What is a weed?

Faced with the old problem today, of "what is a weed?"

Eucalyptus robusta, or swamp mahogany. It's a magnificent looking tree, I've seen one growing down the road from here and they can really look spectacular. However, they are not indigenous to this area. That isn’t too much of an issue in itself, but they have a tendency to through their seeds, and send up little babies everywhere. Again, not too much of an issue, but the real issue is that they have the ability to hybridize with Eucalyptus camaldulensis, which is the quite abundant along the river here.

There is very large swamp mahogany growing right on the waters edge, and the decision was made to leave that one, but the couple that are growing in amongst the river reds have gotta go! 

This one stays.

This one's not so lucky...

New Growth

Being adjacent to the park, and having to river walking track run through the bottom of the property, I see a lot of people strolling through. Either walking their dogs, going for a jog (or a paddle), or just wondering through. I grew up in the area so I know a lot of them and it’s nice to stop and have a chat. It’s also nice to hear a lot of people saying that the garden is looking great, and there’s been a noticeable improvement over the past couple of months. I was chatting to an old friend of mine’s dad the other day and he said he’s been doing his own gorilla gardening. He’s been collecting seeds from the Corymbia citriodora* and Eucalyptus camaldulensis growing in the area, growing the seedlings in pots in his backyard, and then replanting them where he finds spaces along the river, or along the old road that runs down the boundary of the property where some old elms are dying. He also said he has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to Solanum nigrum, pulling them out whenever he sees them. It’s nice to have a helping hand. And it’s nice to see things growing. Walking around the property you can find heaps of little baby’s popping up, little gums, wattles, native tree violets. Nature doing its work. Makes me happy to do mine… 

Here's a few baby Eucalypts and Acacias popping up.

* The Corymbias aren’t indigenous to the area, but they are tolerated along the road as they are a beautiful tree, and provide habitat for native fauna.

Veggies

I thought I better do a post about veggies, seeing as there is quite a sizable veggie patch here. A few years ago we built a sort of circular cage, with a diameter of 12 metres. All the posts are from eucalyptus trees that got slightly burnt in the fire at king lake. They have not been milled and give the whole structure a nice rustic feel. We then wrapped full sheets of concrete reinforcing steel around them as the walls, and had two steel gates made up. Inside it is made up of 8 small beds laid out in a grid, approximately 3m by 1m each, and then a narrow bed that runs around the perimeter, just inside the steel. The steel then acts as an ideal climbing frame for things like beans and pumpkins. Around all the beds are gravel paths which allow plenty of room to work on the beds.

View from outside the veggie patch

View from inside

This seemed like more than enough for growing, but with a few people growing their veggies in there, it filled up pretty quick (Looks a bit sparse in the photos, but they were taken last week, and we’re in the middle of a bit of a crop rotation process). Two extra raised beds have now been created, in semi circles just to the north side of the original circle. there's been a bit of re-landscaping and earthworks in this immediate area, so it does look a bit muddy and unappealing at the moment.

The inner one is empty at the moment, but I planted the bigger, outer one with potatoes and snow peas on Saturday.

Potato bed

I sowed four different types of potatoes – Desiree, Royal Blue, Sebago, and Russet Burbank. There was just enough space to plant a bag of each, in rows 750mm apart, with the stem tubers 250mm apart in the rows. I sowed a few rows of the snow peas between each different type of potato for ease of identification. These were planted much closer, with rows 500mm apart, but seeds 75mm apart in the rows.

Finding peace in the garden

Here's my little mate 

There’s always a lot of work to be done in this garden, as I’ve mentioned before, the weeds are a constant issue. They’re in not unmanageable, but constant upkeep is required to keep them under control. There’s an endless amount of pruning to be done in the ornamental garden up around the house, there’s lawns to be mowed and hedges to be trimmed. But it’s nice every now and then to step back and take a minute to appreciate the surroundings. There is such a diversity of plants, all growing together, and providing an excellent habitat for the local wild life. I’m not really one for bird watching, but there are several different species of water birds that all call this wetlands home. I find it relaxing to watch then. Last Saturday I was working on the bank, planting tube stock of Persicaria and Microlaena. It took a few hours, moving further along the bank, but the whole time I had a little willy wag tail hung around, flying from branch to branch and tweeting away. I’m sure he has annoyed at me for invading his territory, but I quite enjoyed having him around.

