We had a small group of six people this month and given we had about 3 dozen plants there was no clearing of Bitou.
We decided initially on two areas for planting the 8 different species we had; one had to be cleared of Ehrharta erecta which took some time (this weed is native to Southern Africa and Yemen) where we planted 3 of the 8 banksia which were well mulched and guards put in (made in NZ from recycled material!) – we had the cardboard guards for each of the 8 Banksia.
The other was a bare area east of a gully on the western slope, so we got pigs face cuttings from other areas of our site, and used a number of other species of plants we had to plant this area out. It was a dry exposed area so we made deep wells and ensured lots of mulch and covered with old branches – as we find new plantings do much better when covered for some months with these old branches due to the expose site.
The rest of our plants were planted into 3 near-by areas adjacent to existing varietal vegetation to increase existing good vegetation areas and move into previously cleared bitou areas with new plants. Once again we were extremely diligent with water wells for the small tube plants, generous mulch and branches covering of the new planting.
Members had brought water and so they were also well watered into their new place in the world – let’s hope that they survive and thrive on beautiful Long Reef and add to increasing a more natural environment to the area.