countrytalkandtips.myfreeforum.org

blowin · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:47 pm Post subject:

Haha , I did get a goat . Several , in fact .
Bloomin things ate everything except the rushes and flags .
They have all gone now . 2 of them are resident lawnmowers at a friend's house and the other 3 are somewhere up in the hills . They joined a herd of about 15 ferals up there . Some of them are very fine animals too . This valley is a traditional dumping ground for unwanted pet billies . They wander into the yard , the dog lets them into the house , they eat MOH's favourite flowers , then they leave . Unfortunately the rushes don't .
Good suggestion , tho . I might try again if I can keep them behind electric fence and strip-graze them . Meanwhile , I have set the pigs loose . I know they eat frogs . I am not sure about hedgehogs ! Laughing

FerretLady · Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 27 Location: Ballymoney (ni)

haha, if the frogs go in that way, thats ok, going to some use Smile

blowin · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:23 pm Post subject:

This is what I mean by "rushes & flags " .

quarryman · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 417 Location: Sligo

Looks good to me Blowin. It might need an annual "defoliation". A bit like myself.... Twisted Evil

blowin · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 2:19 am Post subject:

Wow , what happened while I was away for a couple of days Question

The area around the pond went from something like a newly mown lawn to what you see in that picture almost overnight ! Evil or Very Mad

Can't remember if I said this before but if you do any serious amount of strimming ( or use any tool which vibrates a lot ) you really should take note of the instruction manual and wear padded gloves . The prolonged vibration can cause irreversible damage to fine blood vessels , leaving areas of your hand looking pale and feeling numb , a bit like a callous . This is known as "white finger disease" and is quite common . It does happen !

blowin · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 2:33 am Post subject:

I actually meant to ask whether anyone has a solution to this little problem :- I use a fairly heavy duty "pro" model of strimmer loaded with relatively thick nylon line . The vegetation is thick and coarse so it puts up a lot of resistance to the cutting . This causes the line which is wound around the spool to lock tight and weld itself together after a while . Maybe the line is poor quality but it is the standard stuff from the NCF .
I wonder whether a squirt of WD40 onto the coils would help ?
I don't know why I am asking you --- I can go try it out myself easily enough ! Laughing

. I will let you know Wink

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blowin · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 12:26 am Post subject:

Might be pure coincidence but wd40 does seem to stop the snagging and welding of the line .

Just a reminder that at this time of year the combination of sap from flags etc together with dust from dry grass can clog up your air-filters quite quickly ( less than 1/2 a day if it humid too ) . If you notice the m/c loosing power and acceleration , try putting in a clean filter . I give mine a shake in a jar of petrol then they dry in no time but you are NOT supposed to do that .

blowin · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 1:05 am Post subject:

Me again . Guess what I have been doing all day ! Laughing

I am trying to change the area around that pond in an earlier picture from a densely overgrown patch of flags , rushes and scutch grass into something more like an overgrown lawn / wildflower meadow .
A couple of tips :-
If tackling dense vegetation , first cut and clear a pathway thru it then work outwards . The stuff you cut then falls to the side rather than forming a mound in front of you .
If you cut rushes with 2 or 3 swipes ie into short sections they are much easier to clear than if they fall like thatch . They also have less of a blanket effect so other stuff can grow thru if you leave them there .
Flags form a thick mat which is heavy when wet and all knotted together when dry . Dicing them by dropping the strimmer down , or at a steep angle ,leaves bits which rot quite quickly . Always wear goggles when doing this because the hard bits at the base of the flags can hit your face with considerable force .
In order to let the finer grasses and small flowers get established it is necessary to cut right down through the thatch of dead scutch grass . Try to do this as short as possible , so it almost looks scalped , but without breaking the moss or soil surface .
I should add that I make all this up as I go along but it works for me Wink

quarryman · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 417 Location: Sligo

We use a different process. First strim off as much as possible. Rake the material away. Spray the area with Round Up. After two weeks rake off entire area again. This removes a lot of the dead foliage and scores the ground. Spread seeds.

Jobs a good un !

blowin · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:19 am Post subject:

Hmmm , I bet you support that John Cushney on Gardeners QT whereas I am more of a Bob Flowerdew man meself !
I didn't want to use chemicals but after strip-grazing , strimming , and jumping and shouting I have reluctantly come to agree that they are necessary . ( I know you wouldn't use them yourself if there was a practical alternative ) . I am going to do it selectively , tho' . Some areas I will leave completely wild , intersected by paths cut thru' . Where there are structural wildflowers like Napweed I will cut around them and leave them as islands . Big horrible weeds like docks will be spot-sprayed with Roundup . As we all know , Ragwort should be pulled up and removed from anywhere that grazing animals might get to it Wink

. But I don't have any of that any more anyway Laughing

. Rushes I will spray with the selective herbicide from the NCF . ( There is a tip about mixing washing-up liquid into the solution . I was told that this makes the killer stick to the stems , which doesn't make sense . In fact it cuts thru the waxy membrane on the skin of the plant and that lets the chemical penetrate . Or so someone else said Wink

).
Flag Iris -- I am at a loss !! Evil or Very Mad

I have over an acre of the bloomin things and you could literally measure their growth by the day . What does anyone else do ? ( Watercourses are close by ) .
For the main semi-wild wild area I will have a go at a technique I first tried last year -- that is to use a backpack and mist-spray just the taller , more dominent weeds and , in particular , that invasive clumpy grass . Got to do this while the tall stuff is still growing since it won't take Roundup down to the roots once the top growth is dead . It looks a bit of a mess the first year while it dies and dries but you can then clear it quite easily , leaving the more delicate plants beneath .
Well , that is the fantasy , anyway . I will probably just let it all go back to jungle Laughing

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