Black eyed susan flowers are pretty, but don’t belong in the bush, so we started on a process of eradication. Tracing their tendrils to source, then scraping and painting.
Disclaimer: We do not condone, ignore or promote interpersonal violence, nor do we think it amusing. Our headline refers only to to the plants we were dealing with.
Clearing asparagus fern to make way for blady grass.
The drainage works we did months ago under Ed’s expert tutelage are finally getting a good workout — and are performing beautifully. (Photo from Howard)
Mostly cleared a big patch of Jasmine. Ed found a lot of garden escapees down in the creek bed.
The flowering of black-eyed susans has helped us see the extent to which they’ve infested part of the gully. We started clearing them today, around one of the stormwater drains, ready to build another retention basin and stop the plume of weeds.
We’ve had several goes at stopping stormwater from carrying weed seeds into the bush. Someone from Council came once, with machinery, and created some beautiful stone lined retention basins, only to have someone else from Council come along a few months later and tear them up with a digger.
We built sandbags a little while back, placing them at the back of this basin. The bags have perished, though, so this time we built stone dams and planted reeds in front of them as a filter.
A few days later, Howard has photographed pooled runoff water in our main retention basin. So far so good.
Nathan harvesting reeds with eriostemon in foreground
A close-up of the eriostemon
Nathan and Howard consulting
Close-up of sedimentation pond with reeds planted with reeds
Howard took this ‘before’ shot of the work on Saturday
After some rain, water pooled in basin
We’ve managed to hail down a few passing tree lopping crews and corral their loads of mulch.
The mulch serves double purpose: to suppress roadside weeds, and to signal to Council mowers that the lomandras are plantings, not to be scythed down.
Spreading the mulch along the Grover Street roadside
No Cobblers Pegs allowed here!
Casurinas are in flower at Explorers Reserve.
What we do with Fishbone Fern in the Blue Mountains.
