Well I don't think it's bracken. It's growing like Billy-o though. I planted the two chunks I kept in spots where they'll only be competing with ivy really. Slightly alarmed by the rate of growth but at the moment I think they're lovely.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Is your land acid? We are infested with bracken and have a pH of about 5. When bracken first comes through the ground the leaves are certainly curled like that and they have distinctive smell, The are particularly poisonous at this stage, but are not good for livestock at any stage. In late August/early September the spores are carcinogenic. See:https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=445. I have been fighting it on my land for 30 years and am making some progress. There used to be a spray called Asulox but I think that this may be banned now.
I have quite a lot of ferny things, PP, so I have to get very technical to properly distinguish them. I have small ferns, light ferns, those nice ferns, the slightly shiny one, and ferny ferns (because not all ferns are very ferny) .
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Sorry to hear it's such a battle, Malcolm - it was starting the kind of situation you're dealing with that worried me. I'm confident now that mine is not bracken, thank goodness - but more power to your elbow.
Thanks Nutcutlet - I am no longer alarmed!
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Posts
Well I don't think it's bracken. It's growing like Billy-o though. I planted the two chunks I kept in spots where they'll only be competing with ivy really. Slightly alarmed by the rate of growth but at the moment I think they're lovely.
It looks like a ferny thing I have. Always with the over technical PP!!
I like it.
Is your land acid? We are infested with bracken and have a pH of about 5. When bracken first comes through the ground the leaves are certainly curled like that and they have distinctive smell, The are particularly poisonous at this stage, but are not good for livestock at any stage. In late August/early September the spores are carcinogenic. See:https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=445. I have been fighting it on my land for 30 years and am making some progress. There used to be a spray called Asulox but I think that this may be banned now.
I have quite a lot of ferny things, PP, so I have to get very technical to properly distinguish them. I have small ferns, light ferns, those nice ferns, the slightly shiny one, and ferny ferns (because not all ferns are very ferny)
.
Don't be alarmed by the rate of growth. Ferns shoot up in spring but once those fronds are uncurled that's as tall as they get.
And don't be alarmed by the bracken thing, this isn't bracken.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Sorry to hear it's such a battle, Malcolm - it was starting the kind of situation you're dealing with that worried me. I'm confident now that mine is not bracken, thank goodness - but more power to your elbow.
Thanks Nutcutlet - I am no longer alarmed!