Bought Our Section Today!

Hi everyone!

my wife and I finally signed the contract for our new section today and are very excited about starting out on our new 'lifestyle'. We have had chooks and a couple of sheep before, but this is the first time ever we have bought a bare section and have had to start from scratch.

It's not a huge section (about 1 1/2 acres) and our house build is not due to happen until March next year, but we will no doubt have plenty of questions for the forum as we start out on our new life.

Any tips on setting up will be very much appreciated

First questions:

a) any recommendations for trees to form a shelter belt?
b) any recommendations for a reliable ride-on (the section is completely flat)?

Beejay

best mower is sheep no fuel and you can eat them, now I'm gona cop it Great news congratulations (sp)

That's brilliant news Beejay - you must be very excited and I can imagine your head is spinning with ideas.

Others will have better opinions about shelter belt trees as we only have pines, with some pittosporums round the house area. But we find the pittos make a nice, not too heavy shelter belt. When we first came to our place the previous people had kept them as a hedge. We let them grow and really like them.

Look forward to hearing how your block progresses, so please keep posting.
Cheers, Mich.

Congratulations, Beejay, and welcome to the site. Don't know about ride-ons, but shelter belts will somewhat depend on where you are and how your site is situated prevailing wind-wise. There's always the ubiquitous pine tree....

For shelter belts we use willows, cheap just cut off branches and stick in ground and can be cut and fed to stock

Welcome to another Horowhenua dweller!
Whereabouts is your section?
I would be careful about planting pine trees as a shelter belt-they grow far too fast and cast a lot of shade, then start dropping branches in awkward places!
Depends on how tall you want your shelter to grow. he pevailing westerley winds are salt laden around here and can get quite burnt. The natives like pittosporums I would recommend as well.
Can't help with ride ons either-we have bovine mouths to eat our grass and as little lawn as possible.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Sue: we have bought a section in Manakau, so not too far away from you.

Seems like people prefer animal 'mowers' then? We are planning to get sheep but probably not for a while after we get our house built. Would be a shame to have to buy a ride-on ('cos they ain't cheap!) and then not have a use for it. Perhaps I can persuade the vendor of the section to continue using it for grazing until we have our own animals ?

Beejay

Are you already a 'local' beejay?
We are near Ohau, so if you want to call in for a chat anytime feel free to contact us! I hope you have checked that there is no likelehood of the dreaded bypass anywhere near your section in the future!

Not cypress of any sort, not oaks, not rhododendrons, not yew - they are all poisonous to animals.
If your part of Manukau is damp (usually ....) then willows and poplars. In dry condition, tagasaste is fantastic stuff.

LR yes Tree lucern (tagasaste) is great too

Hi we are new too and been told about virtues of using willows as grow fast and can use as stock feed. Good luck and welcome

Jenny

Thanks for the suggestions everyone - not sure I know what Lucern is so will have to 'google it'. I like the idea of using Willow.

Longridge: hopefully it won't be too damp where we are. there are streams and we have seen evidence of flooding on some of the properties we looked at recently, but our section is quite elevated and hopefully OK.

Sue: The dreaded expressway!! We have looked into it as much as anyone can - spoken to MPs, CEOs etc and the truth is nobody knows yet. What seems certain is that nothing will happen for a number of years yet (build likely to start in 2016 and take 4 years) - and we don't want to put our lives on hold any longer. Hopefully we will be OK - when I look at the lie of the land around our section I cannot see any reason why the expressway would head our way. If it does come close, so be it - I will be a bit deafer by then anyway We are fairly local - living in Waikanae at the moment.

Beejay

If you google lucerne you will likely come up with the town in Switzerland, or the pasture plant like clover. Tagasaste, or tree lucerne, is a moderately short-lived (around 10 years) tree that is a legume, so it is a nitrogen fixer. It tends to grow rather straggly but it can be pruned. It is evergreen and has small white flowers in late winter which the native keruru/wood pigeons like to eat. If it is planted near the orchard then they will also eat the flowers of the fruit trees. The wood is dense and burns well.

I've got some young willows here and have planted some fodder willows and will probably add more, but if it's shelter from winter wind rather than summer sun that you're looking for you might want to combine them with something else. I put in flaxes with the fodder willows in the hopes of dense low shelter year-round, and then the willows for shade and fodder in a dry summer. Too soon yet to say if it's worked.

I highly recommend the book "Trees for New Zealand Town and Country" by Don Bell ( see on Fishpond )has very useful advice on shelter belts: positioning for different purposes and suitable species etc. It also has plenty of photos that are good for identification and inspiration and advice on trees for climate and soil types.