Great to see gorse getting some recognition for it’s value to wildlife. You definitely need to come to Scotland more often, it always seems to be sunny when your here 😀🐝
Haha! Yes, I've been very fortunate with the weather and will find any excuse to return to this wonderful country, it has so much to offer and so many untouched but cared for areas :) so much more footage to upload about Scotland - Best wishes, Joel
I'm glad that it's helpful to you, I try to add as much information as I can so that people learn a lot more than just about the plant or habitat and it's a good way of furthering people's knowledge :) Hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes - Joel
got miles and miles of gorse in our valley, i love it when it's that time on a hot summers day just as the pods open in the warm sun, a little disconcerting when you first hear it as there's so much cracking open it almost sounds like some ones set it alight with the crackling sound you get.
Always remember gorse as a young lad trying to catch grasshoppers and they used to jump and hide in the gorse for protection. Put it this way I never caught one now older and wiser gorse will be great protection for so much of our wildlife that’s why gorse is amazing in many ways ❤️🐸💚🐸
Glad to see you support this oft-cursed shrub. I've put up with neighbouring farmers criticising me for both liking it and even professing to having 3 Gorse plants in my garden. However, I took no notice - it's my garden anyway - and kept them. The first attempt to add this plant in my garden were unsuccessful - because rabbits 'ate' the young plants. On the second attempt, I had to pot-raise the 3 I have now until they were a little larger and the spikes had enjoyed a full year of toughening up a bit). I think I will gather a few seeds later and raise some more. Love the scent, and like the idea of attracting Yellowhammers (I thought I heard one a few weeks ago). I've recently come across an article saying that it may soon be 'illegal' to have any Common Ragwort in the garden. I have some 'managed' Ragwort because I love Cinnabar moths (both moth and caterpillar). I think it would be rather tragic to eliminate a plant, which would then go on to cause the elimination of this lovely moth with its variable patterns. After all the Common Ragwort is native and the Cinnabar moth is a very effective natural biological control. What do you think?
Hi Debbie - there's certainly a lot of myth about ragwort and the law. Although I'm no scientist, as far as I am aware the UK Government only stipulate if you own horses, ponies or livestock that you must not allow them to graze on land where you know ragwort is present. You can be prosecuted if you allow animals to suffer by eating harmful weeds. It doesn't state it's illegal to grow it nor indeed that it's about to become law. I do know, of course, that it's harmful to livestock and it's when it's "accidentally" baled that it enters the hay fed to livestock and horse owners will regularly patrol fields to ensure their animals don't come across it, although I understand that they won't seek it out to eat. I must say that over the last few weeks on social media, I have seen a lot of people reporting a loss of Cinnabar moths, compared to previous years so there's a good point you're making re ragwort. On a better note, good for you for standing your ground "on your own ground" re the Gorse and I have complete faith you'll be entertaining Yellowhammers before too long :) Hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes, as always - Joel
Yay, good to see you back up here in Bonny Scotland!🏴 Lots of Gorse around us too.....& so many yellow hammers! Little bit of bread & no cheese.....love it🎶💜
Hi Jas, so glad you enjoyed this video and were enlightened somewhat :) I'm still to visit Ireland but can't wait to do so and get footage of Ireland like I have of Scotland - many videos to upload yet but I'll ensure the visit to Ireland coincides with the Gorse - hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes - Joel
Gorse is an invasive plant here in B.C., Canada. It really takes over our native plants and we have massive bush bashing parties to keep it under control. We don't want to get rid of it totally, (depending on ones opinion) because it has become such a pollinator heaven. Here it blooms when the wild roses bloom, quite incredible.
