Filling the Gaps

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 that .  The only other grass that is a similar problem is couch. Otherwise the mulch maps are effective. We had to re-do 80 in one of last year’s windbreaks, but the main area along the pine line was in very good shape (no Phalaris).   

The little enclosure by the Adnamira homestead is on its third go, however, after I had Marga and Dmitry plant Tagasaste as a possible forage tree (none survived), mixed natives and oaks last year (only the 3 oaks survived), and now slashing, plus spraying and planting Cunningham’s casuarina . We’ll see how that goes, but casuarinas also have the ability to defend themselves using root phytotoxins which could take care of the Phalaris.  These river casuarinas are rated well for fire danger, as are the oaks.  The Phalaris is not.  We’ll probably have to slash the little paddock again before the summer as any grazing animals will prefer the trees.

With no funding available for fences, my main goals for new trees was to go back to the areas that were not finished in other years.  In particular, last year’s Top of the Gully was specifically left for this year.  We ended up putting in another 550 there, 40 of them replants, to make a fairly dense windbreak area. 

The eastern facing slope was quite damp and had some deep soil areas, as well as, unfortunately, a lot of thistle rosettes.   The western facing side is of course dryer, and the mattocks chinked frequently on rocks.  Some areas were clearly solid rock faces, but there was enough between them to make some stripes of trees and shrubs. 

I still have to come back again to both these areas in a couple of years, when the trees have grown a little, to take down the sickly pines and replant that part of the windbreak. 

The gravel pit that takes up one section we didn’t even try.  I might use the flattened space for a camping cabin, with a view of the river, one day.  Again, that would work better with some natural bush around it, but not too close (for bush fire safety).

The other main area was the top of the Box Gum Woodland, which was planted in 2014. 

At the time we planted the Box Gum in 2014, the fence wasn’t completed, so we weren’t exactly sure how close to put things.  Plus that was a big year, with many volunteers plus Trent, and challenging weather.  I learned not to extend the planting day into the dark just to hit my quota.  I learned to carry Ventolin and hot tea in case of hypothermia or asthma attacks from cold air.   I learned not to invite people to dinner and all night parties when we were exhausted.

So this year my excellent team, recruited by Dmitry and friends, put in 350 more at the top of the ridge, where it will hopefully provide wind protection to the sheep in the next paddock.  It’s all old sheep camp, so has few native grasses and wildflowers, unlike the lower area by the creek.  Mainly we’ve spent the last nine years trying to get rid of horehound, and saffron thistles, which are just replaced by less noxious weeds.  There are some surprises, though, especially among the rocks. 

And finally, I had 80 allocasuarina verticillata and 20 mixed trees and shrubs to add to one of our Glossy Black Cockatoo areas.  Craig calls allocasuarinas “invisible trees” because they take a long time to be seen from a distance, however both the 2016 and 2018 plots are now thriving.

In the end the highest and rockiest plot, Cockatoo 1, was inaccessible, because the rain made the track too slippy for the ute with a tank of water.  Even the Green Army wouldn’t have been able to get up there.  Cockatoo 2 was closer, but it meant planting among the rocky areas I’d avoided previously. 

It turned out that some of the allocasuarina we planted (with the help of Greening Australia and Think Place) didn’t much like the more fertile patches between the rocks (with Phalaris again, my nemesis) , so I believe the replacements will do better.  Just when you think you’re being nice to a plant, it turns out to have its own choices.  Surprisingly many of our local natives actually like rocks.

The planting team didn’t like the rocks as much, but gamely did the job. 

 We missed the inimitable Dmitry who’d jetted off to Madagascar, but got to the end of the planting season on schedule.  Yay!

Thank you to all the tree planters for a successful season!