The vigorous growth of the bushes and plants has been so surprising primarily as the direct seeding was done in the drought year of 2002 and, according to Phil, very little time and effort has gone into the vegetation’s upkeep since then.
Less than four years later, a lot of the vegetation has matured to a point where Trees For Life has been able to go back to the site and collect seed
Phil and John bought the 32-hectare property in September 2001 after the self-confessed country boys spent 10 months in the city … “and that was enough for us”, Phil says.
The original owners kept about 80 milking goats on the property and, although Phil says the property was by no means over-grazed, it was evident that some of the natural vegetation was affected.
“To their (the landowners) credit they had done some revegetation through other direct seeding in about 1992 but that area is very rocky and the results certainly aren’t as good as what David (Heine) has now achieved,” Phil says.
Five hectares were direct seeded, or about 12.5 kilometres, on land which Phil says was originally cultivated “so the soil was already a pretty good quality”.
Apart from he and John having a genuine interest in revegetation, Phil says he also saw first-hand what Trees For Life could achieve through their revegetation work at Monarto, where Phil is an animal handler
“That year – 2002 – was pretty tough all ‘round and I know that right across the board there was very little eucalyptus seed to be had. We did have some odarata but they probably had the poorest germination rate of the lot in the end.”
As always, Acacia pycnantha gets big accolades from Phil and John, with other species thriving on their property including Dodonaea viscose spatulata, Allocasuarina verticillata, Acacia brachybotrya, Acacia calamifolia, Acacia menzellii, Acacia paradoxa and Acacia retinodes.
“It’s primarily all bush or trees and we’ve been absolutely amazed at the outcome.
We’re thrilled at how thick it is – in some patches we have about 10 bushes or trees within a metre radius. Obviously some of those will die off as they start to compete, but it’s just been fantastic.”
A lack of rainfall and hardly any TLC has failed to halt the growth of their new ‘patch’ and Phil says it was particularly pleasing to see the Trees For Life seed collectors come back to their property in mid-January to collect some quality seed pods.
“Unfortunately that’s probably the only area of our property we can do as far as direct seeding goes, but we’ve been Trees For Life members for some time and over the years we’ve raised some seedlings and propagated our own.
We’ve also noticed the property has a great mix of native grasses and after the rain last year, we’ve really noticed the re-emergence of a lot new natives. The goats have gone and everything’s coming back …”
