Japanese Knotweed

I watched Homes under the Hammer this morning - in between working on my accounts, honest! Someone bought a stable on a plot of land in Tunbridge Wells with a view to building a house on the site.
The garden apparently, was full of knotweed and they had to get a firm in who put all the soil and plants through a machine which separated them out and left clean soil. It cost £12,000 to have it done!
I know that it's a problem, and notifiable, but didn't realise just how serious it could be. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Chris

 

The local common near us had it. Some landscapers wanted to make it a communal garden. They sent us regularly update reports. All they did was repeatedly sprayed it right through the growing season with a system herbicide, then dug it all out last winter, then kept an eye on it through this last summer to make sure it had gone. They finally started the landscaping work about 3 months ago. It was a long drawn out process but I reckon it was less than £12k worth of effort.

 

The local council around here have been spraying it also, if its on their land.

Its just a matter of being persistant and spraying regularly.

 

Japanese knotweed Is NOT a notifiable weed, it is however an offence to knowingly cause the spread of it. Details can be foubd on DEFRAS website.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Frostbite

 

This is what DEFRA has to say on the subject.

http://archive.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/wildlife/management/non-native/knotweed.htm

I'm just glad I don't have it.

No mention of the 'knowingly' bit on DEFRA's site. If I had some I'd be worried, because there is a massive ambiguity in what DEFRA has to say, as is often the case. They say its not an offence to have it, but it is an offence to cause to to grow in the wild. As they don't mention what what is involved in causing it to grow in the wild, it could be argued that causing it to grow in the wild could be as simple as accidentally busting a piece of and carrying it on your muddy shoe to outside of your boundary, or worse, it could be argued that knowing it is present on your land and taking no action to prevent it escaping is causing it to grow in the wild by negligence.

Like I said, I'm glad I don't have it.

Welcome to the forum by the way

 

Thanks for the welcome