Up where weeds belong

Every weed has a weakness, says Toby, so ditch the chemicals and develop a more hands-on approach

- Toby Buckland

WHEN America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. That’s why the news from Reuters that MonsantoBayer is re-thinking US domestic sales of the weedkiller Roundup is bound to have an impact on us.

Roundup has been the go-to product for killing perennial and problem weeds for decades, but with legal claims that the active ingredient – glyphosate – causes cancer (5,000 cases in California alone), a ‘rethink’ for Europe is surely around the corner.

As with loo roll in lockdown, some will fill their sheds and maybe their baths with gallons of the gloop, but there’s no escaping the fact that sooner or later we’ll have to learn to kill unwanted greenery another way.

And that doesn’t have to mean endless hand-weeding. After years of glyphosate-free home-gardening, I’ve learned that even the most persistent weeds have a weakness.