While the dismal summer weather, particularly the relentless, heavy rainfall, meant less time at the beach, on a positive note we haven’t had to worry about watering any of the trees.  I had promised the family there would be no weeding this Christmas holiday but a bush walk in early January soon changed that.  I stared at a whole lot of moth plant seedlings and resisted until Anita, my 13 year old daughter said “go on, I know you want to”.  40 minutes later I was still digging and pulling!  By the end of the week we had progressed to clearing weeds in the valley.  Bindweed has once again taken hold in the wetland area and has strangled a number of smaller trees planted in the valley last year.  This is a particularly nasty vine and next year we plan to spray the area in late November.

Liz Watkinson had great success with her Helpex workers – 2 young men (a Venezuelan followed soon after by a chap from the USA).  An English couple are due to arrive in early March.  Apparently they are keen gardeners; which sounds promising.

Sue Crawshay from Trees for Survival inspected the plants which were planted on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property, and was very impressed.  She managed to uncover a few of the smaller trees which had become lost under the kikuya, despite our weeding efforts, and she has recommended we use longer stakes in future (at least 900 mm).  Sue has radar vision when it comes to spotting weeds, as I discovered when we went on a bush walk.

Peter Wyatt has approached the society about fencing the catchment area on his property along Pakiri Rd, and an application for funding is currently underway.

A fencing contractor will be commencing work on Mrs Wainwright’s property at the end of January.