Methods

Its surprising how many different ways there are to reduce or eradicate weeds from your property.  Here's a brief list of the methods we employ.

Hand-pulling

Hand-pulling smaller patches of invasive species can be just as effective and much less expensive than spraying or brush-cutting.  Sometimes, an area that looks daunting actually comprises of a small number of larger plants; half an hour with the fork and they are gone.

Stacking

One of the biggest challenges when hand-pulling weeds is what to do with the damn things.  We tend to create small piles around the place - make sure to shake the soil from the roots first to stop regrowth, similarly don't make the piles too large or the plants at the bottom will have their roots covered and regrow.

Sometimes we hang larger specimens from the forks of a tree and this is especially useful for vine species such as calopo or centro.  Always remeber to keep roots exposed to the air to ensure the plant dies.

If plants have gone to seed (eg Mission Grass) we sometimes create a pile in a sunny area and then cover it with old sheets of corrogated iron.  We have discovered that after a couple of months this "cooks" the seeds and makes them unviable.

Smothering

Rather than pulling the plants you can smother them using weed mat or similar.  This is a pretty species specific approach but good for low covering weeds such as Berrimah weed.

Mowing or brush-cutting

Mow or brush-cut large areas but remember this doesn't get rid of the plants, merely inhibits their growth.  You still have to deal with them at some point.

Raking

After brush cutting larger plants rake up the plant stems and stack (as described above).  The newly cut plants are now ready for spraying and require much less chemical solution.

Spot spraying

Spray larger areas before plants have gone to seed although some herbicides (eg Flupropanate will also attack the seed bank).  We appreciate that many larger properties suffering significant infestations will require boom, line or even arial spraying - our focus is for smaller rural landholders.

Poison painting

For larger bushy or woody weeds (eg rubbervine or mahogony saplings) cut the plant near the base of the trunk and then paint the 'inside' with a mixture of glyphosate and kerosene.  We keep an old jar of this mixture handy and use an old toothbrush to apply.

Filling the gap

Nature abhors a vacuum.  One of the biggest mistakes we think landholders make is to spray areas of land, leave bare earth and then be amazed as more weeds move in.  Instead, source native seeds by either purchasing or collecting and storing your own.  One way to do this is to allow an area of native grasses to go to seed.  Then mow using a catcher to collect the cuttings and seeds - disperse this in areas which have been previously infested and sprayed.

 

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