even live in the borough do you?!

Re: knotweed. We had some treated last year and paid just over £1600 for a 10 yr insurance backed guarantee. Most lenders will insist on a management plan which is usually the 5 year thing. The 10yr guarantee covers you if it comes back and the treating company has gone out of business. I managed to convince my neighbour to do the same as there was growth just on their side of the fence. There has been zero regrowth this year, on either property. They found more up a shared access path and sprayed that while they were at it. There was some flytipping of building waste on the path years before we bought, which is probably where it came from.

As has been said, it is no where near the scourge that some media will have you think. The guy doing the treatment even said there are far more destructive plants, like rose bushes, that don't get the same stigma. JKW is particularly hated because it spreads and is impossible to completely kill. You can either have it (read: your whole garden) dig out and removed, which costs a fuckton. Or, have it treated with glyphosate which makes it dormant. The latter just means you can't dig in the area.
So long as you have the management/treatment plan (and preferably the insurance backed guarantee), most lenders should be fine. You can do it yourself, but if it came up in a survey and you didn't have the £1600 bit of paper, you'd be a bit stuffed.

The dude even went so far as to say that the issues with mortgages only really spiked around about the time of the crash as more and more lenders were looking for reasons not to lend.

Tldr: throw money at the problem and it will go away.

We used CYB Environmental who price matched another quote. The guy (Chris) who did they survey and the work is a cyclist. And Welsh, but don't hold that against him.

Digging and compacting is fine if laid flat, secure the corners and any overlaps by drilling through and whacking in lengths of steel reinforcing rods (usually used in concrete).

Grass cut, lawn edged, beds weeded, all plants identified and mapped.

Paternity leave is going great so far.

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I mean, this only took an entire day.

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