h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Aye, there's the shrub.

shrubs are OK... its the bacon bushes to watch out for..... or the ham bushes of course...

Those are all right, but you need to avoid giant hogweed.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/39809.html

it always used to be the carniverous plants tha terrified me tomatos with teeth, that kind of thing....

People in Great Britain seem so afraid of Japanese Knotweed that if even one small knotweed plant is growing in your yard, buyers will avoid your house.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/sep/08/japanese-knotweed-house-sale

Sorry,

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/sep/08/japanese-knotweed-house-sale

Thos is true. It will literally tear your house apart if it gets into the foundations. It happened to a friend of mine - they had to get the floors replaced downstairs.

It's a resilient beastie! You can kill it with a systemic weedkiller like glyphosate, but it usually takes several applications over a few years, with a few re-growths in between. And if you cut it back, the cuttings have to be disposed of in specially licensed hazardous waste sites.

Incineration is often mentioned. I might resort to putting plant parts in boiling water on my stove. But not without getting the advice of someone qualified. I hear that one can eat the tender young shoots raw -- the taste is supposed to be like rhubarb. In places where Lyme disease is common, consuming knotweed might be beneficial, as it seems to help. There's also a lot of resveratrol in knotweed. Just sayin', if you can't easily get rid of it, you might as well make use of its beneficial qualities....