Council has sprayed my fruit bushes

[Lavenderblue]

council appears to have sprayed weed killer along the fence where our allotment joins a playing field. The idiots seem to have picked the windest day to do this, the spray has drifted and about 12, possibly more, of my newly planted fruit bushes are withering and have yellowing leaves. Is there anything i can do (apart from hunting down this (insert insult of your choice) to help the bushes recover or have I lost them for good.

Am gutted, worked so blinking hard to make lovely beds for them and now the bloody council comes along, without using their collective brain cell and does this. I feel like giving up.

[crichmond]

I would make an official complaint asking for the fruit trees to be replaced at their expense.

[shirlthegirl43]

What a shame. Grouch to the council straight away - ours were good about paying compensation when they damaged some shrubs in our garden while mending the sewer. by the way, they don't have much clue as to what garden plants cost so remember you bought them all from expensive suppliers

[Lavenderblue]

We are going to crichmond, handily, our local county councilor happens to be my mother-in-law's cousin, but we are not hopeful - its just such a waste. I am really glad that I have taken pictures for the blog as evidence.

They didn't come from Aldi Shirl, honestly.

[carlseawolf]

Iwould say it all depends on what the weed killer is to start with because if it's a contact type then your bushes might recover from a light spraying.
If on the other hand it's a systematic weedkiller that stays active in the soil then it could be a diffrent story, and how bad it is depends on the the type used as council have access to commercial weed killers that we can not get hold off.
Get hold of the council and explain what has happened and you would like to know what chemical was used and the type ( find person i charge of parks and recrasional areas ).
If it's systematic then it could also be in the soil as well as the plant so replacing the plants will just put new plants in polluted soil but if it's contact based then there could be hope for the bushes .
Personally until;l you find out which i would give them a good soak with plain water to wash as much weed killer of the bush itself that way the damage might be less.

[Paul Wagland]

I wholeheartedly sympathise - we had the same situation yesterday when the council sprayed along the railings up the side of our veg patch at home. We've yet to discover how many of our plants will be affected. It was a very windy day - what were they thinking?!

We've complained about this before and they promised not to spray that section, but those people don't exactly get jobs like that through their sparkling intelligence...

[crichmond]

I would say it doesnt matter where they came from it is the cost of replacing them so if aldi dont have them anymore you will have to go to a garden centre to replace them, so I would quote garden centre prices from the outset.

[Lavenderblue]

We have put a weed suppressing liner over the soil so if it is a systemic type, we might be ok - well the bushes will be a gonner but the soil should be ok.

Thanks for the advice Carl and everyone, really appreciate it.

[NOG]

Allong with your request for compensation you should put in a request for:

the name of the chemical and the dilution used
Copies of the logsheets showing who mixed and checked it
Copies of the COSH sheets
Copies of there spaying policy
The sighed permit to work of that date.

I think your compenstion will be paid very promptly.

[SarzWix]

LavenderBlue, DON'T let them get away with it! You owe it to yourselves & your hard work, plus any other people's plots/gardens that this idiot may damage in the future, to make a fuss about this. Do what NOG says, and ask if the person who did it will be sent for re-training - even the simple instructions on garden centre weedkillers say that you shouldn't spray on windy days!

[yoanbob]

I agree with NOG do exacly as he says and they will be quick to react, do it while you are still angry!
the (insert insult of choice) I know it wont make up for all your hard work but if you get replacements and compensation thats somthing, also get in writing that they wont do it again.

[rustylady]

Totally agree with NOG. Send the details to the Chief Executive of your local council, and give him/her a timescale to reply (7 days?). Keep copies of all correspondence. If you don't get a satisfactory reply then contact your local MP, the newspapers, the National Allotments Association etc. It's not just your crops, although this is bad enough, what are they spraying and does it have any possible consequences for local people or especially children coming into contact with the sprayed areas.

[Seahorse]

I can't really add to the sound practical advice above except to say... go get 'em girl

[Herbie]

Lavenderblue

Don't give up. I work for a local authority so have some insider knowledge. My advice would be to put your complaint for compensation in writing as a first step with photos etc.
All written complaints have to be responded to and the local authority usually have to report complaints. If you feel that they are ignoring you or dismissing you out of hand, copy all correspondance to the Local Government Obudsman as they will intervene and have to investigate complaints reported to them and adjudicate. Sometimes they also settle/recommend the compensation that should be appropriate.

Hang on in there, its worth pursuing for all the reasons stated in the above posts.

[Snadger]

I feel I must comment on this one.........

First of all I must empathise with you Lavenderblue as I would be jumping mad if it happened to me!
There has been some sound advice about contacting the council and finding out which chemical was used, it's application rate etc etc

What I don't agree with is the misguided assumption that all people, including council workers, who spray pesticides as one small part of there jobs are an inferior race and brainless!

Rant over!

Btw there are three main types of pesticide used :- sytemic,(glyphosate etc) kills the plant through it's system from leaf to root. Inert when it contacts soil.

Residual, forms a gaseous layer in the soil to kill seedlings as they emerge. (Sodium Chlorate, Simazine etc)

Contact, kills what it hits. (Paraquat etc)