The GREEN HORSE - sustainable horsekeeping

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2007
Vol 28-5

In the Current Issue of The Green Horse you will find the following articles:

Talking Point and Information Exchange
Gold Mine Horses and Mundrabilla Ponies
Riding Out the Drought
Recycle To Save Our Environment
Deeds, Steeds and Weeds Weed Watch - Gazania by Nicola Field
Electric Fencing Explained - Part Three

RECYCLE TO SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT

The advent of recycle rubbish bins has turned recycling household products into something that is now second-nature. However, before you throw that plastic bottle, can or onion bag into the recycle bin, how about re-using it in your stable?
Recycled plastic bottles are handy for both storing and administering medicines.

Here are a few handy ways to use them: If your veterinarian dispenses pills or boluses in an envelope or small plastic bag, you may want to store them in empty, re-labeled vitamin bottles, to protect them from moisture and make them easier to locate in your medicine kit.

When travelling or camping with your horse, plastic bottles of various sizes are great for carrying supplies such as sterile needles, tubes of ointment and wound medication. They'll fit nicely into saddlebags, a glove compartment in the vehicle, tack bags or a float first aid kit.

Put wound powder, liquid wound dressing, or any antiseptic solution in plastic squeeze bottles such as ones that have contained tomato sauce or dishwashing detergent. Squeezing these items on a wound is much easier than trying to dab, pour or spray them on. Squeeze bottles are also convenient for washing off a wound with warm water or a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide.

Large milk 'jugs' are handy feed scoops when cut to shape with a stanley knife. Coffee cans (the ones with the plastic lid) make sturdy feed scoops and are ideal for storing grooming mitts or rags used for applying fly repellant, as the lid keeps the cloth from drying out.
Plastic icecream containers with lids are useful for taking portion sizes of grain or pellets to shows or events.
Clean, empty spray bottles can be used for applying fly repellant, dye, or medicated fluids.

Large rubbish bin bags with drawstrings make good saddle covers when out riding in the rain - they are compact, re-usable and easily carried when not in use.

A plastic milk or delivery crate (often discarded by grocery stores) makes an inexpensive sturdy, spillproof holder for a 20 litre water bucket. The hard plastic is resilient enough to prevent injury and horses won't chew on it.

A convenient way to let sponges dry after washing horses or gear, is to put them in a plastic mesh bag (the kind onions come in at the supermarket) and hang in a sunny or breezy spot.
Onion bags also make a great temporary fly veil for yourself - just slip over a cap or hat and voila - no more pesky flies!

WEED WATCH - GAZANIA

Weed Watch - Gazania
by Nicola Field

Gazanias (Gazania linearis) are a great example or the maxim 'one man's trash is another man's treasure'. Available widely through nurseries, and a popular feature in garden flower beds, Gazanias are often referred to as the 'Treasure Flower'. For rural landholders though, they are far from a treasure, and indeed are regarded by some agricultural authorities as a future Paterson's Curse - potentially posing a major threat to both our environment and to agriculture. Indeed, many believe it is only a matter of time before gazanias are added to state and federal noxious weed lists.

The gazania is an attractive flower

A native of South Africa, gazanias are a clump forming perennial growing to about ten centimetres in height. Leaves are small, linear and dark green with a white finely haired under-surface. The attractive daisy-like flowers are produced on long stalks (peduncles) and are usually orange to yellow in colour through nurseries are now producing gazanias that can range in colour from white through to pink and purple. Flowering occurs throughout the year, though mainly in spring and autumn.

The flower heads are the source of the gazania's small wind-borne seeds. These seeds are the primary means of regeneration, and can be dispersed by animals, machinery and along waterways. The plant can also spread vegetatively by stolens (creeping stems) that take root and form new plants, which often happens within gardens and from dumped garden waste.

While the gazania is attractive, it is also a highly invasive environmental weed, capable of taking over and replacing native plants, pastures or crops, reducing productivity and degrading natural environments. The plant often invades areas where the soil has been disturbed, changed or poorly managed, but gazanias are opportunists that will grow in the tiniest crevice of soil, and if you opt to grow them in pots or garden beds, you can expect to find gazanias shooting up virtually anywhere they can take root - from farm gateways to stable yards.

In addition to being a popular home garden plant, the gazania's hardy nature (it can survive frost and drought as well as sandy or salty soil) makes it a popular option for public gardens and it is often used as a feature in roundabout centrepieces, or at the base of streetscape trees. This has helped it spread aggressively along road sides, into paddocks and even into flora reserves.

The effect of gazanias on horses is unclear. While some authorities claim the plant is poisonous to livestock, ponies have been known to munch their way through entire garden beds without ill effect on either the animal or the plant! What can be said with certainty is that horses can and do eat gazanias, and given the uncertainty regarding their toxicity, it is best to err on the side of safety and keep the two separate. Horses that are on specific performance-based diets should definitely be kept away from gazanias.

It is possible to enjoy the appeal of gazanias on your property without it becoming a pest, though it does require some ongoing effort. Cutting the flower heads before they fully mature will help prevent the dispersal of seeds.
Young plants can be pulled up easily by hand and should be disposed of by composting or by bagging and binning them. Gazanias can also be chemically treated and general-purpose herbicides are usually effective, take care using any chemicals in areas where horses are likely to graze or are hard fed. Fencing permitting, goats and chickens can offer organic control of gazanias by allowing access to affected areas. Do note though, both are indiscriminate about which plants they will eat!

In bushland areas, regeneration involving the planting of native vegetation and follow-up weed control is important to restore gazania-affected areas. However prevention remains better than cure, and gazania's potential to wreak havoc on the environment can be reduced by replacing this invasive species with a selection of easily grown and inexpensive native plants. The Co-Operative Research Centre for Weed Management recommends gaillardia (Gaillardia x grandiflora) as a good substitute for gazanias in the home garden.