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GEOGRAPHE COMMUNITY LANDCARE NURSERY
Busselton, Western Australia

Newsletter 4: April 2010

In this issue:

2010 OPEN DAY
2010 International Year of Biodiversity
Bay OK
Community Nurseries in Australia
Flowering by month
Feedback
Local issues: tree decline, restoring understorey, guarding for kangaroos
News item on herbicide use at Kings Park for Perennial Veldt Grass
Volunteer news
- health
- comings and goings
- classes
Pot and tray returns

Some of the links below go to a new window
and others have a mind of their own.
Please be prepared to back-pedal
and find the newsletter again!

2010 OPEN DAY 1st MAY

8.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.

This year, our Open Day is on Saturday 1st May, 8.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. If you have the time, please visit us, see what we do, and talk to us about local plants.

This is the United Nations 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.

Official page
Wikipedia
free Nature Journal supplement (online, and free request print copy)

GeoCatch has launched a new initiative called Bay OK which effectively ties together many of GeoCatch's activities. There is nothing much online about the programme, but GeoCatch has a news page which has a pdf download (quite large, nearly 7000 kb, so beware!).

14th April Busselton-Dunsborough Mail article

Community Nurseries in Australia
We are beginning to compile a list of Australian community nurseries and our efforts to date can be seen on our Links page under the Dasypogon photo. We would appreciate any additions or corrections. It is worthwhile clicking on some of the links to see what other community nurseries are doing.

Our Links page also has links to many interesting websites. Here are a few:

The Wildflower Society of Western Australia
Australian Native Plants Society Australia (ANPSA)
Kings Park (subscribe to their newsletter)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If you see this on our website, it's an attempt to list all the plant species of our region centred on Busselton, Western Australia.

Flowering: J F M A M J J A S O N D

Since December, we have been trying to list the species flowering in each month. December was just a word list, but January onwards is an attempt to photograph every flowering species in our region. Of course, this project is somewhat daunting, hence the pleas for help on the monthly pages. If you can email a photo, we'd love to hear from you. Our efforts are not at all comprehensive, but it is a start, and an interesting exercise, making us get out more and notice the flowerings.

On the flowering pages, you can see small pictures like this:

If you run the mouse curser over the picture, you should receive the scientific name of the species, and by clicking on the picture, you should be taken to our page for that species. At the bottom of the species page, there's a link to the FloraBase page which usually (but not always) has a distribution map.

The banksia above, Banksia littoralis, has been so splendid lately, we have posted it for 2 months on the front page.

Feedback - how are our plants doing in the ground ?

Unless our customers talk to us, we have no way of knowing about how our tubestock has settled into the ground, and whether the customer was happy with the quality of our tubestock. We have been deliberately phoning selected customers for feedback, but we would like to have any feedback (good, bad, ...), as that helps us to keep up the standard.

Local issues:
At the nursery, we are often discussing current concerns with customers. Some of these discussions end up on our FAQ page. A couple of current ones and the perennial kangaroo question:

Tree decline: Tree decline is sometimes noticed on roadside trees and paddock trees. This is an Australia-wide (+ international) phenomenon, and there is no easy fix for the problem. Perhaps the best thing to do is to attempt to replace the dying trees with new plantings.

One of our biggest problems is our ability to see a landscape devoid of all vegetation apart from trees as natural, especially if there's good pasture or lawn on the ground. We have to find a way to see that in a natural setting, trees live with a variety of other species, some quite SMALL. Trees need companions.

Although many tree deaths are attributed to dieback, not all tree deaths are. The environmental organisation Greening Australia (Wikipedia) was formed partly in response to tree decline. There are several Australian initiatives happening regarding tree decline (Tree Decline Toolbox, WOPR - Whole of Paddock Rehabilitation, ...) and we'll come back to this topic and keep you posted.
Restoring Understorey: Establishing trees and large shrubs is relatively easy, but attempting to restore an area with a large number of species is more time consuming. Most projects of this nature involve careful weed control, the planting of tubestock, and (and/or) direct seeding. All projects of this nature should commence with a careful listing of all the species present in the project vicinity AND a careful listing of all the weeds. It is a good idea also to list all the species (native and weeds) present on the project site (however small), to date the document, and periodically monitor the progress of the project, noting the addition and elimination of species.
The latest edition (April 2010, Vol.14. No 2) of Western Wildlife (DEC/Land for Wildlife) has a useful article by Una Bell on incorporating grasses into restorations. This article is so interesting, we will ask the editor of Western Wildlife if we can have permission to post it on our website.
[Unfortunately, this publication is not available online - we look forward to this - but a dead index of the contents of Western Wildlife 1997 - 2006 is available.]

A recent helpful TAFE textbook on the subject of restoration:
BUCHANAN, Robin.A. (2009) Restoring natural areas in Australia, NSW Industry and Investment, 9780731306213
This is a very useful manual for all aspects of ecological restoration in Australia. It is a textbook originating from Tocal College, NSW.
Kangaroo guards: Since kangaroos can easily negotiate a rabbit tree guard, some people are using 900mm chicken wire cut into lengths of at least 1m and made into a tube guard 900mm high and held in place with 2 wooden stakes. This kind of guard is especially useful for banksias, hakeas, and other species favoured by the kangaroo. Kangaroos will jump through/under/over a fence, but usually jump around tree guards like this or small enclosures protecting several plants. Most plantings that are able to grow to about a metre can survive kangaroo browsing quite well, so taking off chicken wire tree guards as soon as they have done their job is important, or you can end up with topiary.

Controlling Weedy Grasses
A recent Bushland News (Autumn 2010 Issue 73) article from Urban Nature (DEC) looks at research into the use of the herbicide Fusilade for Perennial Veldt Grass and the effects this has on seed emergence and growth of non-target species. As a result, Kings Park (BGPA) has adopted a spot-spraying policy - instead of the usual blanket spraying that has occurred over the years.

Fusilade is used to target grassy species, and blanket spraying is often used, on the assumption that it has no negative effects on surrounding native flora.

The research showed that blanket spraying does have a negative effect on the emergence and growth of native species trying to establish themselves in the vicinity of the weeds.

Wetland plantings: a revised edition + a new book from Nick Romanowski:

Romanowski, N. (2009 - revised edition) Planting wetlands and dams, Landlinks press, Collingwood, Vic.
Romanowski, N. (2010) Wetland habitats : a practical guide to restoration and management, Landlinks press, Collingwood, Vic.

Volunteer news:
We have been fortunate over the last few months to have had many volunteers. For those volunteers who have moved on and are receiving this newsletter, we thank you for being with us, even for a short while, and we wish you all the best in what you're up to now.

A couple of our volunteers have had accidents (not at the nursery), but are well on the way to being well again.

At the moment, we have a couple of TAFE classes doing practical work at the nursery, and we hope they enjoy their time with us.

Richard and Keith have completed a 2-day Senior First Aid Course.

Pot and Tray returns:
Please return all pots and trays as soon as possible after planting.

We have had to buy quite a number of pots and trays this year. As prices do not seem to come down, we have to consider this when reviewing our prices for 2011. Please contact us if you have difficulty returning pots and trays, and we'll pick them up - just phone.

2010 OPEN DAY 1st MAY

8.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.