My Private War Against Japanese Knotweed

In the thick of early-COVID grief-fog, I sought a much-needed achievement badge by contacting The Macphail Woods Ecological Forestry Project about its landscape consulting service.Catherine had always been the sexton of our churchyard and, in a move to establish dominion, I thought I should get to know it, and perhaps plan for its future.A few days later I was lucky to take MacPhail’s Gary Schneider on a tour of the backyard. To my surprise, rather than hitting me with a “you need to get some native plants in here stat” prescription, Gary, instead, led me on a much more philosophical conversation about what I wanted the yard to feel like, what I wanted to use it for. It was, it turns out, just what my soul needed.On his way out the gate, Gary pointed at an outcropping of tall bamboo-like shoots between our deck and the fence.“You probably want to do something about that,” Gary said, “and your neighbours will thank you if you do.” Japanese knotweed between our fence and our deck. Gary…