WILLIAMSON'S WEEKLY NATURE NOTES

"Keep your eye on the road" is all she ever says. Actually I'm not even looking because the yellow peril can be clearly seen out of the corner of your eye.

I used to call it ragwork, because it was summer drudge on the steep slopes of the downs at Kingley Vale every year. I pulled tons every year off this shop window holding of half a square mile of government-backed nature reserve.

At first I burnt it in huge bonfires. Then I found it rotted nicely if dumped under the old yew trees in piles. Today after 40 years of ragwork the reserve is pretty well clear.

Local farmers with stewardship schemes comprising corridors of natural flora have more ragwort on their land than is found in the reserve. They can deal with it very quickly by mowing in July and stopping the whole lot bursting out into clouds of parachuting seed.

I could never do that because of the steep slopes on which no vehicle has ever made tracks except for one adventurous tank in WW2. In my last years of work I did use spot spraying of ragwort rosettes in May, which was marginally quicker pulling.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette August 15