Monty Don Quotes

I had always been fascinated by the whole idea that Australia was this different ecology and that when rabbits and prickly pears and other things from Europe were introduced into Australia, they ran amok.

Life on the planet is being homogenized by the expanding human population and the frequent and rapid movement of people and goods, which carry invasive organisms with them. These invasives often flourish in their new ecosystems because, like the woolly adelgid, they have escaped their predators.

Aquatic invasive species are destroying the environment, damaging fisheries, and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars annually.

While many alien species are harmless, others pose expensive threats to seas and fields and forests.

War is being waged all across the country against the invasive plant and animal species - some 50,000 of them - now spreading across the U.S.

One researcher just determined that African and Indian elephants make each other sick. When a new animal or plant is introduced to a habitat bad things happen. The biggest danger to native wildlife is foreign wildlife.

That's a real problem when people bring exotics into their homes. Sometimes it's by accident, but sometimes it's on purpose.

For most people, carp isn't just garbage fish - it's an invasive species.

When our natural habitats become overrun by species that are not native to these areas, they can damage the environment, pose health risks, and even hurt our local economy.

Zebra mussels like to hitch a ride on boats when they're transferred from one body of water to another. It's important to make sure to thoroughly clean your boat each time it leaves the water to ensure these invasive mussels are removed and that you are not spreading them to your next location.

A lot of the flowers I like are weeds. Oh, and dandelions, but they're a weed, too.

One of the major hobbies in South Florida is keeping animals that no sane person would want to keep. One of those is snakes. They usually get them when they're small, and when they get too big, they let them go. But there are also people with monkeys, lions, tigers. And they all get away, eventually.

If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it you would be amazed at the animals that fall out: badgers, wolves, boa constrictors, crocodiles, ostriches, baboons, capybaras, wild boars, leopards, manatees, ruminants, in untold numbers. There is no doubt in my mind that that feral giraffes and feral hippos have been living in Tokyo for generations without seeing a soul.

It may be a weed instead of a fish that, after all my labour, I at last pull up.

You fight dandelions all weekend, and late Monday afternoon there they are, pert as all get out, in full and gorgeous bloom, pretty as can be, thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity.

Where the plow does not go and the seed is not sown, the weeds are sure to multiply.

So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance.

One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the weeds.

Straw mulch, a ground cover of white clover interplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding all provide effective weed control in my fields.

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds.

No computer, no gadget, no trickery. I am an animal, it is a plant. I will beat the weed!

Agricultural science is largely a race between the emergence of new pests and the emergence of new techniques for their control.

There are bitter weeds in England.

I've got six months to sort out the hackers, get the Japanese knotweed under control and find an acceptable form of narcissus.