Gaining on Ragwort with the Lazy Dog Tool

The Lazy Dog is distinguished from all other plant removing tools, because it enables a work-force to remove seedlings or small ragwort rosettes from the ground (and to lift them easily to waist level), without any bending. This facility enables teams to remove a large proportion of the plants well before flowering, and to put 1st or 2nd year plants to be put into bags really easily. L-D teams have shown that this is a really effective method of reducing the later work, when the plants are in flower. A shorter / lighter version of the tool is now available, and is especially good for the rosette stage work, and for work of all kinds on hillsides.

Other advantages to this approach:

1. Plants are small & easily uprooted intact (there are no broken roots).
2. Plants are easily slipped into a bag (there is less bulk to be squeezed into bags).
3. The no-bending enables long hours of work to be completed, with less much less effort.
4. The follow-up work (during flowering) is reduced to a minimum.

Some knowledge and skill is required:

a. Teams have to be able to recognize ragwort at various stages of its development*
b. Teams have to learn to scan the ground in a methodical way and focus on these small and unimportant looking plants. It takes practice, and the work can initially seem much less satisfying than the removal of large amounts of bulky material which clears the landscape. Teams often use ground marking posts to help.

Example contract:

In 2003 the Lazy Dog Tool Co were asked to deal with the ragwort problem on 45 Hectares of chalk pasture land, managed by the Corporation of London & overseen by English Nature as a 'Site of Special Scientific Interest' or 'SSSI'. The ragwort problem had grown beyond the capacity of existing officers, using traditional summer pulling methods. So how did the L-Dog teams approach the job ?

Two annual visits to the site were necessary. The seedlings and rosettes were pulled during the 1st week of June, and everything that was missed at that stage, was dealt with during flowering, in mid July. In two years work we removed 8 X 6 tonne trailers, filled with rosettes & flowering plants. The 2005 crop was much smaller than in 2004, which shows that we have much better control. The contract has involved 4 weeks of pulling by five people, spread over two years. Wages for 5 days work are £300, for each member of the team. Total annual wages: £3000.

Of course, the Ragwort seed-bank will always be sparked off by scrub clearances and too much winter grazing, so a degree of annual maintenance must be accepted as part of the job of caring for Farthing Down. With a Lazy Dog, much of this work can be completed well before flowering.

* [seedling, small and large rosette, different types: e.g. Common & Hoary Ragwort].