#allocasuarina verticillata

This is my year for filling in gaps (not just in my blog, oops), but among my trees.  Lots of non-tree things have also been happening, but I’ll fill those gaps in separate posts.  First we had to go back and find the trees that didn’t quite make it from last year.  I’ve now conclusively established that Phalaris grass is a killer of young native trees, and has to be sprayed out to stop it doing…

LOST IN THE GRASS

After the drought ended in February last year we were so excited to see the green tinge creeping across the landscape.  But of course, a lot of that was weeds that had been allowed to germinate in bare ground – left bare by the drought.  Because the ground cover was still fragile, it was necessary to keep them even though they’re weeds.  So during the planting season (May to September) we…

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Native Plants in Fiona Brockhoff Gardens

I went to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria in January this year to see three gardens designed by one of my favourite Landscape Designers and of course they did not disappoint. In fact  I realise now that I took so many photos and was so inspired that I have been a bit overwhelmed by how to approach writing blog posts about her gardens. I think the only way for me to process all the photos I took is to simply talk about her use of native plants in her designs, thats my passion right? Fiona Brockhoff by no means limits herself to a native plant palette and all the gardens I visited were quite repetitive in the species used, however the their placement and maintenance shows how much of a plantswoman she is as well as a designer.

In the image above you can see Correa reflexa var. nummularia falling over a retaining wall with a back drop of melaleuca quinquenervia.  I have tried growing this beautiful Correa in NSW but only had any luck in a pot, it hates the humidity!

This large rural garden was stunning, it was positioned around a central lake with a small gravel beach and jetty. It also had the most wonderful outdoor bath I have ever seen. Melaleuca quinquenervia was used as a privacy screen for the bath and shower area, in the foreground you can see a mass planting of Poa labillardieri with Lomandra ‘Tanika’ in the background.

The image above is of the seating area on the edge of the lake, I have just included it because I think it is impossibly luxurious 😉

These are the stone steps leading down to the waters edge, I love the Anigozanthos ‘Big Red’ and Correa reflexa var. nummularia hugging the edges.

The planting around the house was a little more formal, with clipped Correa baeuerlenii spheres, gravel pathways and some more exotic species. In the images above you can see Lomandra ‘Tanika’, Correa baeuerlenii, Melaleuca nemophila and Phormium tenax.

The gravel pathway is offset with varying steppers made from slate, timber and stone, in the foreground you can see Themeda australis in full seed, so pretty!

The use of the Eucalyptus macrandra planted close to the house is very clever, lets face it the whole garden is very clever, it creates garden views from inside the house and makes the house feel as though it is nestled in the garden, almost like the garden came before the house…

In fact there are many trees planted close to the building, a cluster of Allocasuarina verticillata completely wrap themselves around the house as a wind break, creating a gentle understory filled in with grasses.

In the image above you can see Lomandra ‘Tanika’ and Correa baeuerlenii growing happily in the shade of the Casuarinas.

In fact I think this pathway was one of my favourite spaces in the garden, the mounded garden beds with dropped path gave a sense of security and safety.

And I know that Lomandra ‘Tanika’ is perhaps one of the most boring grasses in the world, but look at it here, isn’t it inviting?

After the bitter weather on our big planting a few weeks ago, I was worried we’d never get our whole Glossy Black Cockatoo project finished.  Thankfully, Darren Menachemson from ThinkPlace and a Greening Australia “Adopt a Plot” team came to our rescue.

The lovely ThinkPlacers turned up on a foggy morning and chose the highest ridge to plant.

We had to chase out a family of kangaroos that were still confused by the new fences.   We also had to crack the ice on the frozen water buckets we’d stashed ahead of time.  Brrrr.

They (the people, not the kangaroos) were a great team, both careful and fast.  We had the assistance of mascots in the form of dogs and toddlers, which always adds to the entertainment.

By the time we called a halt, they’d got 170 more allocasuarinas into the ground among the rocky ridges.  Planting definitely moves more quickly where we’re able to put rip-lines in ahead of time, and because they’d come back so promptly, the soil still had just enough moisture.

The Greening Australia Adopt A Plot trio arrived a few days later, and polished off the hollow in the middle of the site.  They were even faster, getting 130 in 3 hours.  These included some extra eucalyptus blakelyi, dives, and a variety of shrubs that I added because I thought they would do better than the allocasuarinas in the heavy soil in the hollow.

