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Jo Evans and Sue Gibbings have been working hard along the concrete driveway.

5. cutting larger (flowering) gorse at ground level and painting with Vigilant.

Four weeks ago they joined forces with Margaret and Alistair Scott where they worked in the same area.

We look forward to seeing the results of their efforts during the summer months.

Our first community weeding event held on Sunday 8 September was a huge success.  20 volunteers worked for a period of 3 1/2 hours clearing weeds along the paper road and at the bottom of the concrete driveway.  After lunch 5 volunteers continued weeding, eco-sourcing and planting for another 1.5 hours.
Many thanks to members of the Forest and Bird Coastal Care group, Neil Sutherland, Sheryl Corbett, Grant Sneddon, Tracey Paton, Katrina Hunter, Maggie Isaac, Laurel Breen, Brian Breen and Paul Williams who made a huge impact on a dense area of ginger along the paper road and filled 2 1/2 large black weed bags with ginger roots.

Thanks also to Arthur and Trish Gundy who organised a delicious spit roast lunch and to LHVS volunteers Richard Taylor, Chris Erikson, Sue Gibbings, Margaret and Alan Scott, Linda and Alan Lee and Pete Watkinson who assisted with weeding; in particular removing turnips from the bank alongside the concrete driveway and replacing them with native plants.  (Turnip seeds were inadvertently sewn by a contractor instead of grass seed).

We hope to hold a similar event before the end of the year.

A big thank you to Chris Erikson, Richard Taylor (photographer), Jo Evans and Sue Gibbings who spent 3 hours staking and planting the remaining 120 Trees for Survival plants on Mrs Wainwright’s property on Sunday, 29 September.

The stream is running clear and all the plants are thriving.  The kikuya will need spraying before summer.

Despite the fog and misty rain fall we decided to head up to Leigh

Was delighted to see the results of yesterday’s group weeding session on Julie Turner’s property (see before and after photographs below taken a week apart).

Met with Trish and we spent another 1 1/2 weeding as well as splitting and planting carex and a few other varieties of wetland plants.

The afternoon was spent weeding with Trish on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property for 1 1/2 hours (refer photograph) and then Chris and I planted about 60 plants (grown at our home nursery) on our wetland area and bordering the stream.  Did some brief weeding on the Dingle’s property.  The plants are thriving.

A big thank you to our trusty band of volunteers Richard Taylor, Trish Gundy, Jo Evans, Sue Gibbings, Neil Sutherland and Cheryl Sutherland who worked from 9.30am – 12.00 today clearing weed’s on the corner of Tenetahi and Pakiri Rds.  Was all geared up to join them but slipped on a rotting camellia flower while walking to work and put my back out!

The area is now looking fabulous and there are some really healthy specimens thriving in the fertile soil.  The next plan is to spray the area then fill the gaps by splitting and planting some existing plants.  Keeping the cattle away from the fence is a priority before they knock it over completely.

After heavy rainful the night before, we were uncertain whether the planting day on Arthur and Trish Gundy’s place would go ahead. However the skies cleared and we had the most successful planting days to date.  Over 800 wetland plants were planted in 3 1/2 hours  thanks to 28 volunteers including local residents and the Gundy’s family members.  After lunch a few enthusiastic members spent 30 minutes weeding Julie Turner’s fenced wetland area where kikuya was threatening to smother a number of the plants.  Unfortunately, the cows have been rubbing against the fence and it has developed rather a lean.  The cows have also been feasting on plants bordering the fence.  What were once healthy cabbage trees now look more like the tops of pineapples! There is a high risk of the fence falling over if this continues and we might have to consider installing an electric fence.

A big thanks to Arthur and Trish for hosting such a successful planting day and for providing a delicious BBQ lunch.

Thanks also to the Auckland Council who funded the 800 plants.

Due to forecast rain on the 8th August, the TFS planting day with Takapuna Normal Intermediate, on Noeline Wainwright’s property, was postponed until Thursday, the 15th August.  We were devastated to learn from Shelly, the TFS co-ordinator, that the cows had managed to get hold of about 300 cabbage trees and carex.

Fortunately, the roots of many of the chewed plants were still in tact so we planted them and hope the pruning will kick them into action.

The rain held off and the children and volunteers planted approximately 600 wetland plants.  Many thanks to Takapuna Normal Intermediate and our volunteers, Arthur and Trish Gundy, Neil and Cheryl Sutherland.  Thanks also to Linda Lee for organising a delicious lunch and to Noeline for hosting the day and supporting the project.

This ended up being one of the most straight-forward plant transporting days we have had.
It occurred to me that Noelene Wainwright’s 4WD might be available and she kindly obliged so Chris was able to drive all the plants down to the site.
Noelene said this wouldn’t have been possible if it had been wet.  Sue Gibbings turned up.  She is a very organised person and we had the plants counted and sorted in just over an hour.  Chris managed to dig  about 120 holes.  There were fewer plants than last year (approx 800 excluding the rejects). There were very few manuka.  The caretaker of Takapuna Intermediate told me that most of these plants died after he replaced the batteries on the automatic watering system and they turned out to be duds.  Manuka are vulnerable at the best of times and they didn’t enjoy not being watered for three days in a very hot school playground!

It has been some time since this site has been updated.

An intensive weeding effort took place on 28 March and 29 March 2013 (5 hours in total) to eradicate an established growth of moth plant on Mt Pleasant Drive.  The pods were removed and bagged and the area sprayed.  Follow-up management will be required.

There have been fewer formal weeding/planting days since Easter due to study and family commitments until a week ago.

Monday 15 July – Trish and I weeded at the top of the catchment area for 2 1/2 hours, split carex and replanted along the stream.

Wednesday 17 July – Trish, Anita, Anita’s friend Charlotte and I weeded for 3 hours and planted seedlings grown by Arthur.  The girls scaled the waterfall and removed tradescantia.

Thursday, 18 July – I met with an Auckland Council representative to discuss the major weed problem along the paper road at the bottom of Tenetahi Rd.  From 2.30 – 4.00pm Trish, Anita, Charlotte and I cleared weeds on the Dingle’s wetland area and removed all but one of the weed bags.  From 2.30 – 4.00pm, we continued planting at the top of the valley.

Friday, 19 July Trish and I couldn’t resist spending another two hours in the valley, splitting carex and clearing a pathway towards the waterfall.

All in all a very productive four days.

We located some rather large centipedes in the valley.