Gardening great-granny in Day of Triffids nightmare
A GARDENING great-granny has hit out at "irresponsible" fly tippers who have left her with a gigantic problem.
Vivienne Forsyth, Rhives Lodge, Golspie, is battling an invasion of the plant Himalayan balsam, which she believes has seeded from plants dumped on waste ground nearby.
A non-native species, Himalayan balsam is notorious for the rate it spreads and the ruthless way it chokes out native plants.
It is illegal to plant in the wild or cause it to spread under the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2012.
Mrs Forsyth, a former nurse, said: "It’s bad enough dealing with the natural weeds that are around without having to cope with this stuff as well."
A Londoner by birth, Mrs Forsyth and her husband, retired Church of Scotland minister Rev James Forsyth, have lived at Rhives Lodge for 16 years. They moved to Sutherland from their previous home at Fearn.
The sloping garden at Rhives Lodge is about a third of an acre and is looked after primarily by Mrs Forsyth, although she does have occasional help to cut the grass. A keen gardener who remembers helping her family grow vegetables in wartime, she cultivates veg in raised beds along with fruit and flowers.She first noticed the dumped plants some time ago on waste ground near her home while she was out walking her dog.
She said: "I didn’t know what it was at first but it eventually dawned on me that it was Himalayan balsam."
Native to India and Pakistan, the plant was introduced to the UK in 1893 and within a few decades had escaped into the wild.
It grows up to 5ft high from seed in a single season, spreads quickly and forms dense thickets that smother indigenous plants. Another name for it is "policeman’s helmet" because of the shape of its pink, orchid like flowers. It also has dark green leaves.After the plant flowers, it forms seed pods which spectacularly explode, projecting hundreds of seeds up to 20ft.
It wasn’t long before Mrs Forsyth began to notice Himalayan balsam seedlings in her garden. She uprooted them but soon realised she was fighting a losing battle.
She said: "It’s now invaded my garden, particularly at the back where it has come over the garden wall and is growing beside my fruit bushes. It’s also popping out the side of the road and I have no doubt it will spread into the nearby fields as well."
Mrs Forsyth appealed to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) for help and also to Sutherland Estates, which owns the land surrounding her home.
She said: "I did approach SNH last year but they said they were dealing with an outbreak elsewhere and they could not give us any help. Sutherland Estates said they did not have the funding to do anything."
She said she wanted to highlight her situation as a warning to others not to dump garden waste indiscriminately.
She would also welcome advice from fellow gardeners on how best to get rid of the invasion. She said: "I am just so frustrated with it. Whoever dumped these plants acted irresponsibly. This will keep spreading and spreading and spreading. I would be so grateful if anybody could help."
Sutherland Estates factor Peter Voy said he was not aware that Mrs Forsyth had made an approach.
He said: "The land around Rhives Lodge is tenanted farmland and both the tenant and ourselves would be interested in evidence of people dumping contaminated soil or anything else on the land.
"The balsam is most likely to have come from a garden. It seeds very freely but it tends to be localised unless there is a burn or river close by in which case the seeds can be transported for miles.
"I will look into what can be done on our side but I have personal experience of trying to clear it from a garden and it needs thorough and complete uprooting of plants in the pre-seed stage over a three year period to eliminate it where glyphosate can’t be used. It is possible but it’s not easy. Otherwise, seeds from any missed plants will quickly recolonise the surrounding area.
"If Mrs Forsyth wants to get in touch with me, I will be more than happy to discuss this with her."
SNH’s invasive, non-native species expert, Stan Whitaker, said: "Landowners are responsible for controlling giant hogweed or other invasive non-native plants on their land – for example, a local council would control Himalayan balsam if it was on council land. "However, there’s no legal obligation to control it. SNH’s role is to provide advice and raise awareness. There is also new legislation which makes it an offence to introduce a non-native invasive species, and this is one of our main aims as well: to stop people bringing invasive non-native plants into Scotland in the first place."
