COVID-19 (coronavirus) remains the UK's public enemy number one, and while lockdown measures have started to relax in England, they're still in full effect here in Wales. The Welsh government are currently advising people to:

• Stay at home
• Go out for food, work and health reasons only
• Work from home if possible
• Stay 2 metres from other people
• Wash your hands immediately when you get home

If you have a garden, it's probably getting a lot of use right now - after all, spring is in the air, and if you want to enjoy the longer days and get a bit of fresh air, your own back garden is the safest place to do so!

But what if, while you're soaking up the sunshine, you spot Japanese knotweed shoots emerging from your soil?

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Japanese knotweed has a reputation for rapid growth, but this invasive plant's growth rate does peak and trough over the course of a year.

The growing cycle can vary somewhat depending on what the weather's doing, but there is a reasonably consistent annual pattern. Here's a rough timeline of Japanese knotweed's growing behaviour from one season to the next.

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For reasons discussed in our DIY Japanese Knotweed Removal blog post, we DO NOT RECOMMEND attempting to get rid of Japanese knotweed on your own. Instead, get in touch with a specialist contractor who knows how to deal with this invasive species and ensure that it does not spread elsewhere.

Photo by dankogreen (Flickr)

If you're found your way to this blog, you're likely wondering how to kill Japanese knotweed. Broadly speaking, there are two ways to kill Japanese knotweed:

• Herbicides - spraying the plant with glyphosate weed killer
  
  
• Excavation - digging the plant up and either burying it or safely disposing of it at an approved landfill site

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Plants can cause a lot of problems when they're left to grow unchecked. This is especially true of plants that lie close to power lines.

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Japanese knotweed has crown and rhizome, from which the roots develop, but it is the rhizome that you will see and it is from rhizome fragments that Japanese knotweed most commonly spreads.

Rhizomes - sometimes known as creeping rootstalks – are like plant stems that run horizontally through the soil. Roots and shoots grow out of the rhizome's nodes to seek nourishment as the plant grows.

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