Another Windbreak

In the past couple of years I’ve been able to concentrate on making extra links between my plantings and create windbreaks which have benefits both for wildlife and for the grazing sheep which finance our farm.

In windbreak plantings, I deliberately put the native trees and shrubs closer together than I would if I were recreating the local Box Gum Grassy Woodland. Individual plants might not reach their fullest possible size, but they will lock together better to create shelter, I hope.

Last years (similar) plantings were dogged by some bad luck. It was the first time I’d found frost crystals in the soil at midday. It’s possible that kept some of the plants from the moisture they needed, even though we watered them thoroughly. We were also both short of rain in spring and hit with some extreme heat (over 40C or 104F) in the summer. We watered them through those hot spells by bucket, but it wasn’t enough. Then the grasshoppers chewed the leaves.

Excuses, excuses.

We had to replant about 150, mostly shrubs. The losses were worst where there had secretly been Phalaris grass (invisible because it was so short) when we planted. That caught me a little unaware, while having a bad season is increasingly becoming expected. I would have used a knockout spray to kill the phalaris if I’d known.

After the replanting, we were able to move onto a new plot, along our boundary with a neighbour. These trees will help link a windbreak we planted in 2017 with the river corridor. For once I was aware of the power lines and avoided fencing underneath, which also provided space where the fence could be cut in a fire to allow trucks to enter and animals to escape.

Craig and the Bobkitten ripped lines ahead of the planting, which makes it much easier to dig in the soft, broken soil. Only a few areas were pure rocks and gravel. There was a rocky barrier halfway up which required some boulders to be levered out before Craig could get past – backwards because that’s the safest way to go uphill in a bobcat.

We had a great turnup of volunteers, including Gill Hall who gave a talk about the Murrumbateman Nursery, (source of the plants). Dmitry had great hopes of us getting all the plants in on the one day, but that didn’t work out. My principle is “Plant fewer, Plant them better,” so I wasn’t upset. We had a great second day as well, with the return of Zach and our other lovely volunteers.

I even remembered to take two photopoints (one at each end) for future records.