My father in law was a determined gorse exterminator when staying with us. He’d dress up in long trousers and long sleeved shirt despite the hot weather and complete with baseball cap, gloves and mask he’d head of to the bottom of the garden with his spraying backpack on. A while later he’d trog back up the hill, refill the sprayer and set off again. He’d repeat this operation many times in his determination to attack our pesky gorse.
It has to be said that this was no round up he was using. It was the real farmers assault bio-weapon which turned the gorse a little queasy within a few days but after a couple of months it’s turning from green to brown in a much more determined way. It’s such a relief to know that all his hard labour is paying off – it could be a few more months before the plants start to rot away and then we’ll have to start spraying the second row of gorse.
Gorse is a real bio-pest in New Zealand brought in by the British colonials to make hedges. Now we’re over run with the nasty, prickly, invasive weed. We need to clear the gorse to be able to reclaim some of our land, in particular to allow the development of our kitchen garden which should enable us to start to grown our own food and live a more self-sufficient life.
Here are some pictures to show the demise of the gorse in action!
