random
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abandoned/derelict land help and advice needed.I've been offered use of around 2ha of land that boundaries mine - rent free. It's a wonderful offer but the land is abandoned and has been for at least the last three years. It's fairly level with some gentle slopes, but quite uneven and potholed and it is just full of grass that is over waist high and very damp and I'm wondering if it would be more trouble than it's worth.
I'd need to buy something to cut it and keep it down, but the only access is via a small wooden bridge that will most definitely not bear the weight of a tractor. I could get something the size of a ride on lawn mower across the bridge... does anyone know how they would cope with cutting this kind of vegetation?
I could get a power scythe in there initially it would be hard going but definitely do-able but I would need a mower of some sort to keep it under control. Any suggestions and advice welcome.
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Nick
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My ride on lawnmower stalls and chokes on anything longer than about 10 inches, less if wet. Especially if there's anything thicker than grass. Petrol strimmer, although you could be at it a while...
Could livestock be an option/useful?
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gil
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Unless you have a definite use for the land, it will be more bother than it's worth. What do you want to do with it ?
Sounds to me like a case of clearing grass / weeds with whatever small machinery you can get in there, and then grazing livestock with feet resistant to damp places [so hill sheep or cows]. If the grass is actually quite thin but just very long, you could use a hand scythe.
You also need to think about what you would do with all the grass you clear :
Build a waste pile at the side of the field, and rot it down
Make hay [more effin work]
and how you would move the cut grass from where it falls.
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Louisdog
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When we were looking into ride-on mowers, it was possible to buy a Toro with a paddock cutting deck with could cope with waist high brambles, nettles, etc, but it was pretty pricy IIRC.
A few years ago we bought an old ex-council Hayterette push along mower which will cut through all sorts of rough stuff although it's hard work doing any sort of area. But the thing cost about £50 and its blades happily ding against rocks etc with no damage (it has separate little blades underneath rather than a single big one which the guy said made it less vulnerable to warping etc if hitting a rock).
Could you put pigs in there to clear it?
Cheers
alex
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Hairyloon
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Re: abandoned/derelict land help and advice needed. | random wrote: | | I'd need to buy something to cut it and keep it down, but the only access is via a small wooden bridge that will most definitely not bear the weight of a tractor. |
What is under the bridge? You can drive a tractor through a small river easily enough. Or even a large river with a good snorkel.
Or stick some pigs on it, if only to clear it.
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random
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| gil wrote: | | What do you want to do with it ? |
I keep geese and goats and was thinking of moving them on to it in rotation as it would effectively double my acreage, but only if I can find a way of keeping the land healthy and under control. A friendly local farmer helps out with my paddocks right now and we split the hay, but there's no way he can get access to the land i've been offered so i'd have to deal with this myself.
| Hairyloon wrote: |
What is under the bridge? You can drive a tractor through a small river easily enough. Or even a large river with a good snorkel. |
under the bridge is a small stream it's in a steep sided channel about 15-20' wide and between 6-8' deep. The water is around 12" at this time of year and can be over 8' in peak flow. i doubt I could get a tractor down the steep sides which is a real shame.
does anyone know anything about the petrol powered toppers you can attach to a atv/quad
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gil
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Geese and goats would be a good use for the land, if you need the extra space. If you were not going to graze it most of the time, you would need an effective means of grass cutting when you rest the land.
I don't know about toppers; mainly seen them used to top sparsely distributed weeds like thistles, rather than an entire meadow of waist-high.
This is where you need a team of experienced mowers  [with scythes]. Would make short work of it; but a lot of grass to rake/cart after, even if only out to the sides of the field.
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random
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| gil wrote: | | This is where you need a team of experienced mowers [with scythes]. Would make short work of it; but a lot of grass to rake/cart after, even if only out to the sides of the field. |
if only such things existed locally...
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towerhill
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| random wrote: |
under the bridge is a small stream it's in a steep sided channel about 15-20' wide and between 6-8' deep. The water is around 12" at this time of year and can be over 8' in peak flow. i doubt I could get a tractor down the steep sides which is a real shame.
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Could you not put some sections of large land drain down side by side and the cut and fill earth over it with a small 3-5 ton digger? You could get anything across there then.
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stumbling goat
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i recently cleared a large area of high grass, small shrubs, thin trees, saplings reeally, and wasit high thistlkes and stuff. my strimmer found it hard goping but a brush cutter (blade) did the job more efficiently.
i would ensure that you will have use of the land for long enough to make your effort worthwhile if you do decide to clear it and take the job on.
good luck.
tb
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random
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| towerhill wrote: | | Could you not put some sections of large land drain down side by side and the cut and fill earth over it with a small 3-5 ton digger? You could get anything across there then. |
I'm in what's called a water protection zone, which has very strict rules about what can and can't be done to alter the course flow of rivers and I doubt i'd get approval for something like this. The rules are so strict you're even limited to the types and amounts of fertiliser and/or pesticides you're allowed to use. Also I think that once in peak flow, any blockage would cause flooding not only over my land but my neighbours upstream.
| stumbling goat wrote: | i recently cleared a large area of high grass, small shrubs, thin trees, saplings reeally, and wasit high thistlkes and stuff. my strimmer found it hard goping but a brush cutter (blade) did the job more efficiently.
i would ensure that you will have use of the land for long enough to make your effort worthwhile if you do decide to clear it and take the job on.
good luck.
tb |
how do you keep it clear now that you've cut it down. I don't mind spending a week strimming to get it cleared. Once it's about a foot or so high do you think I could use a ride on?
I have the land for as long as my neighbour is alive, he's getting on a bit, doesn't want to move but can't manage his land any longer, he used to keep horses, he was showing me pictures, some beautiful Paso Fino have to say I was a little jealous.
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RichardW
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I guess that you now know why its free & in the state it is in.
Sounds like a quad / micro tractor & a bridge are the only way so the free land will start to cost.
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Helen_A
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Do you have good access to the field alongside the bridge? As an 'initial' thing (as in, unlikely to be repeated, or not more than every 3 ish years) could you hire in a temporary bridge (or borrow one) to get the tractor onto the land that one time?
(sounds impractical, possibly expensive I know, but its something I have vivid memories lol of friends of my parents doing in france many years ago... it was like a royal engineers number, arrived on the back of a trailer and was simply unfolded across the (quite large) gap, with an equivalent distance to the actual crossing on either side for stability security etc so that the weight was born by the land not the edges of said gap. I think that the commune owned it in that case (as lots of the farms had drainage issues and these channels dug). Mum says that friends on the levels in somerset have borrowed similar things in the past when they've had the earth bridges on channels collapse as well - although I suspect that its the sort of thing that you can persuade the RE based down there to, um, borrow the land to do some 'training' with  ).
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