Hi Cathy :) Human intervention again, I think it was introduced to USA in the early 19th century and I've heard how invasive it has become in certain areas. Non-natives are usually contentious, it's like buddleja here, introduced in the late 1890s and "hated" by many, although it's benefit to insects and butterflies in particular are pretty unbeatable. Although I imagine buddleja is rather easy to "manage" than the gorse with it's natural defences! It's beautiful though :) Best wishes, Joel
Me too, although I wasn't in a plane, I drove for several hours with it either side of me and it's pretty spectacular isn't it - Gorse will always remind me of Scotland now :) Not sure if you will have seen an older video of when I visited Scotland, but it might bring back some memories... ua-cam.com/video/qFvqUQfaru8/v-deo.html My hair is rather "lockdown" in this video! Ha :) Best wishes, Joel
👍🏻 as always Josh. I ❤️ gorse which is sadly 😔 rare around my area. The nearest town is about 5 miles away along the coast & has a lot of corse at the 🏖 where they’re is a ⛳️. I saw goldfinches there in May going in & out so quite a few 🪹 🪺. 👀 forward to your other videos. 😊
Was down in Devon this March walking around Start Point tracking down Cirl Buntings , the coastal path was smothered in Gorse and the smell was heavenly.
I remember seeing a UA-cam video about a man in Australia who decided he was going to turn a large area of near desert into a fertile, almost forest like environment. Everyone laughed at him but over many years he planted the entire area with gorse and eventually created a micro climate which was then able to support all sorts of greenery which in turn brough back all forms of wildlife to a formerly desolate place.
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Fools & Dreamers is the title of that video (30 mins long) by Happen Films, available here on UA-cam. ;) One of my favourites. It was in New Zealand though, and he didn't plant the gorse, he let the gorse do its thing as a pioneer species. In any case, highly, highly recommend the video! ^^
Joel thank you so much for this great information on gorse. I live near Ardee Bog which Dr David Bellamy visited (before your time). The gorse is delightful. I didn't know so many birds depended on the gorse. Thank you again.
Hi Anne - I do actually remember Mr Bellamy :) It's amazing the amount of wildlife that Gorse provides for, and I'm really glad you enjoyed the video - have a great weekend, Joel
Hi Joel, lovely to see so much of it growing in one place. Next time I see some I shall definitely have a sniff! It tends to grow sporadically round our wild places rather than a large area like that. Lovely sight and maybe one to add to the ever growing list of " I want." Best wishes.
I'd definitely recommend taking in that scent, but remember to not get too close! Your want list is no doubt as long as mine, just wish I had a garden the size of some of those that I work on :) Best wishes, as always - Joel
I have a big pot full of gorse I bought as plugs last year, waiting for me to finish some more garden landscaping to find its final planting place, out of the way from where it can cause harm😊
I think you might be right Ed! With that wonderful blue sky backdrop when I was there it certainly made it stand out, it really does enhance the landscape :) Best wishes, Joel
Hey Nadine :) That's where I saw my last patches of Gorse, just after we left you - I wish I could find the time to upload all the France videos, I had a fantastic time, every day - best wishes, Joel
Haha! My own fault for stopping off in places randomly and never thinking about a script, let alone assembling one! ;) Scotland is certainly the place to see this beautiful shrub though. Best wishes, Joel
I’ve always looked out for Gorse since you spoke about it a while ago in your video. We have Gobions wood run by the Wildlife Trust, literally on our doorstep and, I’ve never seen any. I would have them in the garden but worried for the grandkids. Only last week I was getting a telling off because they were looking for frogs and ventured in the nettles area when l clearly told them to stay out of harms way 🤦🏻♂️ I need to train the nettles to grow tight back to the fence behind the hedges. Keep up the good work Joel 👏🏻
Hey George, it does like certain conditions - whereas stinging nettles... they seem to be happy in most places! A good learning curve for the grandkids though and they'll at least recognise stinging nettles from a few paces now ;) Hope your week is going ok - best wishes, Joel
I love it, miss it from my home I grew up in. I would love to have it in my garden but we live in a housing estate and I'd be afraid some old fashioned dope would set it alight. We have it every year at home, farmers set it on fire and endanger quite a few homes, including ours. We used to eat the flowers, quite nice and makes a lovely tea and I think it is a nitrogen fixer.
I'm glad I found this. I'm at the start of turning my front garden into a wildlife garden. I've decided to replace the privet hedge with gorse. I think I'll just plant the gorse in front of the cut back privet hedge and hopefully it will overwhelm the privet. Should I line the whole perimeter with gorse, or would it be better to mix with other wildlife friendly hedging?
In the south of Chile this bush was brought by colonizers to be used as a hedge, now it's invasive and covers kilometers of land. Interesting to see how this plant works in it's right setting.
