A very productive working bee today. It felt like I got three times as much done than usual…. maybe because there were three times more people than usual?
Fred and Sandra Anderson joined the group on Sunday for a spot of lantana bashing. I had a clear idea of the area I wanted to work on but we had to get there first. So the direct track down to site A got a little work:
There are some used railway ties near this location. If I can cut them down to size somewhat, I might be able to make decent stairs over the slippery parts.
We made our way down the cleared lane-way at the rear of the reserve to get to the large patch of lantana between the ol’ fallen fig tree and the creek. Before we reach this location, we need to penetrate the wall of privet that lines the lane-way.
At this location, there is at least 100m2 of this:
I had previously cleared most of this location but then left it alone for far too long. While it is once again dominating the scene, it still has not gotten to the point it was at before I first cleared it. It’s younger and easier to pull up. Still a job though…
Here and there were a few plants that had obviously taken root when the lantana was previously pushed back. For example, this tree fern:
Hopefully the shock of all the extra light won’t be too much for it.
Another interesting find was this bower bird nest:
I had only cleared this area a few weeks back so I know it is new but no obvious decorations yet. I hope we did not disturb it too much…
After a few hours, I believe we had cleared a solid third of the field of lantana.
We left it at that but with Saturday’s weather forecast looking good, I should be able to push on further at this location on the next working bee.