The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Gardens => Topic started by: michael on January 31, 2012, 08:58:50 pm
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hi everyone
would like some addvise about getting rid of wind bushes,farm is coming down with them,think ground has not been touched in years
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Hi Michael. As no-one else has replied I think we must all be wondering what wind bushes are. As I put in the sheep bit, do you mean 'whin' which is gorse, ie very spikey with yellow flowers?
I know someone who went to great lengths to plant gorse all around his house, but he lived in the Scottish Western Isles and he thought it would be the only thing which would grow there to form a windbreak.
I love gorse from a distance, on someone else's land ;) but I can see why you would want to get rid of it on your own. Sorry but I don't know of any special tricks - I would cut it off at ground level and burn the tops, but I don't know how to stop regeneration.
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do you mean 'whin' which is gorse, ie very spikey with yellow flowers?
I would cut it off at ground level and burn the tops, but I don't know how to stop regeneration.
Yes, I was wondering if you meant gorse too.
A farmer near us has got rid of a patch. They did as Fleecewife said, cut it off then burnt it, then I think they must have grubbed out all the roots as well. It was bare earth for the first year but now is grassed. I don't know if they used any chemicals - I guess Amicide on any stumps would kill the roots, perhaps better than grubbing it out.
The Garden Organic website is usually a mine of useful information on such topics.
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spring is the best time to get rid of gorse when it is dry just set it on fire that kills it of
you can cut it but a really heavy infestation is better to get torched as is :farmer:
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I didn't know what they were but wondered about Whinberry Bushes. I don't know if thats the right name but they grow on the tops of moreland and have quite a nice sweet little berry in the autumn.
Just checked it out and it is also called Bilberry (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GB&q=whinberry%20bush&gs_upl=0l0l0l2844lllllllllll0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi)
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Or Whortleberry :)
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thanks for the tips on getting ride of these bushes,hope cutting them at the stump
will work!!!!!!!!!!!!
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spring is the best time to get rid of gorse when it is dry just set it on fire that kills it of
you can cut it but a really heavy infestation is better to get torched as is :farmer:
The downside of burning them without cutting them down first and moving the pile sideways is that many wild creatures live in whin thickets. Whatever you think of rabbits, foxes, mice, hedgehogs and so on, burning them alive wouldn't be very nice. It's not easy stuff to cut down (I've been cutting down vastly overgrown gooseberry bushes today and that's bad enough but whin is worse - spikey and tangly ;D) but I think it's worth the extra effort :bunny: :bunny: :D
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the bit that we cut and burned last year was labour intensive with not much headway and poor results
i had better results with direct burning :farmer:
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At least if you get the spikes & leaves burnt off ( sprayed with paraffin then set on fire ) you can crop off any stalks low to the ground without getting hurt .