Sida rhombifolia (Paddy’s Lucerne) – I believe.
This site also lists some of the other species it might be mistaken for..
Author: dradma
Working Bee – 04.01.2025
I could not ignore the infestation of palm grass growing on the south bank at the bottom of first fall. It has been getting steadily stronger for the last 12 months so that became my starting point this morning. I forgot to grab a photo so that will have to come later…
Fred and Sandra were on site this morning and worked like a powerhouse to clear a substantial amount of lantana and privet along the creek towards the rear of the reserve.
I kept on working in the same fashion as the last few working bees. With the privet being close to the creek’s edge, it is important to preserve the root system to avoid erosion. Hence I used the cut and paint method on trees close to the creek.
Here’s me in front of a section I was working on…
With a little more access to the creek, it was a little faster to get the plants watered. It is not normally required to water plants in bush regeneration but the weather is notably dry at present. I will keep giving them some water until I am sure they have established themselves.
After our working bee, we were just having a cup of tea when we saw this guy:
We don’t see these guys as often as some of the other birds so it is always interesting to see them.
Working Bee – 01.01.2025
New years Eve. What a great day to make a little more progress on the target area. I have been feeling the need to give the plantings some water but it has been quite the struggle to get down the creek to gather some water and then back to the plants. So, to make the process easier, I intended to remove the lantana and privet to allow a shorter path to the creek.
It didn’t work so well. Numerous native vines had wrapped around the privet to the extent that it was far more difficult than normal and even after removing the privet, the vines still make the trip to the creek quick tricky. Still, it was an improvement and the plants watering was a lot quicker this time.
This was my progress for the day.
It is not possible to see the creek but it is now possible to reach the creek through that vegetation.
Cayratia clematidea (slender grape)
Cayratia clematidea (slender grape or native grape).
https://apps.lucidcentral.org/plants_se_nsw/text/entities/cayratia_clematidea.htm
Working Bee – 24.12.2024
It was taking all too long to prepare various locations for the remaining plants given to us from the landcare nursery. There was a risk they would die before they got a chance to be planted so I decided to bring forward the working bee to plant the remaining plants. The location we have recently cleared seemed quite suitable. We had 24 plants left so it was quite a job to get them all planted in one session. I had some helpers too. Lee and Ella were there to help…
It’s quite hot and dry at present so I am going to need to get down to water them over the next few weeks.
Unfortunately we have no mulch to use. What would be great is if we could convert the lantana rafts into mulch but there is no obvious way to do that yet.
Planted species were:
| 5 x | Acacia implexa |
| 5 x | Acacia ulicifolia |
| 2 x | Acmena smithii |
| 3 x | Syncarpia glomulifera |
| 5 x | Dodonaea triquetra |
| 4 x | Gonocarpus teucrioides |
A good way to finish the year…
Ruellia squarrosa (Water Bluebell)
Ruellia squarrosa (Water Bluebell). Exotic ground cover that needs to be removed.
Spreading quickly down the creek
Working Bee – 23.12.2024
A very productive working bee. First step was to get some more plants into the ground. I put the lomandras in the top level after pushing back the fishbone fern. A Hibbertia scandens (Guinea Flower) went beside the creek, just before fern wall. I neglected to take photos but all the planted plants are looking healthy for now.
I had barely taken a step on the track down to site A when I was drawn to a very loud but unseen bird in the fishbone fern. I didn’t recognise what type of bird it was but it was going crazy which made me curious enough to stop and see what it was concerned about. Only because I had stopped, I saw this guy:
A snake on the track. Not sure what type it was but I’m glad I saw it before I was on top of it. It didn’t move despite me trying to make some extra noise, stomping on the ground etc. However, I threw a stick nearby and it moved into the ferns then. I saw it go but I still didn’t want to walk on the track. I made a large detour via the alternative track. Spotting a snake is a first for me at Dick’s creek.
