Seabright woman takes goutweed battle to new level with torching

A Nova Scotia woman is taking her war on goutweed to a new level by strategically torching parts of her lawn with a propane-powered torching wand.

"It's not for the faint of heart, but oh my God it's satisfying," Dianne Crockard told Mainstreet's Stephanie Domet while demonstrating the process earlier this week at her home in Seabright, west of Halifax.

The instrument Crockard uses is a blow torch for plants. Her father was a firefighter, so she makes sure she has her garden hose at the ready whenever she fires up the torch.

"My father was a fireman, so if I torch the house or anything he'd come back to haunt me," she said. "Any dry grass and anything underneath it, it catches fire too hence the water."

Crockard has been dealing with goutweed since 1998. She's no stranger to poisoning, mulching, digging up other plants, soaking and replanting.

But the goutweed lives on, so she's trying this new approach.

"I was a welder in another life so I'm quite use to dealing with torches," Crockard said.

"There's a lot of things that you really have to be aware of, like you can't get distracted and turn your head. You know, you'll burn that bush."

The instructions for the wand also say to wear to wear long pants and boots.

"On the weekend, I got brave and wore a little sun dress while I was doing this," Crockard said, noting a burn on her leg.

Crockard said the torch seems to work best on the small weeds, but she still keeps trying it on the goutweed for the sake of her other plants

"[Goutweed] chokes them right out, honestly it's amazing," Crockard said.

She also had some words for others dealing with gout weed: "Patience, perseverance, poison, poison!"