Weedbusters Dirty Weekends

Weeds are wrecking our natural areas - bush, coastal areas, wetlands, and parks and reserves – by crowding and smothering out the native plants that should be growing there. Many of these weedy ornamental species are still growing in peoples’ gardens, and are spread into natural areas by birds, wind and the dumping of garden waste. Spring is the perfect time to get into the garden and have a clear out in time for a new planting season. During spring each year, Weedbusters encourages gardeners to ‘have a dirty weekend in their own backyard’, by identifying any weedy ornamental species that might be growing on their properties, and replacing them with non-weedy alternatives from local garden centres.

The Weedbusters Dirty Weekend competition is open from 1 October to 31 October 2013. You can check out the winners and some other entries from previous years in the Diary of a Dirty Weekend section below.

Everyone who registers here during October of each year and tell us in their registration form (in 300 words or less) what they have done to make their place a weedfree space goes in the draw to WIN Gardening New Zealand gift cards.

Diary of a Dirty Weekend

What have others been doing on their Dirty Weekends?

1 Dec, 2012 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Lois Weedy shrubs and plants removed 1 Dec, 2012 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Wendy Controlling pampas and Japanese honeysuckle 1 Dec, 2012 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Sarah Pampas project 1 Dec, 2012 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Vanessa Battling boneseed 1 Nov, 2011 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Gerard Gully clearing in the Waikato. 1 Nov, 2011 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Tara Entry from Otago 1 Nov, 2011 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Lisa Entry from the West Coast 1 Nov, 2011 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Marcus Plasmeyer Entry from the Bay of Plenty. 1 Nov, 2011 Dirty Weekend Winner Author:Andrew Entry from Central Districts 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - War on Noxious Weeds Author:Nina Thornley I have collected brochures from the Home Show so I could identify which plants were noxious weeds. Since then I clear the wandering dew, and oxalis and Jasmine out each spring. 18 Oct, 2010 Diry Weekend Event - De-strees by Weeding Author:Michelle We mulch around everything, we cover unused areas with matting to help stop weed growth. 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Ever Vigilant Author:Raewyn Lennon My partner and I built 3yrs ago in Hillcrest, I have no lawn as such, but down the side of the drive I have an area I ha... 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Weeding with the Grandchildren Author:Linda Strickson-Pua We live in the bush. I plan to get out into the bush with phamplets so that I can identify weeds and start digging them out. 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Clean Up Time Author:Aleise Puketapu My partner and I are in the middle of cleaning up our house gardens, weeding is a huge part of this. 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry Author:Judy Browne Six years ago when I returned to NZ after many years overseas, I started a weeding group called Huia Weed Warriors. We a... 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry Author:Wayne Hollows I am a tree person, so I know my plants, and I'm a gardener so I know the invaders, 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Daily Checks Author:Susan Patmore Every day I check my garden for weeds. 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry Author:Alan Liefting Keeping our suburban section weed free requires measures on several fronts: * planting of native plants fro... 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry Author:Dan Greenfield Weeds, don't talk to me about weeds! We put down plastic sheeting, and bark, but still the weeds manage to grow through ... 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Ongoing Battle Author:Robert Braun Although we are in the heart of suburbia with natural areas few and far between, a few baddies have been dispatched lest... 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Gardening with the Kids Author:Warwick Smith I'm going to rip out all of the weeds (lots) in our front section with the help of my young children, this should take the good part of one weekend. 18 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Choosing Plants with Care Author:Anita Erceg I am taking the time to research the plants i choose to add to my garden, ensuring they are not prolific spreaders or a threat to other plants. 17 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Using Duck Poo Author:Sue I have had great results this year with duck poo! 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Every Weekend is a "Dirty Weekend" Author:Cheri van Schravendijk In the style of Sam Hunt!] Dad, mum, the kids and the dogs, Pull out the tradescantia, and tub... 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Weeding at Two Reserves Author:Liz Waddington I am involved in two major reserve projects - Manuka Reserve and Henley lake and Wetlands. 