The big issue is still the dryness of the ground.  The hills still look quite green from a distance, but a lot of it is rosettes of Patterson’s Curse covering bare ground.  It’s hard to remember that the hollow is often wet and water trickles down the gully after heavy rain.  The fencers found that when they drilled for posts, the ground moisture was gone after 30 centimetres, and below that was bone dry.  We gave each plant as much water as we could, hoping for the best.    Last time we planted in dry ground, we lost some to the dryness, and some to having planted in places we didn’t realize were actually boggy.

This plot is pretty important as I’ve been working making links to it over the past four years – something that I hope will make it a really effective and productive area, for many types of wildlife including the Glossy Black Cockatoos.  

I’m hoping for some rain tomorrow to help settle these new plants into place, and to settle the unseasonal dust.

Thank you again to everyone that helped make this possible.

It’s been a dry year so far, with only scattered amounts of rain making the soil just moist enough for planting.  Mostly we’ve had sunny days and warm temperatures.

We’d ripped and fenced and prepared for the arrival of the mystery volunteers.  Ben didn’t say who they were, just that there were lots of them.   But as we waited for the buses to arrive, the sunny morning began to sour.  Matthew ran around putting rocks on each coir mat to keep them from flying away.  The piles of pink corflute covers heaved and flapped against the heavy weights we’d put on them.

Looking at the surging clouds, Craig, Ben and Matt began digging some “demonstration” holes, to shorten the planting process.

Then the rain came down, just as the two big buses arrived.  The lovely volunteers from ThinkPlace were instantly soaked despite raincoats and plastic ponchos, but gamely set about transporting food and drinks up to the verandah of the house.  All concept of having lunch out in the paddock was abandoned, but the crew was lively and willing to give some planting a go.

Ben explained the Glossy Black Cockatoo program, where allocasuarina verticillata (drooping sheoak) that have gone missing from the landscape are being replanted to allow these small black cockatoos to move around the landscape again.   I gave a short explanation of what we’re trying to do at Esdale and Adnamira, including encouraging biodiversity and resilience in the landscape while still maintaining a productive sheep farm.

I also really want to protect and preserve the big remnant trees we do have, some of which could be up to five hundred years old.  They desperately need understorey plants that will protect the birds that then eat the insects that destroy the trees.   One of our most beautiful trees is in the area we were planting.

Having cowered under shelter through what we hoped was the worst of the weather, we all headed up to the gully for planting demonstrations (almost drowned out by the flapping noise of plastic ponchos), and then let the volunteers loose.  The rain returned, with more wind, covers flying across the hill and having to be chased down, mattocks swinging energetically as more holes were dug, each plant gently separated from it’s tube, planted and protected.

I took to making covers, keeping my foot on the pile while shoving stakes through the holes.  They wrestled in the gusts, occasionally flying back to spreadeagle against the fence.   Usually, that’s the easy job.

When the sleet began, the amazing crew was already two thirds of the way across the hillside.  I worried that if we went on, we’d lose people to hypothermia, but they had their heads down and fought up the other side of the gully toward the fence.

After another twenty minutes or so, Ben decided things were getting too dangerous, and we went back to the house to eat the lunch (out of the rain).    At that point most people were chilled and willingly headed back to the buses to go home, but a small crew went back and finished the last dozen when the rain let up slightly.

I was frankly amazed that we got 240 trees planted on steep, rocky ground under those circumstances.   Thank you ThinkPlace (and Greening Australia) for dealing so well with our unthinkable weather.   

I was quite cautious when the idea of a “Green Army” was proposed.  It seemed like a political stunt.  And the cost of the payslips was going to be subtracted from Landcare, a community organization I admire a great deal.

Who was this Army going to attack?  The trees?  Us?

Who was going to join up?  Willing people? Or grumpy teenagers who’d rather be playing video games, only moving when they…

A SNACK BAR FOR GLOSSY BLACK COCKATOOS

Last weekend we planted in two different directions at once.  

We finished the final small tree lots that are part of the chain of connections across the Murrumbidgee river for small birds. That makes nine tree lots for connectivity only, plus two extra areas, a shelter paddock that used to be a calf-feeding area, and decorative one that will have an avenue of white trunked eucalyptus mannifera…