Cinnabar moth
Have you found striped yellow and black caterpillars feeding on ragwort? These are the larvae of a cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae), and their striped football jerseys are a danger signal.
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Ragwort
Ragwort is extraordinarily successful; all the “injurious weeds” named in the 1959 Weeds Act are.
Continue reading “Ragwort”Pulling ragwort
We call this the orchid patch and last year, when the ragwort was sprayed, we fenced it off to protect the orchids. But the untreated ragwort thrived here, and this year has had to be hand- pulled by yesterday’s Wednesday Work Party. Well done, guys!
Ragwort
Ragwort is extraordinarily successful; all the “injurious weeds” named in the 1959 Weed Act are.
Continue reading “Ragwort”Ragwort again
A version of this post was first published in July of last year.
This year the park produced beautiful hay: a variety of grasses, dry, sweet smelling, full of wildflower and not a single shred of ragwort anywhere. Already, we have turned our attention to pulling and digging the ragwort that might spoil the farmer’s next crop,
Continue reading “Ragwort again”Ragwort again
This year the park produced beautiful hay: a variety of grasses, dry, sweet smelling, full of wildflower and not a single shred of ragwort anywhere.
Continue reading “Ragwort again”Haircut!
On Thursday and Friday most of the park’s meadow grass was cut for silage; a bumper crop this year and entirely free of ragwort.
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Ragwort
Ragwort is extraordinarily successful; all the “injurious weeds” named in the 1959 Weed Act are.
Continue reading “Ragwort”
It’s ragwort pulling time
We need your help.
Our farmer has cut down a lot of the summer’s ragwort in the park’s three big fields but there is more that will have to be pulled by hand. If we are to avoid the regular use of herbicides in the park, we have to accept that pulling ragwort by hand will become an annual chore. We need lots of volunteers.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 