On Topic of Gardening
 

"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:05:54 +0100, "Sue" wrote:


Good grief. Can planners just insist that any ridiculous thing they like
is written into the deeds of a house? It's one thing to insist that a
replacement sapling would be planted by the householder if some special
tree dies, but a 25 yr old sized one?!

What planners do is attach a landscaping plan to the planning consent
when an estate is built and write in conditions to ensure that the
landscape "matures". AFAIK, the 25 year bit is because they can't
insist on longer for some strange reason. Then the developer writes
any necessary conditions into deeds for individual plots.

I just happen to have this tree. I think there are about 9 other plots
on the development with similar conditions.

And I have much dafter things in the deeds relating to cows, chickens,
descendants of George V and a woman who died in the 40s.


You should see my deeds. I can keep pigs if I want to (that would interest
my new bad neighbours, wouldn't it?}

I cannot be a manure merchant or a tallow candler maker. That is totally
forbidden on the deeds. Damn it ;-)
|I wanted to sell my chicken poo.

On Topic of Gardening
 

"kay" wrote in message
...

Christina Websell;964507 Wrote:


Unless you have horses. They will rarely eat ragwort when it is growing
but
when dried in hay they will and not a lot of it causes severe liver
damage
up to and including death.



I did say a reason for not killing ALL the ragwort. Of course you're
going to kill it on or next to grazing land. But it is a british native
plant, and therefore I don't think it is reasonable to seek to eradicate
completely from the UK.


ISTR that ragwort is a notifiable weed and you are obliged to pull it up
by
law. I might be wrong on this.

yes, you are indeed wrong on two counts.[/i][/color]

I knew it!

1) It is not notifiable. No plants, as far as I am aware, are
notifiable. If someone tells you that a plant is notifiable, try asking
them who you are supposed to notify ;-)

2) You are not obliged to pull it up, merely to take measure to avoid
its spreading IF you have been served notice to this effect by the
Ministry (ie someone else has been able to demonstrate that your ragwort
is spreading on to their land). It is covered by two Acts

The Weeds Act 1959, which covers spear thistle, creeping thistle, curled
dock, broad leaved dock and ragwort, allows MAFF (presumably now DEFRA)
to serve a notice on a landowner to take whatever measures are required
to stop the weed spreading.

The Ragwort Control Act 2003 provides for the Minister to draw up a code
of practice on the control of Ragwort.


Maybe I was thinking of this Act. I did say I could be wrong about it
being notifiable.
I've eliminated it from my land. It took a few years.










--
kay

Yes, despite it's name, this Act doesn't do anything about controlling ragwort, merely allows the Minister to produce a code of practice. That's what Jake found hilarious.

I suppose that, if there is a dispute about controlling ragwort, and one side says "I have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it spreading", the other side can say "have you taken all the steps described in the Code of Practice?"

You are surrounded by grazing land, I believe. I am in the middle of town, with one horse half a mile away as the crow flies, and the nearest cows or sheep a mile away. On the other hand, I do have cinnabar moths and no groundsel - they lay their eggs on species of Senecio, not on grasses - so I don't feel the same need to try to eradicate a native plant.

On Topic of Gardening
 

On 17/07/2012 01:03, Christina Websell wrote:
"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:09:47 +0100, David Hill
wrote:




It's not notifiable , you only have to look at how much grows along the
Motorways where it's left to it's own devices.
David @ the showery end of Swansea bay

It's merely an "injurious weed" as per the Weeds Act of 1950something
(yep, there is such an Act). The Sec of State can serve a notice on
someone on whose land common ragwort (among I think 5 weeds in total)
is growing to prevent its spread. Indeed Ragwort got its own Act in
2003 I believe. IIRC it's hilarious.


You might not find it so hilarious if it killed your horse, eh?


For more information on Rabwort then see http://www.ragwortfacts.com/
Not all Ragwort is native to UK
"Oxford ragwort gets its name from the Oxford Botanic Gardens where
plants were first grown in the 1700s. They had been collected from Mount
Etna on the Island of Sicily where they were found growing on the lava
fields. By1794 the plant was to be found on the city walls having
escaped from its original source. With the advent of the railways Oxford
Ragwort, finding the clinker beds of the tracks similar to its original
volcanic habitat spread around the country. Oxford Ragwort can now be
found all over the UK and is often to be found growing in the gaps in
paving stones.

Recent research (1) has found that Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus) is
actually of hybrid origin. Its parents are two other speicies of
Ragwort, Senecio aethnensis and Senecio chrysanthemifolius which are
both only found on Sicily. It appears that the occur at different
heights on the mountain and in between these points on the mountain the
hybrid occurs. It is this Ragwort that was originally taken to Oxford."

Just in case anyone gets the idea that by pulling up ragwort, they are most likely to be getting rid of an alien: Oxford Ragwort is less common than common ragwort, particularly if you live in the north or the west of the country.