29 November 2012

The fight against the English Broom

| johnboy
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english broom eradication

Territory and Municipal Services want you to know they’re making progress in their war against English broom in Namadgi National Park.

Over the past 20 years Namadgi National Park has worked in partnership with the Canberra Bushwalking Club to combat one of the region’s most invasive weeds, English broom.

“English broom seedlings can remain viable in the soil for up to 20 years. It is very important that the annual control program removes as many of the shrubs as possible, otherwise another 20 years is added to the control effort.

“The Club’s members volunteer their own time to come and help out and it has made such a difference. We are now winning the battle against English broom with fewer plants showing up every year.

[Photo: members from the Canberra Bushwalking Club removing English Broom from Namadgi National Park Courtesy TAMS]

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I’ve had this stuff in the backyard of my rental since I moved in 6 years ago. The massive ones were eventually removed because the neighbour complained they were damaging their fence.

They’re impressive plants. Masses of flowers when in bloom (quite pretty acutally), grow very fast, form deep roots very quickly, produce a staggering amount of seeds and the seed pods kind of catapult the seeds (they look a bit like mustard seed) away from the bush. It seemed like all the seed pods opened on the same day too. You’d be sitting next to this bush and you’d hear a constant ‘pop, pop, pop’ of seed pods opening and felt the tiny seeds landing on your skin.

I just poisoned the small ones that came up in my yard again with a generic non-specific weed-killer. Seemed to work quite well.

Each grows a Mary Poppins unless they are removed.

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