An amazing day of planting last weekend, 150 Tagasaste trees down – 54 to go. Thank you to Toni, Chris & Sandra for you invaluable assistance. #daylesfordlonghouse #tagasaste #treeplanting

tagasaste seeblings!

true leaves comin through!!!

Look at this adorable bee enjoying my tagasaste flower on a warm spring day. Also known as tree lucerne (latin name appears to be either Chamaecytisus palmensis or Cytisus proliferus) it is almost the perfect plant for permaculturalists. Tagasaste is very deep-rooted, fast-growing and is a great “nurse” crop for other trees because it fixes nitrogen. The leaves and fine stems are excellent fodder for stock (apparently annual yields of up to 10 tonnes per hectare are achievable) with the thicker wood suitable for firewood, or it makes great mulch in a “chop and drop” food forest situation. It will tolerate winter temperatures as low as −9°C, though seedlings and new growth is frost-tender (I lost a decent amount of branches on some other twenty or so trees I planted almost a year ago because of an exceptionally cold winter that followed an exceptionally dry summer, though there does appear to be new growth on most) and you get these neat little leguminous off-white flowers in late winter and early spring.  Tl;dr Tagasaste: 10/10, highly recommended!