weed puller – Dick's Creek Bush Regeneration

Working Bee – 17.11.2024

I was in the mood to tackle some lantana today but as always, priorities changed. As I walked past ‘site A’ I was disturbed by the density of privet. Lantana contributes but it is the privet that has taken hold at this location. I had previously cleared this area and for this reason, there is numerous young natives popping up. Sandpaper fig, bleeding heart, pittosporum and others are there but their life is hard when they are amongst this:

So I started removing the privet with the weed puller which I had luckily brought with me. While the privet is a big problem, I found it easier to deal with than in the past because most of it was still young and had not fully established itself. Another twelve months and it will be notably harder, I believe.

This is the first patch I cleared:

After lunch I moved along the track and tackled any privet I noticed. I finally got to the bank on the south side of Second fall… it was mostly just small privet.

Most of the privet gone but there is still a large privet tree which requires some climbing to get to

Past ‘Site A’, I found some natives amongst the fishbone fern so it was worth while to deal with that directly.

Young elderberry panax and pittosporum now free from fishbone fern

I decided it would be more efficient to move downhill and clear the privet from underneath. However, I found the ol’ fallen sandpaper fig to still be being harassed by privet and lantana so I spent the rest of the day at that spot. There is three or four poison peach trees in that location as well so I did my best to help those out.

After clearing privet and lantana from the sandpaper fig and the peach trees.

One of the poison peach trees is a good five meters tall now.

There is still more to do for the ol’ fallen sandpaper tree. I think I will start here next week.

Working Bee – 23.01.2022

Was able to get another 3 or so hours in this afternoon. I took the weedpuller down with me to help with some privet but in the end, I didn’t get to the section I intended to work on (nothing new there…).

Palm grass has been getting ignored for the last six months or so and it was showing. Multiple spots where it was getting far too healthy. So I tried the weedpuller out on the palm grass and surprisingly, it made easy work of it. I expect it depends on how soft the ground is but as it was, it made easy work of most of it (easier than a mattock at least). I dared not clear all of it in case it was holding the bank together but I did enough to keep the shade off the nearby cheese tree sapling.

I was disturbed to find the tree fern near first fall was in dire straights. I hope it makes it. It seems that removing the camphor laurel has just allowed too much light to reach it. Fingers crossed that it adjusts to having more light for a while.

Once again, I decided to help out the Gahnia by picking on the fishbone fern. Not removing all of the fishbone fern but rather, just thinning it out and breaking off any large fronds. It is a slow process but it seems to be working. I hope the area along the creek between first and second falls will end up being mostly Gahnia.

Another inspection at the top of 2nd falls shows the Swedish Ivy really taking off.

On the positive side, the area has a variety of desired species doing well

Including a first for Dick’s Creek, a Blueberry Ash.

I do need to address the Swedish Ivy issue but today I only got to the a couple of privet trees and some camphor laurels. A productive day though.

Weed puller try out – 03.02.2021

In an example of ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask’, I discovered that Lake Macquarie Landcare had recently purchased a ‘tree popper’.

I had been eying off different versions of these tools for a while so it was good to finally get to give one a go. For those who have not heard of these tools, they work by allowing the user to apply leverage to the base of woody stemmed weeds like privet, cassia and laurel camphor.

Here it is with some of the privet it took on:

It is definitely a tool worth having in bush regeneration even if it does not cover all situations. I’ll give a quick run down of what I thought were the pros and cons of this particular tool.

Firstly, its HEAVY. It is not something you can just throw in your backpack or over your shoulder on a whim. You are only going to take it when you know you are going to use it. On the flip side, it is solid. I’m over a hundred kilos and I felt no ‘give’ while using it.

It does require some space near the base to operate it effectively. It is not insignificant but I was always able to find a spot near the weed to use without squashing any plants I wanted to save.

There are different sizes. I believe this was the medium size. It’s ‘mouth’ would not open greater than around 4cm which was a limiting factor. I was working on privet and so I found I was only using it on a subset of what was there. For anything under 1cm, it was not worth putting in place. Those are easy enough to pull out by hand. However, anything I larger than that that I could get the mouth around, it was definitely worth using. The amount of force required by the user becomes trivial.

Unfortunately, it is expensive. I personally could not justify the cost for the small site I typically work on. It is great to know there is one available when required (thanks lakemac landcare!).

I recommend giving it a go if you do this type of weeding regularly. I believe these will become a must have tool for bush regeneration in the future.