Killing gorse - *only just* gardening

[muggles]

Any ideas? It's in a field, and needs removing. Some is fairly young, but there's quite a lot that's very well-established. There's quite a lot of it. It can be burned safely but I'm not convinced that would kill it off. What's the best stuff to use, and at what time of year?

Please move this if there's a better forum for it!

 

[merlin50]

Tordon Brushkiller its £311.38 for 5 liters

 

[muggles]

Ouch...well if it's the best I suppose it's going to be expensive. Do you have a link to the shop's site please? I can't seem to find it on Google

 

[JohnD]

If it's in a field, a big mower or forage harvester may be the best thing. You might find someone who will do the job for you, or hire you the equipment.. Chemicals will be expensive. Once it is cut down and burned, mow the grass to keep it short. Very few plants can withstand frequent mowing.

Are you going to keep stock in it, turn it into a garden, or what?

 

[merlin50]

http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/profe...cide-5l.html?gclid=CLeS-YeInKUCFVH-2AodEXq9HQ

 

[muggles]

If it's in a field, a big mower or forage harvester may be the best thing. You might find someone who will do the job for you, or hire you the equipment.. Chemicals will be expensive. Once it is cut down and burned, mow the grass to keep it short. Very few plants can withstand frequent mowing.

Are you going to keep stock in it, turn it into a garden, or what?

We've got a 6' wide topper that would do the smaller stuff but some of it is about 10' high and has 3" diameter stems, no chance with them. The ground's currently a bit too uneven for a forage harvester I think, we'd end up digging the cutter bar into the ground at some point. The topper's a bit knackered anyway so it wouldn't matter so much if that scalped in places.

It's on an airfield, there is technically a public footpath through it although this isn't currently passable, so part of the reason for the clearance is to reinstate this. It used to have sheep in it years ago and was fenced off, when the sheep were moved on the fence was left and it got neglected, hence it is now in a poor state. Hikers currently have to walk around the outside of this sheep pen towards the middle of the airfield boundary, and concerns have been raised recently about safety.

Once the gorse is gone it may be ploughed, levelled and re-seeded, longer term there are plans for a hangar there

 

[timbim]

If you want to do a convincing job, stump out the worst with a chainsaw and burn it, treat the stumps and just keep mowing the smaller stuff. If the remnants of the old fence are still there, you want to get rid of them before you do much else and before too much of it gets buried.

 

[digdilem]

Yeah, a second vote for chainsawing off close to the ground and having a decent fire. (Do be a bit careful, my gang (on a day I wasn't there, luckily!) took out three acres of the stuff once when a spark jumped - fire brigade and everything)

Gorse isn't that stubborn. I reckon this, followed by ploughing and picking up of sticks and roots with a second fire is good.

Tip: Use the topper first and cut into each clump to make it easier to get to the big stems. Once you've got into a clump it's fairly easy going, it's the first bit that's all thorns and swearing.

 

[timbim]

I take down gorse regularly as part of a national trust group, all trogged up in thick, long leather gloves, and even then, with a few of you going at it, a few pushing/pulling and another cutting, it's still very painful.

Do be careful burning it, it's remarkably easy to get a gorse bonfire very wrong, the needles burn off very quickly with copious amounts of smoke, but the wood remains, and takes a lot more to get it going. Therefore if you're not careful, you end up with a pile of blackened stalks that isn't likely to go up and no heat at the bottom - a so called hollow fire. To minimise the problems, you want a decent stock of old, dense and dry wood (fence posts are good) to pile on periodically to weigh the tangled mess down. Also make sure you've got a decent fire burning before you try to load any gorse onto it, wood planings are ideal, with plenty of smaller twigs and then progressively larger wood, not gorse. If you've got any ash, then getting that into the fire early on will make your life much easier. Also try to lay all the gorse on in one direction, good technique for any bonfire but notoriously difficult with gorse.

Good luck, get a good pair of gloves and try to avoid getting spiked too much. If you're using a chainsaw, make sure you wear all the protective kit - helmet and trousers at the very least.

 

[digdilem]

You probably already know this, but as it's a footpath you should contact your local footpaths officer (County council) and notify them that you'll be doing the work and marking out a safe and convenient temporary footpath if required.

IME, FO's are really very helpful and nice if you talk to them first. That said, they are bound by some really unreasonable legislation (from a landowner's point of view).

I wanted to move a 20 meter footpath 3 meters to one side of it's existing route after levelling the ground and making it better going, but was told (politely!) I'd need to spent about three grand (IIRC, it was a lot anyway) in fees and wait 7 months to do so (3 lots of one month consultation, including the local community of three men and a dog). Result - I've fenced it off and now it won't be maintained other than the legal requirement to clear stuff growing in from the side.

As a frequent walker I love footpaths, but this was annoying because I was prepared to improve the walk for everyone and even prepared to spend some money of reasonable fees - but the schedule was such it needed to be done much quicker.

Second thoughts, maybe it's better not to talk to the footpaths officer and just effing do it...

 

[muggles]

Thanks for the footpaths info Digdilem, all we're doing is restoring the original footpath which is currently impassable, as far as the FOs are concerned the footpath still follows the old route, and that's where it is shown on the OS maps, so we'll keep our heads down and do the work, at the end of which the footpath will be on the route shown by the maps. I despise bureaucracy, if there's any chance of ignoring it then I will do so!!