Yinnar, Yinnar South Landcare Group – A Year in the Life
By J. Duncan
Back in the day, there were some quiet times for our little Landcare group. Now there is never a dull moment for local landcarers and friends. As you can see from the calendar, September and October are busy months for us. We are right into finishing up our cool season plantings in remaining wet area sites, and getting ready to order or grow plants and to collect the seed we need for sites we plan to plant in the winter of 2023.
There is a growing interest in local provenance plants, and there has been a shortage of plants in many native nurseries due to increased demand. To help more Landcare members and groups to enhance their skills for self-reliance, South and West Gippsland Landcare Networks recently arranged some introductory sessions for members new to plant identification, seed collection and native plant propagation. Our group has run similar workshops before, and could look for funds to do it again if there is enough local interest.
Meanwhile, we are now getting our greenhouse ready for the coming propagation season. We will have a greenhouse pot wash up (and pizza) day at Jeeralang North hall on Saturday October 22 with a 10a.m. start. RSVP or just come along – bring your own lunch or a pizza to cook. If anyone still has our trays or tubes from the Yinnar Community Market in May, please try and get them back to us by then. Even better, why not bring them along on October 22 and enjoy a bit of pizza and dish mop action with us? Our plants will grow better when their tubes and trays are clean to start off with.
We will be at the Yinnar Community Market on Sunday November 6, and we’re encouraging some darling little plants to grow a bit more for our stall.
Native* plants generally are very different to exotic nursery bought plants – and they do look pretty unexciting when they are small.
We need to plant them when they are small for a few reasons. One is that they seem to hate having their roots disturbed. Another could be that large pot-grown plants may not put down strong roots. This could result later in a large tree that is unstable. We grow our plants in tall, narrow forestry tubes to encourage the development of a strong tap root. Many of them will grow surprisingly fast once they get established.
We plant them out in the open all through the cooler months, depending on the site characteristics.
Native plants generally like to be planted in firm soil, and they don’t need to be fertilised. Adding some local leaf litter as mulch will help the soil to develop the networks of soil fungi that many of the plants need to get their nutrients.
* Native used to mean Australian plants. Now, it seems to be a better idea to use plants that have a natural range closer to where they are intended to grow. They will be better adapted for local growing conditions and will suit the local fauna better as habitat. They may also provide an essential food source for native birds or pollinator insects at certain times of the year.
