Question from Ted French: For several years past a large area of my allotment has been badly infected by a weed that I only know by the Scottish name of 'Stinking Willy'. I winter dig, I hoe, I hand pull up the things, but the problem just seems to be getting worse. Is there any effective cure for this thing? I've got a sample if you want.

Bob: I don't know this one.

Pippa: No I've never heard of 'Stinking Willy'!

Ted French: It was named after the Duke of Cumberland, apparently.

Pippa: I've heard of 'Sticky Willy' but I don't recognise this at all.

Bob: It smells like watercress.

Pippa: I've never seen it before, to be absolutely honest.

Bob: At first glance it looks a bit like a very large may weed,

Pippa: But it's not because the leaves are that bit flatter and the inter-nodal spaces, the spaces between trusses and leaves are a lot longer.

Bunny: But it's not perennial is it, it's an annual thing?

Ted French: It comes up early summer, and by the autumn it's gone, but when it's there it's just all over the place.

Bunny: I think it's probably one of those things that when it seeds, germinate over a long period of time, so it's continually coming up and so it's more difficult to get rid of. Have you tried just cleaning a patch and then hoeing off all the ones as they germinate?

Ted French: Yes, I've tried that. They still come back . I turn the soil over in winter and let the frost get at it, and that seems to have no effect either.

Bunny: That's probably just bringing more up to the surface to germinate.

Bob: We all live in the east side of England, which is very dry. I'm going to pass it to our Chairman just in case he recognises it.

Pippa: It's a vile smell, it's kind of hanging around here now that we've all been crushing the foliage and looking for the flowers.

Bob: Horrible.

Eric Robson: It's a cross between fox and school canteens isn't it!

Bob: Coming back to your problem, I think you're going to have to use mulches in between the rows, just to keep it down, or go over to regular hoeing.

Ted French: That just seems to encourage it, the mulch.

Bob: What you do is you put a mulch on top of it, and next week you come back with another load of mulch and you put that on top of it. I use grass clippings, but you could use newspaper covered with something to hold it down, and just try and keep it from competing with your allotment vegetables rather than try and get rid of it. Reduce the competition, because that's the only problem of it.

Ed: GQT Listener Mary Appleyard writes: Stinking Willie is Tansy Ragwort or Senecio jacobaea, which causes liver damage to livestock, particularly when dried out. (Apparently it is known in North Shropshire and Cheshire as "Mare's Fart!)