Finding Fifth: lantana

Saturday, 13 July 2013

Half a Year of Changes

When we bought our 5 acre property back in December 2012 some things were very different. Six months later it is hard to remember those changes. Here's a little visual tour.

We had a grove of 7 macadamia trees.

but the Australia Day Weekend storm meant that 6 of them blew over.

The macadamias were removed and this opened up a lot more of a view for us. So it was a blessing in disguise.

The excavator regraded the slope after pulling out all of the rocks. This is the view from the last macca tree. I have been sowing rye grass seed this winter to try and retain the red soil.

There was already a demarcation of the tame and the wild but it was a pile of garden junk. The boulders were a better choice to keep the kids from wandering down the steep slope of the gully below.

At the eastern end of the current rock wall was a heap of lantana. Impossible to navigate through. Lantana is another endemic weed.

The excavator and bobcat made little work of clearing it all.

Some of the camphor laurels were also cut down. We need to cut their stumps and poison them again though.

I think we got back another 1/8 of an acre from the lantana.

The view of the slope from the neighbour's propety. You can see how huge our burn pile has grown.

There is still so much more to do but we have a 30 year plan to transform the back half of the property from weeds to natives. For now just turning the eastern half of it into pasture will help keep the weeds down and the snakes away. I would love to replant it with native grasses and wildflowers and let it grow long.

The gully - currently full of privet and camphor laurels (weeds that can be cut down). But there are three gorgeous fig trees hiding in amongst them.

We have an amazing opportunity to establish a native north coast rainforest in our back gully. Fill it with native fruit and flowering trees and shrubs and get back a view of the Nightcap ranges beyond.