Is it a pain though? I have privet at the moment which needs trimming every two weeks in summer. Cutting back gorse once every 3 to 4 years sounds like bliss to me.
Hello Joel, I've noticed in recent years that the areas of gorse I once new have become overgrown with scrub, I believe in the past they used to burn the old gorse off to regenerate it. I think the old country name for gorse was furze.
Yes, Furze is right - and someone once said to me that they knew it as "whin" which I'd never heard of. There does seem to be less Gorse down south for sure, but Scotland isn't short of it by any means :) Hope you're doing well Paul, best wishes - Joel
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Whin makes sense to me, hence the name Whinchat. I'm sure I ve read somewhere that the Stonechat was also called the furzacre or furzacker, not sure of the spelling, but I can't find any reference to it. 🤔👍
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton The Scots call it whins. I just checked on google to see if gorse and whins are the same thing and they are. It is certainly beautiful, but not fun to walk through.
wild this made my day. thanks for sharing. you can use our original songs for free on your strms and vids..just mention our chnnl on your description... all no cpyright... enjoy!
Thanks for another top vid Joel . I have a lavatera in my border which I'm sick of , as it flops all other the other plants . Any wildlife friendly flowering shrubs you can recommend to replace it ... I already have 3 buddleia so anything else lol ... cheers .
Hi Tanya - although it's not that similar, if you don't have one already I'd really recommend a Chokeberry, it's one of the Top 5 Shrubs that support wildlife. Butterflies and moths particularly like it and so do their caterpillars. The berries will also help Jays, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Woodpeckers and Cardinals once September arrives too :) There's Downy Arrowwood, Gray Dogwood, Alternateleaf Dogwood - I hope this helps get you going and that you're soon rewarded for thinking of the wildlife :) Best wishes, have a great weekend - Joel
Thank you - I do have one and filmed a lot with it, there are more videos to come using this but a lot of filming is while I am working on projects so it's difficult to use it all the time, particularly on private properties and built-up areas. Here's one video where I used it: ua-cam.com/video/CxRq8kpIiaU/v-deo.html best wishes, Joel
It looks beautiful, it's a pollinator and a habitat for birds. There's absolutely nothing horrible about it. It's also a native shrub. It has as much right to be here as anything else.
Great to see gorse getting some recognition for it’s value to wildlife. You definitely need to come to Scotland more often, it always seems to be sunny when your here 😀🐝
Haha! Yes, I've been very fortunate with the weather and will find any excuse to return to this wonderful country, it has so much to offer and so many untouched but cared for areas :) so much more footage to upload about Scotland - Best wishes, Joel
So beautiful! And the pictures too! Thank you from USA!
I really like how you put the pictures with the bird's names up on the screen as you're talking about them!
It helps me learn better. ❤️
I'm glad that it's helpful to you, I try to add as much information as I can so that people learn a lot more than just about the plant or habitat and it's a good way of furthering people's knowledge :) Hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes - Joel
Sniff some gorse😂😂😂😂brilliant ! So beautiful, I never knew it smelt of coconut, ty Joel, great flog as always 🎉
I love it. Planted it around the perimeter of my garden, keeps the cats out too :)
I love that flower, the origin of my lineage, and my last name related with it~ Gorse hill. Awesome to know
got miles and miles of gorse in our valley, i love it when it's that time on a hot summers day just as the pods open in the warm sun, a little disconcerting when you first hear it as there's so much cracking open it almost sounds like some ones set it alight with the crackling sound you get.
Yes! I've heard this before too, so glad to hear you have it in abundance and it's appreciated :) Best wishes, Joel
Always remember gorse as a young lad trying to catch grasshoppers and they used to jump and hide in the gorse for protection. Put it this way I never caught one now older and wiser gorse will be great protection for so much of our wildlife that’s why gorse is amazing in many ways ❤️🐸💚🐸
I would like to give this video two thumbs up, but I can only give one.
👍👍
@@CheshireCat6639 🙂
Glad to see you support this oft-cursed shrub. I've put up with neighbouring farmers criticising me for both liking it and even professing to having 3 Gorse plants in my garden. However, I took no notice - it's my garden anyway - and kept them.
