FRUSTRATED: Katherine Nicholls wants people to speak up against noxious weeds. Photo by Wayne Martin.

KEEPING gardens under control is an ongoing activity carried out with love by people who love to spend time in their gardens. But the gardener’s traditional mild demeanour can become frayed when unwanted guests invade their space.

Katherine Nicholls admits she's “far from a gardener” and her lawns often get overgrown when she doesn’t have time to mow, “but noxious plants grow so rapidly and are so difficult to pull out when they are large, I just can’t leave them”.

At the moment, she’s battling with moth plant spilling from her neighbours’ property where it has aggressively taken over their bush area. “It grows large pods that have opened up and the spores have seeded the rest of the garden, my garden, as well as other neighbours as far as the wind carries the seeds,” says Katherine. “It strangles other vegetation and the sap is a nasty, sticky irritant.

“Every single crack or pot plant has this plant growing rapidly. It’s even seeded through the lawn and the thick, sticky sap and coarse vines threaten the lawnmower. At the very least, people could remove these pods.”

Howick historian Alan La Roche is concerned about noxious plants and says there is a bad infestation of moth plant, with its big pods of seeds, on council land adjacent to the South Eastern Highway from Waipuna Bridge to SH1.

The plant is also invading many properties in Burswood, “owned by new immigrants who do not understand the danger of having moth plants that will soon release millions of seeds that can easily germinate”.

Moth plant is classified as a “species under containment” by Auckland Council, but only in the Waitakere and Hunua Ranges weed-control zones, specified coastal mainland sites and on Hauraki Gulf Islands. Occupiers are required to remove moth plant from infested properties in these areas.

Moth plant is also listed under the “community initiatives” classification. The community programmes have been introduced to allow groups of land occupiers to control pest plants collaboratively. The council helps by providing expert advice, management plans and some resources, including financial support to “seed” groups through the Environmental Initiatives Fund.

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Rhamnus.

Priority for assistance is given to community groups undertaking restoration projects. A group can nominate any pest it wants to control collaboratively and the council may provide regulatory back-up for species listed under the category.

The council can take enforcement action on a small number of occupiers unwilling to comply with the community initiative, but only after the majority have achieved the programme’s aim. This ensures the true cost of pest plant control is attributed to those making the problem worse by not complying with the wider community.

Programmes can target a particular species or suite of pest plant species at a particular site, the council says.

While still classified as “under surveillance”, the privet is also listed under the “community initiatives” classification. Ms Nicholls says council biosecurity officers have told her that if people don’t want the plants taking over native bush and gardens, it’s up to them to make the first move.

“In many regions, owners of the properties are required to remove noxious plants. But here in Howick we can only sit and put up with the seeds drifting around the area until the problem eventually becomes out of control.

“If people in Howick really do want these plants restricted, then it’s up to us to speak up and make the changes.”

Mr La Roche has written to the council about rhamnus trees in Howick between Abercrombie, Wellington and Picton Streets.

The rhamnus is in the council’s “total control” category. In these cases the council carries out or arranges all control work at no expense to the landowner or occupier. However, the weed is declared a total control pest plant only on Hauraki Gulf islands.

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Moth plant.

It’s classified as a containment pest plant in a coastal strip from Long Bay to the top of Mellons Bay. Land occupiers within this zone are required to completely remove rhamnus from their properties. But Howick village is outside the zone. Instead, rhamnus is declared as a surveillance pest plant. This means the plant cannot be sold, propagated, planted or distributed.

The council’s spokeswoman says biosecurity staff have contacted Mr La Roche and Ross and Shirley Warren, of the Musick Point Trust, to confirm ongoing support to control rhamnus around the landmark and nearby land within the rhamnus containment zone.

Auckland Council is responsible for plants classified as under total control.

•  Total control – African feather grass, Asiatic knotweed, two asparagus species, balloon vine and small balloon vine, broomsedge, cathedral bells, Chilean needle grass, climbing spindle berry, devil’s fig, devil’s tail, egeria, great reedmace, green cestrum, houttuynia, kudzu vine, lantana, Madeira vine, Manchurian wild rice, marshwort, Mexican feather grass, nassella tussock, needle grass, old man’s beard, purple loosestrife, rhamnus, royal fern, Sagittaria species, scrambling lily, Senegal tea, spartina, water poppy, white-edged nightshade, wild broom.

•  Containment – Australian sedge, Bathurst bur, bushy asparagus, gorse, moth plant, nodding thistle, ragwort, rhamnus, smilax, variegated thistle, wild ginger, wild kiwifruit, woolly nightshade.

•  Surveillance – There are 158 species listed.