Is it over yet …?

I used to see Japanese knotweed everywhere.

I would take my wife away on holiday and everywhere we went – Japanese knotweed.

We used to holiday regularly in Portmeirion at the Hotel in Wales – and used to see little patches of JK everywhere on the journey down from Manchester – and then again in the grounds of the hotel.

We also travelled to Scotland to stay on the banks of Loch Lomond – knotweed everywhere. Driving into the car park of Hotel du Vin in Winchester …you’ve guessed it Japanese knotweed.

In and around Manchester you would see Japanese knotweed almost everywhere you looked – street corners, back gardens, anywhere that wasn’t maintained ….and Wigan …jk ‘central’ as if somebody had been using it for street planting…

Yet …today everything seems a little different? …or does it??

Have I simply become immune to the weed? Have I stopped registering the plant …or…have we made some in-roads into the dominance of a single species of invader??

Hmmmm – got to admit I’m not sure.

As I drive out of Glossop I note:

Jk near to chemical works

Jk above Roseanne’s house

Jk in Broadbottom

Jk by the river

Jk by that house that’s been for sale forever

Jk by the cricket club

Jk on the side of the motorway

Jk in the central reservation of the motorway

Jk by the traffic island in Denton

Jk by the roundabout as I come off the motorway

Jk by the railway line

Jk near the petrol station

Jk on the riverside

Jk on the piece of building land that hasn’t sold

I think I’ve just answered my own question – it’s just my perception that’s changed ….

Whereas previously I’ve gone – JAPANESE KNOTWEED ALERT !!!!

I now go …Japanese knotweed, Japanese knotweed, Japanese knotweed ….just not as loudly.

Still a problem then.

 

Mike C