Posts

We were rather surprised to discover that the trees we had delivered to Leigh for the planting day on Friday 27 July had not been counted.

We had made the mistake of taking them out of their crates in order to do 2 trips instead of 4, thereby saving travelling costs.

Thanks to Trish and Arthur for their help with sorting, counting and shifting the plants.  It took four of us 3 hours to complete this task.  Arthur spent another two hours the following day transporting the remaining trees to the planting site.

Next time we will leave them in their crates!

A last minute booking was made with Conservation Volunteers who offered a special deal:

The team consisted of 8 volunteers.  Team leader Dawn Gasparro,  Lydia Doerig (Switzerland), Virginie Dubois (Belgium), Sophie Laroque (Germany), Robyn Dempsey (UK), Joe Adey (UK).  I thought I noted a look of disappointment on their faces when they arrived at our little cottage and later discovered their previous accommodation had been a luxury lodge in the South Island with individual rooms!

The remainder of the morning and early afternoon was spent working at the bottom of Sir Duncan McMullin’s property – mainly pulling out privet.¬† Many thanks to Rupert Harrison for all his help.¬† What a back breaking job.¬† Sadly Chris and I had to return to Auckland.¬† We have given the volunteers a list of jobs including digging out ginger behind the brown cottage, and planting the wetland area.¬† We look forward to seeing what they achieve.

8/7/12 РA glorious day in paradise and perfect weather for weeding  in preparation for the forthcoming planting day with Trees for Survival volunteers.  Our trusty volunteer, Richard Taylor was the only person who turned up.  Chris got to work with his weed eater.  Richard and I got to work with our Niwashis.  My ears pricked up when I heard a car stop at the top of the hills and doors opening and shutting, only to discover it was a couple collecting firewood.  After 2 1/2 hours the area was prepared for the planting day scheduled for 27 July.

Chris and I collected the first trailer load of trees from Takapuna Intermediate on Saturday, 16 June and delivered them to Leigh on Monday morning so they could acclimatize before the scheduled planting day on 27 July.

There are approximately 600 more to collect.  They are healthy specimens and considerably taller than the ones planted last year.

This was one of our most successful planting weekends so far, thanks to the sunny, calm weather and the brute strength of 6 enthusiastic Auckland Grammar rowing boys.

The morning of day one was spent clearing weeds and planting on Julie Turner’s property (cnr Tenetahi and Pakiri Rds).

The afternoon was spent shifting plants down to the valley and rolling/bagging Tradescantia.

On day two we returned to the valley and spent another 2 hours planting and filling 9 of the 10 bags.

The boys spent a further 2 hours weeding and planting on the Lees/Scotts property.

Thanks to our volunteers Jo Evans and Sue Gibbings, Richard Taylor, Rupert Harrison, Julie Turner, Dexter, Narvin, Felix, Niklas, Chris and Zeke.

Thanks also to the Mums who assisted with preparing meals and to the Lees and Scotts who kindly offered their cottage as accommodation for the volunteers.

Further weeding and spraying was carried out on Monday morning before heading back to Auckland.

Chris and I met with Richard Taylor on Sunday 27/5/12 to carry out some weeding on the wetland area at the corner of Tenetahi and Pakiri Rds which was planted by Ponsonby Intermediate last year.

The plants are doing extremely well, despite competing with kikuya. ¬†Chris sprayed at one end of the area while Richard and I released the plants at the other end. ¬†After an hour it started to rain so we packed up and headed to the wetland area to position the 5 composting bags in preparation for next weekend’s planting day with Auckland Grammar boys. ¬†Richard and I partly filled three bags to secure them and completely filled one. ¬†We soon realised we will need to purchase more bags. ¬†However, the area certainly looked a lot clearer after just over an hour of weeding.

Spent an hour weeding at the bottom of Tenetahi Rd (the concrete driveway).

Met with Chris Floyd, the QEII representative who carried out an inspection of the covenanted land on our property.

Chris is a lovely chap who shares my passion for weed control and most of his inspection was spent pulling out  weeds.

Chris joined us for a late lunch at the brown cottage.  Thanks Linda and Allen for your kind hospitality.

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 РGlorious 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.