Weed Free - Weed Control Services & Pesticide Training

The legal implications of selling a home with Japanese knotweed?

Japanese knotweed is a fast-growing, highly invasive plant with deep roots, known as rhizomes, which can be a real nuisance for homeowners.

Although knotweed dies back during the winter months, its thick rhizomes can lie dormant several metres underground, making it notoriously difficult to detect - and remove.

If you find the plant present at or even near your property, it could reduce the value of your home and make it difficult to sell.

Making easy work of applying treatments with a garden sprayer

When gardeners and landscapers make liquid or chemical applications to their sites, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner.

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run. The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.

Weed Control for Garden Centres

When a gardener visits their local garden centre, they are really expecting to find the landscaping, plants and borders and site looking like it is cared for at all times of the year.  The gardens on the site, inside and outside the retail space which are customer facing should be in order and weed free and pleasing on the eye.

If you have franchise areas in the garden centre, these should be weed free and kept tidy as the customer does not know that the area is franchised out.  A poorly maintained conservatory sales area or aquatic centre which is full of weeds will discredit the overall visual appearance when first impressions count so much.

Weed Control for Young Trees

Trees are good for the environment.

They absorb harmful Carbon Dioxide and release Oxygen for use all to breathe. They absorb toxins from the air and provide a habitat for wildlife, provide shade and also require lots of water that is often good for keeping an area dryer, a bit like Willow Trees in a wet hollow in a garden.

Young trees are therefore very important and should be given every opportunity to develop and establish once planted. Allowing weeds to grow around their base once planted will only allow the weeds and weed grasses to compete for any available water.

Start your winter weed control now!

Yes, that's right, you heard correctly. It is now time to think about your winter weed control tasks whether you are a home owner, commercial facility manager, garden centre or golf course manager or owner.

The colder winter months are a great time to get 'weed free' and get your site clean for next year's spring burst of weeds.

Weeds really ruin the fabric of a fence line and building line and post and wire fence base as well as brickwork and pavings.

Knotweed railway case won by Maesteg homeowner

A homeowner whose bungalow is towered over by Japanese knotweed on a railway line has won a four-year legal fight for compensation by Network Rail.

Robin Waistell claimed he was unable to sell because the rail body had ignored requests to tackle the invasive weed on the bank behind his home in Maesteg.

The case was seen as a likely test for homeowners whose property is blighted by knotweed on railway embankments.

Network Rail said it would be "reviewing the judgement in detail".

It is understood the rail infrastructure body was refused immediate leave to appeal against the ruling.

Turf Earthworms tackled with CastClear Amenity

CastClear Amenity is the larger unit of sale for the specialist Amenity Horticulture and Sports Turf sectors now that the pesticide Carbendazim has had it's registration revoked by the EU and UK Parliaments with available stocks to be used up by 31 August 2017 under the ruling.

Sportsturf Managers are therefore really going to struggle this autumn to find a long established, proven and reliable solution to control earthworm casts on sports turf and CastClear is well placed to help their needs in controlling earthworm casts on their playing surfaces.

CastClear Amenity is currently available in convenient 5 Litre Tip & Pour Containers and sold in a 2 x 5 Litre Outer. Larger units of sale available upon request.

Self-Study Pesticide Training Modules

Weed Free are able to provide formal training and assessments for Food and Environment Protection Act Certificates of Competence in the Safe use of Pesticides. Each year, we train many Greenkeepers and Sports Turf Managers and Local Authority Staff.

You can purchase self learn NPTC / City & Guilds training modules and other publications here. It is much cheaper than attending a formal training course and all you need to do is to register with NPTC / City & Guilds and then arrange to be Assessed in each Module. See the finer details in the individual modules.

Pesticides in your Honey? Truth or Fiction?

Three-quarters of the honey produced around the world contain pesticides that can harm bees and pose a health risk to humans, a study has shown.

Scientists who tested 198 honey samples found 75 per cent were laced with at least one of the neonicotinoid chemicals - which can attack the human nervous system in high doses.

Experts called the findings ‘alarming’, ‘sobering’ and a ‘serious environmental concern’ while stressing the pesticide levels generally fell well below the safe limits for human consumption.

The chemicals are a key battleground in the environmental movement – with campaigners demanding a ‘complete and permanent’ ban on the pesticides as they are suspected to be harmful to bees.

Neighbour dispute Japanese Knotweed

A business couple are suing a pensioner who sold them a luxury seaside house over claims she let Japanese knotweed invade their garden from her land next door.

Rosemary Line, 74, has been taken to court today by Adam and Eleanor Smith in a dispute over the invasive weed with each side blaming the other for spreading it.

The Smiths, both 43, bought their three-bedroom detached home in Maenporth, near Falmouth in Cornwall, from Mrs Line for £200,000 in 2002.

The couple launched legal action after claiming the knotweed had reduced the value of their home, now estimated at £500,000, by up to 10 per cent.

How not to Kill Your Garden Weeds...

A van was destroyed after it was set alight by a blow torch being used to burn weeds in a neighbouring property.

Firefighters were called to reports of a hedge on fire after it too was set alight in Boswell Drive, Lincoln, along with a garage door on Sunday, August 6.

The blow torch owner, who asked not be named, said the flames were caught by the wing, allowing the fire to quickly spread beyond the hedge to his neighbour's van.
He said he tried to put the flames out with a hose himself but the water 'wouldn't touch it.'

Teenager in nasty 'brush' with Giant Hogweed Plant

A teenager was left in agony with horrific burns and blisters after he brushed past a dangerous Giant Hogweed plant at a beauty hotspot.

Amber Gault, 39, had to rush her son Max, 17, to hospital after he suffered agonising 'huge yellow filled liquid blisters' on his right leg, arm and forehead during a bike ride in Somerset.

A nurse lanced the worst of the yellow boils but Max was still in pain over the weekend and was unable to work.The teen came into contact with a plant while on a mountain bike ride with a friend at the Ham Hill Country Park on Wednesday last week.

CastClear Amenity tackles Turf Earthworm Casts

CastClear Amenity is the larger unit of sale for the specialist Amenity Horticulture and Sports Turf sectors now that the pesticide Carbendazim has had it's registration revoked by the EU and UK Parliaments with available stocks to be used up by 31 August 2017 under the ruling.

Sportsturf Managers are therefore really going to struggle this autumn to find a long established, proven and reliable solution to control earthworm casts on sports turf and CastClear is well placed to help their needs in controlling earthworm casts on their playing surfaces.

CastClear Amenity is currently available in convenient 5 Litre Tip & Pour Containers and sold in a 2 x 5 Litre Outer. Larger units of sale available upon request.

ASULOX - Bracken Control Emergency Approval for 2017.

Asulox, the only active ingredient that is available for the control of Bracken in gardens and Forestry has for the past few years had restictions placed upon it by those lovely EU Ministers.

Rather than ban the product all together, the agreed deal is that users can purchase and apply it for a restricted period. Far better than no product at all to solve the problem.

15th May 2017 - Effective date for the Notice of Authorisation issued by CRD. Start of the Emergency Authorisation period of 120 days. Storage, promotion, sales and transfer authorised.

Pesticide Training Modules Available for Self-Study

Weed Free are able to provide formal training and assessments for Food and Environment Protection Act Certificates of Competence in the Safe use of Pesticides. Each year, we train many Greenkeepers and Sports Turf Managers and Local Authority Staff.

You can purchase self learn NPTC / City & Guilds training modules and other publications here. It is much cheaper than attending a formal training course and all you need to do is to register with NPTC / City & Guilds and then arrange to be Assessed in each Module. See the finer details in the individual modules.