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Maintaining land in connemara

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  • 11-03-2016 11:31pm
    #1
    pippa175
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭


    We have a house with a large plot of land in Connemara. It is gone very overgrown with ferns and brambles.

    The site is mainly granite with mainly shallow soil, in parts deeper. It is hilly and by the sea.
    Quite overwhelming wondering how we will keep it under control. We have heard goats are the best idea but do not live there full-time, will be visiting a lot but not enough for livestock.

    Would love some advice on how best to manage the land.


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    #2
    solargain
    Registered Users Posts: 330 ✭✭solargain


    if its fenced a neighbour may put a few sheep in there


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    #3
    Buona Fortuna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,507 ✭✭✭Buona Fortuna


    solargain wrote: »
    if its fenced a neighbour may put a few sheep in there

    Or a couple of Donkeys. They'll eat the brambles :), but they'll need a shed for shelter.


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    #4
    lottpaul
    Registered Users Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭lottpaul


    There's a few options but first of all, how big is the site? And is it well fenced in? Unless it's a reasonable size, well fenced and with ample water then goats, sheep etc are not really an option.
    What do you intend to do with it when you get it cleared? Unless you continually maintain/graze it the brambles and especially the ferns/bracken will come back.

    Spraying a very large area can be difficult and will kill many things other than the weeds.

    Which brings you to physically digging, scrubbing them out. Constant cutting will eventually weaken the bracken and it will die away. For brambles you need to dig them out. It's doable and if you pace yourself over time its not too bad, but comes back again to what you intend to do with the land. Unless you have a plan you'll end up in a cycle of cutting and weeding and spraying.
    I'd be getting friendly with some local goat/sheep owners if it were me :)


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    #5
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,444 ✭✭✭macraignil


    pippa175 wrote: »
    We have a house with a large plot of land in Connemara. It is gone very overgrown with ferns and brambles.

    The site is mainly granite with mainly shallow soil, in parts deeper. It is hilly and by the sea.
    Quite overwhelming wondering how we will keep it under control. We have heard goats are the best idea but do not live there full-time, will be visiting a lot but not enough for livestock.

    Would love some advice on how best to manage the land.

    If you don't have time for livestock on the land then I'd be inclined to get some trees going. You might be restricted to planting where there is deeper soil but I have seen Sycamore trees growing well on Inis more.

    Evergreen oak is also supposed to grow well by the sea. Fuchsia and Mertyl are also nice plants that benefit from milder coastal sites. Having something growing leaves less room for weeds.

    Where I live there is a gun club that gives away young trees for free to people willing to plant them on their land. There is also grants for planting trees but you would need to get a professional forester for that and the land might not be suitable for the type of planting required to get the grants.


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