Weaving Broom

[homegrown]

Here in NZ scotish broom is consider a noxious weed and I cannot find anyone who can give advice on uses for it , Rather than waste it I have been thinking about making it into hurdles and garden edging, does anyone know how, or a website that shows how, or a good book

Otherwise I'll have to hire a shredder and spend valuable money on gas to get rid of it

[Millymollymandy]

I'm not sure what Scottish broom is but I have wild broom with the yellow flowers that self seeds all over the place. It is supposed to repel cabbage white butterflies but I tried that and it doesn't! I think you can also make a spray concoction from it for the same purpose.

You could always make a broom out of it I suppose!

There are supposed to be culinary and medicinal usages for it as well, though I only have the time to glance at some French sites. If you can read French you'll find plenty more useful info if you google 'genet a balais'.

[Green Aura]

Tons of uses. You can make wine etc from the flowers and strangely enough you can make a really good broom for sweeping your yard, with the branches.

Google "gorse" for loads of other uses.

[snapdragon]

considering the time of year you could make besoms with it and sell them to the little oiks that want to go out dressed up at the end of the month
otherwise books, I found a list Here the hurdle one would be what you need for edgings/fences I guess, the handmade baskets one I have and it tells you what woods you can use (and broom is one of them)

[red]

yup the obvious thing is to make an actual broom..

failing that I would study willow weaving technique and improvise

[frozenthunderbolt]

gorse seeds and grows insanely fast here in NZ - good on you if you can find a use for it. I would be inclined to destroy it before it took over every inch of my land, if you can get something useful in the process, more power to you!

[snapdragon]

I'm confused now
are we talking Gorse? - spiky ouch prickly stuff
or Broom? - softer whippy stems

if it's spiky and a weed then I'd classify it as 'fuel' and burn the beggar

[Millymollymandy]

As far as I know we're talking about broom!

http://www.invasive.org/weedus/subject.html?sub=4408

My gorse has never self seeded, but broom does, everywhere. But then again everything self seeds in my garden including ferns and I've currently got busy lizzies, tomatoes and marigolds coming up all over the place; shame I don't get them self seeding at the right time of year though!

[Green Aura]

Sorry, I thought they were the same

Up here it is, I read that Loch Broom was named for the plants proliferating on its banks, which are covered in gorse. It was a vital part of the economy, used to make roofing, tea, wine and beer and medicine as well as the fine broom besoms.

[MuddyWitch]

Don't fret GA, I thought they were the same too!

MW

[Millymollymandy]

When you drive past in a car they can look pretty much the same but up close they are very different and flower at different times of the year - gorse flowers in the middle of winter although it stays in flower for a long time, and broom flowers in the late spring then has big bean-like seed pods which pop and fling their seeds all over the place, hence it being invasive. It's short lived though so I don't find it a problem.

[Green Aura]

So do we know which homegrown is talking about - Scottish broom could be either

[Millymollymandy]

Good question! Bit like when someone in NZ was talking about borage being invasive but it wasn't the borage we know, it was Viper's bugloss. This is why Latin names come in handy.

http://www.maf.govt.nz/sff/about-projec ... /index.htm

Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) is a highly invasive weed with infestations throughout most of New Zealand.

Cytisus is broom.

But gorse (Ulex europaeus) is also a problem in NZ!

[Green Aura]

Then they should use it for wine, beer, tea, medicine, roofing and flooring etc just like the people who probably took it there in the first place!

[Millymollymandy]

I wouldn't fancy gorse flooring. Ow!