We’ve all heard of guerrilla gardeners.
Now, though, there’s a new unorthodox horticulturalist in town: the vigilante devegetator.
Spurtle has received photos of signs now adorning the Goldenacre Path between the Water of Leith and Five Ways Junction.
They point out the devastating effect on native invertebrates of invasive species, and point the finger in particular at Himalayan Balsam.
The DV or – to to use their preferred name – the ‘Go Gently Gardener’ enjoins passers-by to take 2 minutes and hoik out at least 10 of the thousands of Policemen’s Helmets currently multiplying in the adjacent Warriston Cemetery.
Each plant grows to up to 3 metres tall, produces 800 seeds, and can ‘catapult’ them to a distance of 7 metres without wind assistance. Lazy British species with their stick-in-the-mud attitudes and entrenched work practices simply can’t compete, and are being crowded out at an alarming rate.
Spurtle applauds the mysterious herbicidal ‘Go Gently Gardener’, even though we maintaining a sneaking affection for the Himalayan object of his or her disaffection.
A similar campaign was launched last summer by the Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust which we reported here: Breaking news (11.7.14).