Fiona Francis agrees that weeding is more fun in pairs. It’s also safer, particularly on steep terrain that becomes slippery after heavy rainfall.
Fiona has spent more than 12 years caring for bush areas planted with Trees for Survival and was concerned about several tobacco trees threatening the regenerating natives. One particularly large tree, visible from her kitchen window, had become impossible to ignore.
On Monday 11 May, we headed off on Fiona’s trusty quad bike armed with an electric chainsaw and herbicide gel. Along the edge of the creek we discovered hundreds of tobacco tree seedlings, as well as smilax (bridal veil creeper), mothplant, privet, loquat and masses of climbing asparagus.
Encouragingly, amongst all these weeds were thriving native seedlings including kahikatea, putaputaweta, kotukutuku, lacebark, mapou and plenty of manuka.
More than four and a half hours later, after plenty of cutting, pulling and scrambling through slippery terrain, we finally reached the larger tobacco trees. Unfortunately, the chainsaw lost its chain before we could finish the job, but we managed to ringbark a couple of the worst offenders before heading home.
We’ve already planned our next weeding expedition and agree that restoration work is always easier, and much more enjoyable, with a weeding buddy.
