The temperatures have cooled slightly during the day, although it still gets warm around mid afternoon, but at least it's better to work outside when it's cooler.
We had made a plan of action for the weekend, Joe was going to get back into the plastering and I was going to carry on with some painting outside. Joe however woke up on Friday morning and said he was in the mood for clearing gorse, we have lots. In fact it's been taking over a large area for the last two years, things grow at a rate of knots here in NZ and it's not a good idea to let the gorse get away on you, sadly though it has, we've cleared some paddocks and we are gradually working our way through it. It's quite labour intensive how we clear it, Joe cuts at the base of the plant and I paint the stumps with Grazon. There are products that you can spray the whole plant with and it gradually kills it but that way you are still left with a big gorse bush, albeit dead. By cutting down the bushes and then burning it all means it's cleared and gone and you have a paddock back.
The picture below is one of the aerial shots Joe took when he went up in the plane, it's not the best of pictures something got in the way, but if you look at the area below the house and above the straight line of trees towards the bottom, most of that green you see is gorse!! There is a big patch next to the row of trees and that is tea tree(Manuka) we're also clearing some of that too. So a pretty big job.
Below is photo of the same area but from ground level looking up towards the top house, again not the best of photos but you can see how the gorse has taken over up the hill. In the forefront is the tea tree, there's a lot of that too and that has also got out of hand in this first paddock, Joe has already made a start on thinning it out.
And the same photo with a big dent in the gorse!
A closer photo of the area below the top house.
So we're happy with the efforts so far and when the ground isn't so dry then we will start piling it and put a match to it!
You have done a great job and with lots of hard work will get to the end eventually :0)
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of Plants(weeds) that just seem to take over everything if you let them go.
I hope so Debbie! We do have some friends who will come help sometime. We'll get through it eventually, little and often! It's going to be ongoing, until the neighbour does something about his up against the boundary fence it will always be a problem :(
ReplyDeleteYou guys had a busy weekend. Go eat some more chocolate!!
ReplyDeleteAnd that wasn't all we did! I've still to blog about the painting yet! Ah yes chocolate that will help!!
ReplyDelete