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Regular Weeding No Problem Author:Pat Williams Well, we live on a very small section in Cambridge and it's really no problem to weed regularly. 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Recycle your Weeds Author:Kylie Kelsen Our whole section has been over run in the past & we have slowly been making headway with getting rid of weeks, planting fruit trees & getting our vege garden going. 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Weeding in Poetry Author:Darren Rae Weeds are not my friend I hate them till the very end, Digging them out is very slow But sometimes the only... 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Conscious Weeding Effort Author:Jenny O'Donnell We have made a conscious effort to eliminate weeds on our 2.5acre property over the past 4 1/2 years. 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Beautiful Native Trees in the Backyard Author:Marise Gold What attracted us to our house was the beautiful natives in it's backyard - 800sqm section with Punga and Cabbage trees. 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - On the Lookout for Weeds Author:Lance Turley We are continually on the lookout for any of the listed "Nasty Weeds" like mothplant having had a neighbour with a bad i... 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Bay of Plenty Weeding Author:Simon Holmes I've started clearing an area of introduced weeds and pest plants, on my parents' property here in the Bay of Plenty. 13 Oct, 2010 Dirty Weekend Entry - Waiheke Weeding Author:Russell de la Haye My wife and I purchased a 2000sq metre property and 2/3's of the section was over grown with Privet, Black Wattle, deadly night shade, honey suckle, and more with the odd native amongst it all. 29 Mar, 2010 Weeding in Westport Author:Lisa Hankey We dug out ginger plants and stored them in black plastic to eventually decompose. We manually sifted a garden full of ... 29 Mar, 2010 Rakino Island Weeding Author:Hanna Scott On Saturday 24 October a small but dedicated team of 4 volunteers worked their way up the Road Reserve chain sawing and hand sawing Rhamnus and painting the stumps with Vigilant. 29 Mar, 2010 Weeding in Tauranga Author:Kurdt Webber I removed a lot of wattles, deadly nightshade and gorse from an area near where I live. My Dad and I took a ute load of wattles into Mitre 10 Mega in Tauranga and they gave us 2 native plants which I have planted. 29 Mar, 2010 Long Beach Weeding Author:Joy Pringle We live across the road from a conservation area at Long Beach, which is about an hour and a half from Dunedin. We regularly deal to the weeds in the area and have been very excited by the regeneration particularly of kanuka and manuka. 29 Mar, 2010 Thames Weeding Author:Ingrid Le Fevre My partner and I headed up to out wee grass/weed plot of land in Kaiwaka to check on our reliable tenant - ragwort, that seems to flower beautifully every year without fail. 30 Oct, 2008 Mucky Month of Weeding Author:Danielle - Auckland Spring has sprung and all the weeds that grew so slowly throughout winter came on very fast for us and our Dirty Weekend turned into a downright Mucky Month. 30 Oct, 2008 Clearing and Re-planting a Bank Author:Beth - Wellington We spent some time in October tackling a 50sq.mtr bank covered in Tradescantia, hemlock and bindweed. 30 Oct, 2008 Clearing an overgrown garden Author:Sharlene - Wellington As the new owners of our recently purchased property, we climbed through the overgrown garden and discovered that there were 3 levels of retaining walls up the hill which we couldn't even see through the horrific wild blackberry!! 30 Oct, 2008 From weeds to potato patch Author:Sarah My husband spent loads of time on the weekend clearing out forget-me-knots and chickweed from a patch about 9m squared, ... 30 Oct, 2008 Birthday present of weeding Author:Deidre - Canterbury This year we gave a "dirty weekend" to our friend for his birthday. 30 Oct, 2008 Weeding Neighbouring Property too! Author:Glenda - Auckland We have worked hard to improve the land we live on and the neighbouring vacant section. 30 Oct, 2008 Huge effort over a whole month Author:Pauline - Auckland My neighbour Mike's property, which borders with mine, had never been "looked at " for over 30 years, and many of the original garden plants were now weed problems. 30 Oct, 2008 Section clearing & re-planting continuing Author:Lance - Hamilton On our October "Dirty Weekend" list was to get rid of the rest of the aluminium weed and replace it with more hostas and fuchsias. 30 Oct, 2008 Big Garden Clearout Author:Catherine - Southland In October, we decided to spend our dirty weekend removing silver birch from the garden. They lined the drive and were beautiful, but created problems for the allergy sufferers in the family. 30 Oct, 2008 Clearing sand dunes Author:Edith - Bay of Plenty When we purchased this beach front property in 1979 we all used the very front of our sections,which blend with the sand dunes as our dumping ground for all our garden rubbish. As the years have rolled by we like a lot of other New Zealanders have become aware of the impact on the sand dunes. 30 Oct, 2008 Weeding Grandfather's Garden Author:Liana My partner and I spent Labour Weekend weeding my grandfather's backyard along the back fence line.