Kick-sampling

Kick-sampling is a technique for assessing water quality in the wild. I've done some kick-sampling myself. Heck, I've taught kick-sampling. Almost the only time I ever used the Lidl middle-aisle fisherman's waders were for kick-sampling up to my knees in a stream.This year, for the first time, we're doing something different with our traditional hay-meadow: harvesting the seed to [potentially, hopefully] propagate wild-flowers away from our nursery. We were requested-and-required to remove and Ragwort Senecio jacobaea from the meadow before harvest. Insects and pollinators like the bright yellow flowers but the whole plant is generally poisonous to live-stock, especially horses. It is a prolific of seed which are wind-dispersed, but the plant is a biennial, so a rigorous regime of uprooting [traditionally by small farm-children] will eventually get the scourge down to manageable proportions. Every year, if we look, ragwort will be found; but only a few scattered plants which are a…