Hey....so we have just moved to a 15 acre hilly lifestyle block. We are ex townies, but have always wanted some land. Currently overwhelmed with what we have to do (previous owners left the place in a mess!). There is a lot of gorse, and today we tried to tackle some with the chainsaw. Aside from the fact that I am now covered in welts from the gorse, does anyone have any tough gloves that they recommend to use for handling the dam prickly stuff!! I'm gathering from reading through old posts, that feeling overwhelmed is a common feeling! It's so nice to be out here and we are lucky to be here, but wow some days it's just like "what the hell are we doing!!"
Loving this site though - so much good information has been found on here for us!
Welcome to LSBing, and every day is another learning experience .
The red leather welding gloves work well until they get a hole in them. The colour does leach out of them so you will get red hands when the gloves are wet.
Gorse is a sign that the soil is too low in sulphate for clover to grow well, which a soil test will show. Thus fertilise with a high sulphate superphosphate, about 200 lk per hectare. I do it out of 20 litre plastic buckets by hand. Precise placement is not important yet on these slopes. At some stage it will need lime spread over it, but that might have to be by aeroplane.
I kill big gorse and barberry by chopping it then wuthun 20 minutes paint the stumps with 1 part Grazon to 10 parts diesel with a tiny bit of spray dye in it. I have heard that Glyphosate, water and dye also works.
as before good advice - Super Cheap Auto probably best for welding gloves by price
For my gorse I used a scrub bar with a cheap solid blade - shaped a bit like a skilsaw blade but with only about 4 teeth
If I hit a stone it could get re-filed and it cut with speed not sharpness
Raked it up and put it through a Hansa portable mulcher
Put the sheep over the leftovers and they nibble the new growth, eventually I could just kick over the dead stalks
Yup gorse is very vigorous. Lasts for years and years but it coached me to work steadily be realistic and persistant.
The sense of achievement when an acre is cleared is priceless.
I m with you good hat overalls and tough leather gloves chainsaw and brushcutter with 4 tooth blade and handsaw just spend the most you can afford on this it will pay back
Use the thick stalks for firework paint the stumps to kill the plant pile up the slash
If you are able to make the soil conditions more correct for pasture and less correct for gorse then you can leave it where it is to rot away in 2 to 3 years.
I stack it into a pile then take it to my forestry to dump, because I don't like hazards in the grazing area. I have also let it dry out then get a fire permit and burn it on the drive. Gorse seeds sprout much better if they have been heated, so the fire site has to be easy to get to the spray any seedlings .
Gorse 50 mm or more makes good firewood, but use gloves when stoking the fire.
When we first bought our place, I immediately assumed I had to be at war with the gorse. However, not wanting to use chemicals (even if you're not worried about your own health, they're dreadful for soil microbiology and any nearby watercourse or dam), we've looked at other options. In large and accessible areas, we've mulched it (a mulcher towed behind a tractor). That works tremendously well and the mulch from the gorse is a wonderful soil builder. When it begins to come back, stock will eat it while it's young. I've also been chipping that which escapes the stock.
In the areas that are more difficult to access, we're adopting different approaches. Gorse is a nitrogen fixer and, because of the prickles as well, a good nursery crop to protect other trees while they're young. Once those trees grow, they'll shade out the gorse. It needs to be in pretty good sun to flourish.
Hi Ronnie - when we bought it, 35 acres of gorse country ranging from not much in parts to over head high and impenetrable in parts. What is your very good reason?
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