Interesting

Hi Folks,

This is not daffodils but is an interesting gardening tale.

This weekend I attended an Alpine Garden Society study weekend held in the middle of the Southern Alps.

One of the speakers was Steve Newill whom I have written about previously. He is a seed collector and distributor. Hieracium is an invasive weed around Lake Tekapo. Steve had an order to sell seeds of hieracium to Germany for $1200 a kg. It is used to stabilise the banks of road cuttings. One man’s pest is another’s gold.

Steve’s latest is to collect seed of an invasive sedum. It is worth nearly as much per kg.

What could this noxious weed be used for?

We know of the problem of urban warming and the need to ‘green’ our cities. When new houses are built the roof is covered in a growing medium of 5 or 8cm thickness and the sedum is planted as a roof top cover. It insulates the house both from heat and cold and provides the value of greenspace in the cities. Steve has orders for hundreds of kilos of this seed. One man’s pest is another’s gold.

 Dave