Well done everybody. I would add that: unless the seed heads have developed then you can just pull it up and leave it on the ground to wither and die, no need to bag it but the real key to getting quick control is to keep revisiting the sites, until the frost kills them off, to handpull the ones that you miss and the ones that germinate late, following the first hand pull. That way nothing goes to seed and you will find only about 1% of the plants there next year.

On the Monnow (a somewhat more rural catchment!) we are spraying it first and then hand pulling. We aim to have erradicated it from over 50kms of river by 2014. Over the last three years we have proved to ourselves and others that it can be done.

__________________
"The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too, that Pooh had almost decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning."

www.monnow.org