I notice this shrub each time I walk near site A and a few have popped up elsewhere as well.
I finally asked for identification via the facebook group ‘NSW plant identification’. Best guess appears to be: Claoxylon australe (Brittlewood)
It’s not part of the Hunter Valley Moist Forest profile but it is endemic to the East coast of Australia so it gets to stay.
I got back to the target site where I have been working for the past few weeks. It was sad to see the bower bird’s bower had been flattened.
I am not sure if that is their normal behaviour or if something interrupted them but I have been seeing the female bower bird a lot lately so I think they have moved onto raising some young.
It has been quite dry and warm for the past few weeks. It made it easy to spot any lantana that was missed previously.
On the down side, the dry soil does make it a bit harder to pull out plants with the roots attached.
I started from where I left off last week…
I believe the clump of trees & shrubs is on the mound which I remember from years ago when it was just a few instances of false bracken fern battling against the lantana. The false bracken fern is still there but so is a lot of other plants… Privet (of course), lantana still, tobacco trees, poison peach, bleeding hearts, sandpaper figs, lilly pilly, a tree fern and some others I am less sure of. I freed up most of the natives so it should all be heading in the right direction once again.
A lot of the plants lean on each other and so take a while to straighten up after the exotic species are removed. You can see that here with the bleeding hearts and the false bracken fern.
With the exotic species gone, the remaining natives are going to be getting a lot more sun. I am hoping for some rain to help them transition.
There is still much more to be done so it will be a similar working bee next week.
Claoxylon australe (Brittlewood)
Working Bee – 14.12.2024
It was a quick one today. Between Flaggy creek working bee and the Flaggy creek christmas get together, I was able to get in an hour long working bee.
No.1 priority was to get the ground cover plants that the Landcare nursery had given us a few weeks back. They really weren’t liking there current situation.
There were a few spots along the creek edge that were suitable. This spot was just buffalo grass:
I am hoping this native ground cover is as resilient as the buffalo grass I replaced it with. It will need to set root fairly quickly as this spot does get flooded when we get solid rain.
The other location I chose was on the other side but it was in much worse shape as palm grass was taking over.
I dug that out but left most other plants… which included some bleeding hearts, some young lilly pillies and a few other undesirables which I had to correctly identify before dispatching.
Here is an image of the ground cover after just being planted.
UPDATE (01.03.2025): It has now been over three months since these were planted and I can confirm that both plantings have prospered. As long as I can keep the weeds back for a while, they should extend their coverage.
Working Bee – 08.12.2024
Another productive working bee today. I was originally thinking of removing the lantana in a linear fashion but I noticed the bower bird fly off when I arrived at the site so I decided to keep a distance from it’s bower (the structure on the ground). Strangely, it was a female that flew off while I would of expected it to be a male considering it has no notable decorations around the bower. After googling, I have now discovered that the bower birds bower is not a nest like I thought it was. Shows how much I know!
I had barely started when I noticed this tree poking out from the lantana along the creek:
A good place to start. If I see a native being crowded out, it makes sense to free it up. Upon clearing the lantana away from this Bolwarra tree I found multiple other natives in the same spot. It’s hard to spot but the after photo shows bleeding hearts and sandpaper figs amongst others…
Unfortunately, the privet behind the Bolwarra tree was too big to deal with today. Those have been put on the to-do list.
With that done, I returned my attention to the edge of the clearing we made last week. It was not like I expected it. There was numerous natives hidden underneath the lantana. It was great to see but it did make progress a fair bit slower. Amongst the usual natives of bleeding heart and sandpaper figs was some poison peach, lilly pilly and also what I believe is murrogun, even though I have never had it definitely identified. It is well worth removing the lantana but it also makes it clear that this area needs more attention fairly urgently to ensure the natives survive.
Results from my efforts:
It doesn’t look like much but the rafts of lantana show I was doing something…
There is a lot more to do. I believe I will be doing similar work for at least a month or so…