The first attempt to add this plant in my garden were unsuccessful - because rabbits 'ate' the young plants. On the second attempt, I had to pot-raise the 3 I have now until they were a little larger and the spikes had enjoyed a full year of toughening up a bit).
I think I will gather a few seeds later and raise some more. Love the scent, and like the idea of attracting Yellowhammers (I thought I heard one a few weeks ago).
I've recently come across an article saying that it may soon be 'illegal' to have any Common Ragwort in the garden. I have some 'managed' Ragwort because I love Cinnabar moths (both moth and caterpillar).
I think it would be rather tragic to eliminate a plant, which would then go on to cause the elimination of this lovely moth with its variable patterns. After all the Common Ragwort is native and the Cinnabar moth is a very effective natural biological control.
What do you think?
Hi Debbie - there's certainly a lot of myth about ragwort and the law. Although I'm no scientist, as far as I am aware the UK Government only stipulate if you own horses, ponies or livestock that you must not allow them to graze on land where you know ragwort is present. You can be prosecuted if you allow animals to suffer by eating harmful weeds. It doesn't state it's illegal to grow it nor indeed that it's about to become law. I do know, of course, that it's harmful to livestock and it's when it's "accidentally" baled that it enters the hay fed to livestock and horse owners will regularly patrol fields to ensure their animals don't come across it, although I understand that they won't seek it out to eat. I must say that over the last few weeks on social media, I have seen a lot of people reporting a loss of Cinnabar moths, compared to previous years so there's a good point you're making re ragwort. On a better note, good for you for standing your ground "on your own ground" re the Gorse and I have complete faith you'll be entertaining Yellowhammers before too long :) Hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes, as always - Joel
Yay, good to see you back up here in Bonny Scotland!🏴
Lots of Gorse around us too.....& so many yellow hammers!
Little bit of bread & no cheese.....love it🎶💜
Thank you Joel, brilliant education for us all. I never realised Gorse was so good for wildlife. We have lots of it here in Ulster
Hi Jas, so glad you enjoyed this video and were enlightened somewhat :) I'm still to visit Ireland but can't wait to do so and get footage of Ireland like I have of Scotland - many videos to upload yet but I'll ensure the visit to Ireland coincides with the Gorse - hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes - Joel
Gorse is an invasive plant here in B.C., Canada. It really takes over our native plants and we have massive bush bashing parties to keep it under control. We don't want to get rid of it totally, (depending on ones opinion) because it has become such a pollinator heaven. Here it blooms when the wild roses bloom, quite incredible.
Hi Cathy :) Human intervention again, I think it was introduced to USA in the early 19th century and I've heard how invasive it has become in certain areas. Non-natives are usually contentious, it's like buddleja here, introduced in the late 1890s and "hated" by many, although it's benefit to insects and butterflies in particular are pretty unbeatable. Although I imagine buddleja is rather easy to "manage" than the gorse with it's natural defences! It's beautiful though :) Best wishes, Joel
Gorse is not Scottish Broom which is what we have here in BC. It is just as invasive though.
That was one of my favorite shrubs when I visited Scotland. Loved seeing it when I flew over in the airplane.
Me too, although I wasn't in a plane, I drove for several hours with it either side of me and it's pretty spectacular isn't it - Gorse will always remind me of Scotland now :) Not sure if you will have seen an older video of when I visited Scotland, but it might bring back some memories...
ua-cam.com/video/qFvqUQfaru8/v-deo.html
My hair is rather "lockdown" in this video! Ha :) Best wishes, Joel
👍🏻 as always Josh. I ❤️ gorse which is sadly 😔 rare around my area. The nearest town is about 5 miles away along the coast & has a lot of corse at the 🏖 where they’re is a ⛳️. I saw goldfinches there in May going in & out so quite a few 🪹 🪺. 👀 forward to your other videos. 😊
Was down in Devon this March walking around Start Point tracking down Cirl Buntings , the coastal path was smothered in Gorse and the smell was heavenly.
I remember seeing a UA-cam video about a man in Australia who decided he was going to turn a large area of near desert into a fertile, almost forest like environment. Everyone laughed at him but over many years he planted the entire area with gorse and eventually created a micro climate which was then able to support all sorts of greenery which in turn brough back all forms of wildlife to a formerly desolate place.