I guess I’m lucky to be able to work in this kind of environment, because it really is quite peaceful. Looking across the water it’s easy for your thoughts to drift away, and to forget your living in a major city.
 

View across the water

This shows the size of the tap root on quite a small Rumex crispus. (The coin there is a two dollar one, to give you some sense of scale)  As you can imagine, as they plant grows, the root becomes very large and extremely difficult to dig out.

Weeds weeds weeds!

I thought I should put a blog in here about weeds, seeing as weed management is a big part of this project. Because the aim is to get the area back to indigenous wetlands, plants that aren’t often thought of as weeds usually, technically are here. Meaning plants that are native to Australia, or even Victoria, but aren’t indigenous to the local area. However, we decided that for the time being will not get too worked up about this. We are making sure that all our planting is local to the area, and we’ll focus on the weeds that pose a threat to the desired ecosystem. Here are some of the main trouble makers:

Galium aparine – Cleavers. These sticky little buggers are popping up everywhere at the             moment. They can be hand weeded easily enough, just be careful to pull out the roots as well, as the stems tend to break easily.

Hedera helix – English Ivy. Not posing a major threat, as it’s only appearing here and there is small parts, and can be easily hand weeded. Can become a major issue if left unattended.

Cyperus eragrostis – Drain Flat Sedge. There has been quite a lot of this to deal with. Around the water’s edge I have been trying to remove as much as I can by hand weeding, but in some areas I have been using a glyphosate spray to keep it under control before it spreads to much seed.

Rumex crispus – Curly Dock. This is a fit of a frustrating weed a very large tap root, making it difficult to pull out. Needs to be either dug out, or sprayed. Spraying is effective on the large leaves, but it often grows close to the water.

Aster subulatus – Aster Weed. This was coming up in large numbers all along the water’s edge. I focused intensively on it during the first couple of weeks working here, trying to get rid as much of it as I could before it set seed. Hopefully it had an effect and it won’t come up in large numbers next year.

These are by no means all the weed species here to deal with, but it’s an overview of some of the bad ones. The areas that are looking the best, in terms of being weed free, are where there is lots of shade and leaf litter from the trees, or in patches of dense vegetation of Microleana stipoides and Poa labilliardier.

References:

Richardson FJ, Richardson RG, & Shepard RCH 2011, Weeds of the South East – An Identification Guide for Australia, 2^nd edn, RG & FJ Richardson, Victoria.

Making Progress

Nearly one month on and I have been hard at work. As expected, weeds have been a serious issue, and a lot of my job involves weed control. Mulch had been used in the past to help suppress the germination of weeds, but it’s been found that when the Yarra floods, the mulch gets washed away and is scattered over the back paddock and into the bushland behind it. The new course of action is mass planting! Once an area is looking reasonable, and I have removed most of the weeds, I have been planting heavily in amongst the native vegetation that is already there, in order to try and achieve a high coverage of the soil in native plants: a sort of ‘living mulch’. Over the last few weeks I have planted several hundred tube stock. A majority have been local grasses: Microlaena stipoides and Poa labilliardieri, as well a box of Lomandra longifolia, some semi aquatic plants: Juncus usitatus and Persicaria decipiens, some herbaceous Lycopus australis, and some small to medium shrubs with Gynatrix pulchella and Melicytus dentatus. These have all been purchased from V.I.N.C. (Victorian Indigenous Nursery Co-op), who source them from growers in the local area: Fairfield, Kew, Ivanhoe, Merri Creek, etc. I highly recommend this nursery. they have good knowledge of local plants, and are happy to help with things like weed ID.

It has been a good time for planting, and we have been fortune with the weather. The warm season seems to be hanging on, with a good amount of rain to help the plants along. With a bit of luck, this extra vegetation will take hold and reduce the need for future intensive intervening.

Victorian Indigenous Nursery Co-op, Yarra Bend Rd

References

Gray, M, Knight, J 1993, Flora of Melbourne, 2^nd edn, Hyland House Publishing, South Melbourne.

Wigney, R 1994, Plants of the Merri Merri, 2^nd edn, Merri Creek Management Committee, Northcote.