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I recently came across this photograph taken about 17 years ago in the valley.

It is a reminder of how much progress we have made with planting.  The area was previous grazed and, as you can see, Niklas is almost knee deep in kikuya.

Arthur, Tricia and I met with David Wilson from DoC to show him how the Weedbusters funds are being spent.   Anita, Emily and I spent 2 1/2 hours in the valley rolling Tradescantia and replacing it with eco-sourced Parataniwha.

The afternoon was spent weeding on our property while Chris replaced the stairs washed away in the slips of early 2011.

If any local residents heard a blood curdling scream, it was me after discovering we have successfully caught our third stoat.

Friday 6/4/12 – Spent several hours with brother Keith dividing and replanting sedges and flaxes on the Dingle’s wetland area.  In the afternoon released plants from the kikuyu on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.

Saturday 7/4/12 – Glorious weather for our 2nd working bee of the year and a great turn-out which was extremely heartening.  Thanks to all our volunteers Jo Evans, John Haigh, Rupert Harrison, Keith Paine, Alistair and Margaret Scott, Neil Sutherland, Richard Taylor,  Troy and Kristin,  Pete Watkinson and Anita Erikson (the official photographer).  Further progress was made.  Tradescantia was rolled, weed mat positioned and about 50 eco-sourced wetland plants  planted.  The plan is to place as much tradesantia as possible in large black polythene bags.

In the afternoon Keith and I headed down to the valley again to split up and replant some more sedges.

Sunday 8/4/12 – Another beautiful day.  Spent more time spot spraying and weeding on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property in preparation for the next Trees for Survival volunteer day.  The afternoon was spent carrying out further weeding on our property.  Chris plans to re-build the steps which were destroyed in the last major slips.

Monday 9/4/12 – Further weeding and spraying on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.  While the progress report might sound a bit repetitive, the photographs show we are winning the war on weeds.

We are finally making progress in the valley.  A total of 32 hours involving 6 volunteers was spent weeding the wetland area on the Dingle’s property from late January to early February.  Thanks to Keith and Alexander Paine, Ian Paine, Margaret Young and James Young for all their efforts.   Thanks also to Ian Paine for donating 6 rolls of weed mat and pegs.  7 society members including Sue Haigh, Sue Gibbings, Jo Evans, Richard Taylor, Pete Watkinson and Niklas Erikson headed down to the valley after the AGM on Sunday 12 February where 2 hours were spent positioning the weedmat over the tradescantia and weeding alongside the stream, as well as placing cardboard around the trees.  It certainly is a lot easier when you have a team approach!   Note the progress since the first photograph of Margaret Scott, Ian, Niklas and Alexander was taken working in the area in October.  The second photograph taken on 12/2/12 was taken from the other direction. I must remember to photograph from the same position!

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.

Thanks to our volunteers Trish Gundy, Margaret Scott, Ian Paine, Keith Paine, Alexander Paine, Niklas Erikson and Felix Schmidt who helped with weeding and planting over a three day period – Wednesday 19/10/11 to Friday 21/10/11.

Good progress was made in the valley.  Although at times the tasks seem quite daunting, particularly when we are faced with new, major weed problems, we are inspired to continue by the successful outcome of planting of the wetland area the the bottom of the valley.  With ongoing maintenance over a 4 year period, the trees are looking very healthy. Now that the weather is warmer and the Rugby World cup has come to an end, we hope to have a better turn-out at future planting days … fingers crossed!!  Thanks to Sue and John Haigh and the Harrisons for their efforts in maintaining the bottom of Mt Pleasant Drive.  This area is special to me as it some of it was planted by my parents Selwyn and Frances Paine.

Amazing progress was made clearing weeds in the bush behind the brown cottage on Sunday, 9 October.

Thanks to our volunteers Cheryl and Neil Sutherland who shared their knowledge regarding weed clearing and worked hard on the jasmine for several hours.

Thanks also to Arthur & Trish Gundy, Pete Watkinson and grandson James, Linda Lee, Margaret Young, Richard Taylor, Kristin & Troy, Anita Erikson and Emily Young for all their hard work clearing weeds upstream.

The area has been completely transformed and we were delighted to discover a wetland area – another future planting project.
(photographs to follow).

There is still a lot of jasmine growing into the bush at the top of the concrete driveway.  Chris and I worked on this area briefly on Monday morning.  It is hellish stuff to deal with and a team effort is required in order to make an impact.

Spring is here and we are back into restoring the valley.  Chris has spent 5 hours spraying weeds on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property and Tradescantia at the bottom of the stream.  Arthur and Trish have planted approximately 300 plants on their property at the top of the catchment area, after losing a number of plants they put in a couple of years ago.  We hope to get the momentum going and will be organising some more planting and weeding days before the weather gets too hot.

12 volunteers met on Sunday 17 July to plant the remaining trees provided by DoC’s Community Conservation Fund.

As usual, the main challenge was transporting the plants down the hill.  Thankfully three fit Grammar rowing boys carried out the majority of this back breaking work.

After lunch the group met again on the Dingle’s wetland area to carry out further weeding and planting of trees funded by Auckland Council’s EIF fund.

Unfortunately there was insufficient time to do maintenance work on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.  There are still approximately 300 trees still to be planted – approximately 200 on the Dingle’s property and 100 on Sir Duncan McMullin’s.

Another planting day took place on Wednesday, 29 June with Trees for Survival and Takapuna Intermediate.

30 school children and several volunteers planted over 700 trees on the slopes of Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.

The children were extremely hard working and well behaved.  After 2 hours planting they enjoyed lunch consisting of hamburgers, baking and fruit.

Thanks to all our volunteers and Shelley from Trees for Survival.