Wattle Planting Time!

The day has finally come for my Hairy Wattles (Acacia vestita) to move to their new homes. These are the ones we planted on 1st November 2020 so it’s what you see here is over a year of personal growth and development.

Before we plant, the first job is to create some protective cages.

We’ve been trialling lots of different fence designs for our Box Gum Grassy Woodlands project with Landcare and this time it was the turn of the lots-of-rounds.

The lots-of-rounds design is basically just that. Make big rounds out of fence wire stuff and then arrange them strategically and plant in the bits that are towards the middle. Simple.

Making these is quick and easy.

We had them up for a few weeks before we actually planted in them. That’s a bit of a strategy too. Put them up, watch them with your camera to ensure the animals don’t party inside them then go for it.

Wow they blend in well! The planting rounds, not the husband – he’s outstanding in his field.

These are the babies that I’m planting today. I got this trolley a few months ago and it’s been a real back-saver.

As usual Nicki the adventure dog is acting supervisor.

A close-up of the Wattles in their new homes. You might now be able to see the planting cage design a bit better.

After that was done we took a stroll up to the Indigo patch to check those babies out! I got a bit annoyed as I thought the Indigo we planted the second time had also died but no, some of it had not only survived, it was thriving!

The Indigo Patch finally has some Indigo in it that hasn’t died!

We also took a look at the dam to see how that was holding up after all the rain. It looked magnificent but gave a great visual representation of how sneezy it’s turned out here. Look at all that pollen!

A good morning’s work should be celebrated with a good feed so as I prepared that, Aub chatted to our resident Bearded Dragon. What handsome fellows they are!

And now for some food. See you next time.

Working out where our revegetation areas will be.

Inspired by the Box Gum Grassy Woodlands workshop with our local Landcare Aub and I decided to start planning where our revegetation areas should be.

We spotted this semi-naked area in a clearing out in the pine and gum forest area and thought it could be a contender. Wattles have been few and far between on the property since we bought it but as is often the case, as soon as we started looking, we saw signs of them popping up all over the place again!

First I spotted this one by the dam. It must have been growing there for a while and has no doubt sprung up from its mother tree which is situated about 20 meters away in the run-off gully.

Then I spotted these little babies that had probably been completely hidden from view until the rains came to speed up their growth.

It’s quite common to find baby plants like these nestled in little protected nooks of fallen timber. I guess their more exposed brothers and sisters already got eaten or struggled against harsher conditions out there in the open. When you think of all the things that have to go right for a seed, it’s amazing any of them germinate but they do!

Here’s the bark of the mature Wattle tree that’s half way up our driveway. These wattles seem to like the damper areas of the block as this one is right in where the water runs off through to next door.

There are many Acacia species native to Australia but only five are common to the Cowra area in which we live. Those are Acacia Decora (Western Golden Wattle), Denei (Green wattle), Leucoclada (Silver), Paradoxa (Kangaroo Thorn) and Vestita (Hairy). Of these, I know our current wattles are not the vestita as those typically weep instead of stand upright. I also know it’s not Paradoxa as those have very different leaves among other things. The Leucolada does look more like it in terms of that also being a tall Acacia but I think the leaves are different on that one. The Denei doesn’t quite look right in terms of its leaves (feathery) so that leaves us with the Acacia Decora which looks like it could be a match. The trunk, size, location and leaf shape does seem to match.

Whether we just plant Acacia Decora or try our hand at some of the other local species is yet to be decided but at least we’ve now got a target to work to. Great work team Fox Hill Hollow.

Shingleback Lizard, Chocolate Lillies and a Tractor in my kitchen!

Summer isn’t my favourite season as I’m not a fan of the heat and have skin that gets burned easily. However, there are plenty of Australian critters that just love this time of the year including these beautiful shingleback lizards which we often spot out and about.

What I do love about summer though are the Chocolate Lillies! Fox Hill Hollow is covered in these beautiful little flowers and if you get up early enough, they ‘bleed’ chocolate-scented purple sap. These bush flowers are edible both in terms of their above-ground blooms and their tuber-like roots but I’m going to save experimenting with that for another time.

Chocolate Lillies Arthropodium strictum. Good bush tucker according to this place’s Wiradjuri family

Something else exciting was spotted growing out in one of the paddocks today – the wattles are making a come-back! When we purchased Fox Hill Hollow we surveyed the property to see what work we might need to do to restore it back to its Box Gum Woodland glory. Wattles were clearly under-represented throughout probably due to the sheep grazing that had occurred here prior to us moving in. The best way to regenerate an environment is to let it set its own pace and help nurture, protect and encourage that. I started off our land-stuardship journey thinking we’d be much more active planters and ‘farmers’ than we currently are but it turns out nature does know best.

The fact that wattles are coming back on their own gives me hope that there are many more seeds lying dormant in that soil, just waiting for their chance to grow and occupy their rightful place under the sun.

A self-seeded wattle that’s growing strong on our Wiradjury soil.

Finally I ended the day with a tractor in the kitchen. Sure, the kitchen is not much of a kitchen – it’s outside, dusty and dirty but it’s all we have right now! Anyway, Aub spent a good hour or so trying to maneuver it onto our trailer so it could get a service. I’m happy to say he managed that in the end and the kitchen came off none the worse. We even managed to make and enjoy another cuppa before heading home.