Thank you, I'll have to have a look for that video Rob, sounds very interesting :) Hope you're having a good weekend, best wishes - Joel
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Fools & Dreamers is the title of that video (30 mins long) by Happen Films, available here on UA-cam. ;) One of my favourites. It was in New Zealand though, and he didn't plant the gorse, he let the gorse do its thing as a pioneer species. In any case, highly, highly recommend the video! ^^
@@MickLissone i second this!
Gorse burns very hot when it catches fire. It has a lot of oils in it. It might not be the best thing to have anywhere near a house or buildings.
Joel thank you so much for this great information on gorse. I live near Ardee Bog which Dr David Bellamy visited (before your time). The gorse is delightful. I didn't know so many birds depended on the gorse. Thank you again.
Hi Anne - I do actually remember Mr Bellamy :) It's amazing the amount of wildlife that Gorse provides for, and I'm really glad you enjoyed the video - have a great weekend, Joel
That is just lovely, don't know if we have that over here, least not in Maryland. It sure is a sight to behold.
Hi Joel, lovely to see so much of it growing in one place. Next time I see some I shall definitely have a sniff! It tends to grow sporadically round our wild places rather than a large area like that. Lovely sight and maybe one to add to the ever growing list of " I want." Best wishes.
I'd definitely recommend taking in that scent, but remember to not get too close! Your want list is no doubt as long as mine, just wish I had a garden the size of some of those that I work on :) Best wishes, as always - Joel
We have Grose littering the countryside here in Donegal, Ireland, it is a very welcome sight.
Beautiful sight.
Must admit it looks beautiful there Joel. A real splash of colour as well as the benefits to wildlife. Hope you are well Joel 🙂👍
I have a big pot full of gorse I bought as plugs last year, waiting for me to finish some more garden landscaping to find its final planting place, out of the way from where it can cause harm😊
In my experience the gorse up in Scotland always seems brighter and more vivid.
I think you might be right Ed! With that wonderful blue sky backdrop when I was there it certainly made it stand out, it really does enhance the landscape :) Best wishes, Joel
great plant for Linnets to nest in. got some in mine mate 👌
Absolutely - can't wait to be back and planning to come and see you and your paradise - best wishes, Joel
Hey Joel, gorse brings back memories of Brittany and the west of France, but I haven’t seen any around here in Normandy. Gorgeous colour!
Hey Nadine :) That's where I saw my last patches of Gorse, just after we left you - I wish I could find the time to upload all the France videos, I had a fantastic time, every day - best wishes, Joel
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Ha, maybe I’m not looking properly! 😢
How beautiful. I've seen gorse when I went to Scotland. I will keep an eye out for walking bees though. 🐝
Haha! My own fault for stopping off in places randomly and never thinking about a script, let alone assembling one! ;) Scotland is certainly the place to see this beautiful shrub though. Best wishes, Joel
Such an amazing place. Wish I could see that area in person. Thanks for another great video and sorry I've been Mia lately ❤️
I wish you could too! So good to hear from you, I do hope you are doing well and have had a good weekend so far :) Take good care, best wishes - Joel
I’ve always looked out for Gorse since you spoke about it a while ago in your video.
We have Gobions wood run by the Wildlife Trust, literally on our doorstep and, I’ve never seen any.
I would have them in the garden but worried for the grandkids. Only last week I was getting a telling off because they were looking for frogs and ventured in the nettles area when l clearly told them to stay out of harms way 🤦🏻♂️
I need to train the nettles to grow tight back to the fence behind the hedges.
Keep up the good work Joel 👏🏻
Hey George, it does like certain conditions - whereas stinging nettles... they seem to be happy in most places! A good learning curve for the grandkids though and they'll at least recognise stinging nettles from a few paces now ;) Hope your week is going ok - best wishes, Joel
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton All good thank you Joel.
Take care my friend 😊
I love it, miss it from my home I grew up in. I would love to have it in my garden but we live in a housing estate and I'd be afraid some old fashioned dope would set it alight. We have it every year at home, farmers set it on fire and endanger quite a few homes, including ours. We used to eat the flowers, quite nice and makes a lovely tea and I think it is a nitrogen fixer.
