Despite the dry ground and heavy frosts, 2017’s winter planting season has gone really well. I’m down to a couple of weekends planting extra plots to use up 100 leftover plants.
Increasing the number of regular helpers has made a great difference, as has Matthew’s reliability and skill as my outstanding Chief Planting Assistant.
Plus fantastic volunteers on our big planting days.
So much better than when I started out all by myself in 2009 with a mattock, hauling buckets from a distant dam for water.
I loved introducing lovely Finnish Rotary exchange student Martta to Australian tree planting, although she wasn’t wild about the sharp saffron thistles.
Slowly, we’re building our wildlife connections and shelter across the landscape, despite the rocks and steep slopes.
Of course, that’s not all that easy to do. 
Out on the hills, “what comes” is pretty good right now. 
ess, various sprays etc). In the last two years we have planted 30 to 50 of these which despite some setbacks in the way of frost, not to mention last autumn’s endless dryness, have been doing well. The main challenge is transporting the big pots (this year big sections of pipe) up to where they’ll be planted. The rest of our plants come from Murrumbateman Landcare, Greening Australia or Damian DiMarco’s nursery on Wallaroo Road, making as wide and balanced a range of species as we can manage. 
All those months waiting for rain in the autumn, and now we have too much. 
The Great Aerial Ocean above our heads, for me, is a reminder that we all live on the one planet. Only a thin band of atmosphere comes between us and the inhospitable vastness of space. 
Our lovely neighbour Cathy Campbell has a new project. It’s called “Managing Mange in the Mullion” (that’s the title of the Facebook group also) and involves counting wombats, working out how many of them are affected by 
As I wandered outside on my way to bed a few nights ago, I noticed a speck of red light on a hilltop.
Brazil’s coastal rainforest could hardly be more distant from a sheep farm in New South Wales. Yet I found visiting it both inspirational and helpful for my own plans.