Simply can't afford to live in NZ

[selchie]

Golly, thanks . I need to check on the new photo uploader technique and the post some recent work. I think our computer is now updated so I can load Picassa, and save memory on this site.

Moggy, you'd definitely have rights of first refusal on a painting from your photos.

[moggy]

Originally Posted by Dawn

Sounds like the bugloss stuff is a real pain in the.........well anything it touches really! You don't want that on your campsite! Is this a new venture then - sounds interesting.

Yup, complete pain in the neck, however we have just bought an old tractor and slasher to help us keep the grass down. We are going to spray the stuff to try and get rid of it. I wanted it to be an organic place, but I can't see a practical organis way to get rid of it.


Yes it is a new venture, we will have to put in a new shower block and pay for the resource consents that it entails. We are also unfortunately on "archaelogical significant" land, so may been to get an archaelogical survey done . We are in the process for apply for the GST back on the land purchase to fund the venture. I did a two week running your own business course which would hopefully help us to make it a going concern.
Owning a campsite is something I have dreamed of doing for years.

[Dawn]

I love your little tractor, it's got a proper little face and everything. Does it have a name?

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by Dawn

I love your little tractor, it's got a proper little face and everything. Does it have a name?

Steady, Dawn. Get a grip.

That's a mean looking machine, Moggy. If I was a clump of bugloss, I'd be very concerned.

Keep us posted on the campsite venture. It's going to be very interesting setting it all up. Something I'd love to have done myself, had I been a bit younger.

[selchie]

I suspect any organic method of eradicating the bugloss would be time and labor intensive, such as mowing, then watering and covering with thick plastic sheeting (rinse, repeat). Hopefully NZ has something like Round Up (glyphosate), which breaks down after a couple of weeks. I resist using herbicides, but am willing to use a little Round Up with the toughies.

I recommend checking into whatever herbicide you decide to use, and find out how long it lingers, and what sort of breakdown ("daughter") products are formed. Sometimes the daughters are worse than the original product, as far as the environment is concerned.

I want a tractor, too! Or maybe a Percheron.

[moggy]

Originally Posted by Dawn

I love your little tractor, it's got a proper little face and everything. Does it have a name?

We tend to call it the tractor

[moggy]

Originally Posted by selchie

I suspect any organic method of eradicating the bugloss would be time and labor intensive, such as mowing, then watering and covering with thick plastic sheeting (rinse, repeat). Hopefully NZ has something like Round Up (glyphosate), which breaks down after a couple of weeks. I resist using herbicides, but am willing to use a little Round Up with the toughies.

I recommend checking into whatever herbicide you decide to use, and find out how long it lingers, and what sort of breakdown ("daughter") products are formed. Sometimes the daughters are worse than the original product, as far as the environment is concerned.

I think there are a lot of banned herbicides in NZ, they seem to be more concerned here over what you can and can't use, they are also bringing in regulations so that you need a certificate to use them.

I can't see any organic solution working - lets face it black plastic sheeting is not exactly an organic solution (unless you can get a biodegradable one). This stuff has a very strong deep tab root which makes it drought tollerant and very difficult to dig out. Also the bloomin stuff survives being under a large rock for several months, so probably would laugh at a little bit of plastic. It really needs something heavy duty on it.
The problem is that idealy I don't want to kill off the grass - we don' t have much top soil and I don't want what we have being blown away.
Hopefully we can find a contractor who is capable.

[moggy]

Originally Posted by MotherBear

Keep us posted on the campsite venture. It's going to be very interesting setting it all up. Something I'd love to have done myself, had I been a bit younger.

It is going to take a while, the first step is to get the GST back on the land which will be our capital for building the shower block and putting in electric hook ups.

Then there are loads of resource consents to apply for which will also cost.

I did a business course a few weeks ago and learnt one useful thing

Set up a limited company to run the campsite, the company leases the land from our partnership. This means that if some idiot decides to climb up a power pole and gets electrocuted and they sucessfully sue, they can only claim on the company assets and not on the partnership assets ie they can never take the house or land from us.

[Dawn]

Originally Posted by moggy

We tend to call it the tractor

Love it!

[selchie]

Another weed-killing notion would be to keep mowing the patch frequently, such as any time they poke their little leaves out. It's likely to take a while, but it would eventually uses up the food reserves in the root while denying the plant the ability to make more food.

I suppose cussing at the weeds wouldn't do much good, though I feel better after a good session.