I often get asked about removing invasive weeds, the most recent being from Noreen from Marlborough South Island New Zealand, who asked about removing fern bracken and not damaging their soil.
Well, there are several ways to remove invasive weeds, and which ever way you choose, let me say now, be patient, it will take a little time and some work but it CAN be done.
Things were getting desperate, the grass was SO long in our paddocks, even the goats lost sight of each other and had to bleat loudly to locate where they were.
Although, both the goats and the chickens LOVED the long grass, it was getting to the stage of falling over and rotting from the ground up and I was at my wits end trying to think of a way to save the grass from spoiling.
Just when I had all but given up, I press ganged our next door neighbour into cutting the grass with his tractor, once inside the paddocks, all gated were securely pad-locked, only to be unchained when he had finished!!
Spring is here and it’s time to get busy, I have been asked for tips on getting a Herbal Ley established in existing pasture, a good question at this time of year.
I am just starting to organize my herbal leys for both of my pastures, just waiting for the rain to ease off!! So how do you get the pasture ready for sowing and how do you protect the seeds from free range chickens and birds?
Well, let me tell you how I am going to do my herbal leys…
I think it is useful if you know a little bit about what goes on under your soil, after all, the main stay of organic gardening is feeding the soil to nourish, the plants and vegetables you intend to grow.
And, if you are not aware of the micro-life that has to exist in the dark depths of your soil to achieve this, then to put it bluntly, it would be like when you were a kid, and your parents used to say ‘If Dylan jumped off a cliff, would you follow?’
Referring to doing something, just because you thought it was the right thing to do, or doing it, because you were told to, without any thought to why you were doing it.
Before we begin, this list is a ‘living’ list, by this I mean, things will be added or taken away when I have sufficient evidence that things are no longer poisonous or I find new things that are.
Please if you think you have an animal suffering from poisoning RING THE VET AT ONCE
When I first read the words ‘Herbal Ley’ I immediately had a picture of wild flowers and herbs, I thought, at first, it would be a difficult thing to establish as there was really little written about herbal leys.
But, I wanted paddocks that had wild flowers and enough food to sustain our animals with out buying expensive feed.
Who wouldn’t?
Ryegrass staggers
If you have never heard of ryegrass staggers, it can come as a shock when some of your stock literally begin staggering around the paddock as if they are drunk. Hence the name ‘ryegrass staggers’
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