Thanks. Not something I would have considered for a garden. 👍
"Get out there and sniff some Gorse" 🤣🤣 I'll be quoting you there Joel!
I'm glad I found this. I'm at the start of turning my front garden into a wildlife garden. I've decided to replace the privet hedge with gorse. I think I'll just plant the gorse in front of the cut back privet hedge and hopefully it will overwhelm the privet. Should I line the whole perimeter with gorse, or would it be better to mix with other wildlife friendly hedging?
In the south of Chile this bush was brought by colonizers to be used as a hedge, now it's invasive and covers kilometers of land. Interesting to see how this plant works in it's right setting.
Do your native birds like it?
Gorse is an invasive weed here in New Zealand. Glad it helps you out in your country though!
As you said, it’s a pain to manage, so although I adore gorse I opted to plant broom in the garden instead.
Is it a pain though? I have privet at the moment which needs trimming every two weeks in summer. Cutting back gorse once every 3 to 4 years sounds like bliss to me.
Hello Joel,
I've noticed in recent years that the areas of gorse I once new have become overgrown with scrub, I believe in the past they used to burn the old gorse off to regenerate it.
I think the old country name for gorse was furze.
Yes, Furze is right - and someone once said to me that they knew it as "whin" which I'd never heard of. There does seem to be less Gorse down south for sure, but Scotland isn't short of it by any means :) Hope you're doing well Paul, best wishes - Joel
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton
Whin makes sense to me, hence the name Whinchat.
I'm sure I ve read somewhere that the Stonechat was also called the furzacre or furzacker, not sure of the spelling, but I can't find any reference to it. 🤔👍
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton The Scots call it whins. I just checked on google to see if gorse and whins are the same thing and they are. It is certainly beautiful, but not fun to walk through.
wild this made my day. thanks for sharing. you can use our original songs for free on your strms and vids..just mention our chnnl on your description... all no cpyright... enjoy!
I will check it out - thank you, best wishes - Joel
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton cheers!
Thanks for another top vid Joel . I have a lavatera in my border which I'm sick of , as it flops all other the other plants . Any wildlife friendly flowering shrubs you can recommend to replace it ... I already have 3 buddleia so anything else lol ... cheers .
Which land fields are originally from?
Thanks for giving gorse it's proper Scottish name
You're welcome Heather, it certainly likes being in Scotland, as do I :) Best wishes, Joel
gorse is the best for planting oak, cherry, hawthorn, birch etc to protect from shee and deer
do any of y'all know what a good equivalent to this for North America would be?
Hi Tanya - although it's not that similar, if you don't have one already I'd really recommend a Chokeberry, it's one of the Top 5 Shrubs that support wildlife. Butterflies and moths particularly like it and so do their caterpillars. The berries will also help Jays, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Woodpeckers and Cardinals once September arrives too :) There's Downy Arrowwood, Gray Dogwood, Alternateleaf Dogwood - I hope this helps get you going and that you're soon rewarded for thinking of the wildlife :) Best wishes, have a great weekend - Joel
Good evening Joel. I did not catch the name of your favourite flower. At 3.27 😉
Birdsfoot trifoil.
Is it true that the plant fixes nitrogen? I remember hearing that.
Yes, it is, and so is Broom. As far as I know all plants in the legume family have that ability - and Alders too (if you can fit one in your garden).
I was taught that gorse is almost always in bloom, all year round, hence the saying "When gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season". 😉😚
Ahhh, I'll remember that one Madeleine! Best wishes, Joel
Buying a midrange drone will help you much more to promote your work .
Thank you - I do have one and filmed a lot with it, there are more videos to come using this but a lot of filming is while I am working on projects so it's difficult to use it all the time, particularly on private properties and built-up areas. Here's one video where I used it:
ua-cam.com/video/CxRq8kpIiaU/v-deo.html
best wishes, Joel
Ummm. Gorse is the worst thing to happen to the oregon coast. It's completely trash.
Gorse is a horrible horrible weed…
Wildlife and Scotland don't seem to think so ;)
It looks beautiful, it's a pollinator and a habitat for birds. There's absolutely nothing horrible about it. It's also a native shrub. It has as much right to be here as anything else.