Gardening with Gael: Loathsome weed fills me with rage

[Gardening]

Loathsome weed fills me with rage

27 Mar, 2023

Walking in the bush behind The Club and MAZ [Mangawhai Activity Zone] with a dog or two in tow is one of Mangawhai’s great pleasures. Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of our local ‘trackies’ there are walks for every level of fitness and availability of time. Naturalised among the manuka and kanuka are the shrubs that grow readily in the sand – Sword sedges, kumeraho, astelias, five fingers and my absolute favourite, mingimingi. This mingimingi is known as leucopogon fasciculatis or cyathodes fasciculata if you need more information. I always forget its name, but thanks to Jess of Mangawhai Natives who saves me as I thumb through my New Zealand natives books. This medium sized bush has an attractive branching form. Almost impossible to transplant, when it appears by chance in my garden, I overwhelm it with care.

On the sides of the track all these plants are struggling not to be overwhelmed, not with care but by the loathsome climbing asparagus weed. I took a photo of it thismorning.

Climbing asparagus, Asparagus scandens, native to South Africa, although some sites reference South America, was introduced as an ornamental. Now out in the wild, it has naturalised in a wide range of habitats smothering all vegetation in its path.

Fern-like in appearance, the tendrils sprout from underground tubers wrapping themselves around the nearest plant. They have the ability to climb up to four metres, the strength of the twining branches able to ringbark and kill soft barked small shrubs and trees. New five fingers, pseudopanax, don’t stand a chance. The sight of this plant fills me with rage.

We have it on our property. The tiny white flowers which appear in spring are followed by orange-red round berries which are attractive to birds. The birds do a great job of dispersing the seeds from the berries hence the proliferation of them in our parks, bush and gardens.

This is not an easy weed to get rid of. On the hill under the pohutukawa among the sword sedge in the garden we tried digging it out. Large balls of dark tubers resembling tumbleweed were dug out from around the plants. The sword sedge does such a good job of holding the sand it was impossible to get the tubers out from underneath. Trying to pull this plant out is impossible unless it is very small and new. If the plant is broken off the tubers reshoot. Even then one tuber left in the ground can happily regrow.

Spraying seems the most viable method of controlling it. Our neighbours, after three years of concentrated effort, have eradicated it from their site. I bet they are hoping we do the same. We have begun. The whole plant doesn’t need to be sprayed. Pull it away from other plants before spraying. Spot spray any new baby plants. I swear I can see them from a hundred metres.

The plants that have been pulled out can be rotted in a bucket of water. I have heard people say ‘Isn’t that pretty?” It is not. And no, it does not make an attractive table decoration. I do hope, in the Council’s plan for the park, eradication of asparagus weed is a priority.

Climbing asparagus weed smothers all vegetation in its path. PHOTO/GAEL