Weeds

Removing weeds is a boring job, although I did learn a little about the different types of weeds. The 3 types of weeds I encountered was thistle, blackberry and gorse.

Thistle

This is a soft, leafy plant that can grow to about one foot high. They have sharp prickly leaves. Their flowers are deceptively beautiful, with their bright purple colour. However, those flowers will spread the seeds, which will multiply into new thistles elsewhere. As they start flowering in spring, it's important to dig them out before that.

Thistle

Blackberry

You may say, "Wait, how can blackberry be a weed? The fruit tastes delicious. They even name smartphones after them!" That's all true, but in the context of animal farming, they are considered a weed.

Thorns on blackberry

Blackberries have very thorny stems, and deep roots that can grow on the ground. They grow aggressively, and can take over a field. The animals don't eat them (one exception: goats love to eat blackberries, and is one of the natural ways to control it). Because the animals don't eat them, and they compete with the grass, this reduces the amount of food the animals have to eat.

Blackberry that's killed by herbicide

Even this organic farm had to use chemicals to kill a blackberry infestation. I can understand that, as they can be impossible to eradicate manually once the infestation is too big.

Gorse

This is one of the most common weeds in New Zealand. It is very hardy, and can grow almost anywhere. It has hard, prickly leaves and beautiful yellow flowers. It is not uncommon to see entire fields overgrown with gorse and its yellow flowers.

Gorse

Hillside overgrown with gorse

The method I used to remove all these weeds was to simply dig them out with a grubber, a tool like a hoe. This is the organic way to do it, but also the most labour intensive. After 2 weeks, I only cleared a small section of the farm. I can see why organic farming is hard. It's tempting to just spray all the weeds with herbicide, that will be much easier.