A Little Weed?

I love the winter, the bright sunny days and cool nights, but from the point of view of the garden it can become very dry and those long dry days can stretch on and on. Earlier in the month a lot of my plants were showing signs of stress and I was spending a lot of time each evening trudging back and forth from the dams with the watering can, but on the 19th we finally got some overnight rain and since then there has been enough rain to put a little spring back into the turf (so to speak) and many plants are beginning to show new growth.

Dwarf Bougainvilleas on the dam wall

It's also the time when the garden really comes into bloom. The Bougainvilleas on the dam wall offer not only security for the small birds, but a real splash of colour.  Yes, I know they aren't natives, but sometimes its nice to have a real drag queen of the plant world add a little razzle dazzle to the garden.  The Jasmines flowered well into the month, as did the Brunesca, so the decks were filled with sweet scents. As you can gather I'm pretty pleased with how things have been going; however, to temper my smugness we had a visit from the Land for Wildlife warden and that put a small shower on my parade.

Land for Wildlife is a scheme to encourage landowners to protect flora and fauna for future generations.  It is a voluntary scheme where the landowner promises to put aside a portion of their land to nature and the scheme offers advice and support through their wardens. In essence they supply you with an informative newsletter, manuals, free native plants and personal expertise from the wardens.  We joined soon after we built Pardalote Holt in 2003, but we hadn't had a visit from them since then so whilst ordering some manuals from them I invited them over for a visit.

The scheme keeps records of all visits and so our warden Daryll turned up complete with records, manuals and heaps of useful advice.

Pardalote Holt, all 19 acres of it.

Daryll talked over the previous visit and then we went on a walkabout around the property where Daryll was able to point out the good bits and the areas that needed attention.  Officially our vegetation type is classified as "broad-leaved White Mahogany, Queensland White Stringybark - woodland to open forest on metasediments characterised by the presence of the canopy trees Broad-leaved White Mahoganey and Queensland White Stringybark. In the understory, trees like Brush Box and Forest She-Oak occur commonly along with shrubs like Hickory Wattle. Covering the ground are Blady Grass, Barbed-wire Grass and Kangaroo Grass."  In other words fairly thick bush but reasonably easy to walk through with a lot of Eucalypts and various grasses on the forest floor. The blue lines on the map indicate Intermittent Creeks - they only flow when there's rain.

Overall Daryll said that he was very pleased and that we had one of the 'cleanest' properties in the scheme; however (and there's always a however!) there were areas that needed dealing with.  Invasive weed management is a really big thing in Australia and it's schemes like the Land for Wildlife that offer all the necessary help and advice to tackle it, unfortunately, many individuals don't care or can't be bothered and the governments never fund the relative departments sufficiently and so the problem of invasive weeds is far greater than it needs be.

The areas I need to deal with are largely near the house and the road as although weeds are commonly spread by birds they are also carried along by the movement of cars spreading the seeds.  The first and nastiest weed I have is the Giant Devils Fig.

Giant Devils Fig

These beasties grow to 3 metres and are covered with wicked thorns.  Unfortunately their figs (the round green berries) are very popular with a variety of birds including Brown Cuckoo Doves and King Parrots. Originally from Central America this plant has spread widely across SE Queensland and is becoming a major problem.  It's also a bugger to get rid of!  The thorns discourage you from tackling the beasts manually, but at the end of the day that's what has to be done.  My advice is get very thick gloves and a decent protective jacket before dealing with them.  If you can pull the smaller plants out then do so, but larger bushes need to be cut and scraped.  Cut the tree down and scrape off the bark to a few inches below the cut and then immediately paint with a mixture of 1 part glyphosate to 1.5 parts water.  If you delay for more than a few minutes the plant could well shrug it off and grow back.  Have no mercy with the Devils Fig, it needs to be exorcised!

The next weed I have to deal with is less able to fight back, but is nonetheless a problem child.

Molasses Grass

Molasses grass grows commonly on the roadside and in the autumn bears an attractive show of purplish red seed fronds, but, give it an opening and it will smother all the native grasses and just roll over your property like a giant rug.  If you only have small patches then a spot spray can be used, but my patch is large enough to warrant area coverage.  I will start at the upwind edge and spray a mixture of 100 ml glyphosate to 10 litres of water (on very still days).  As the Molasses Grass dies back it will try and regrow, but smaller plants can be dealt with individually with a spot spray and the native grasses will be able to recover.

Fishbone Fern

I have a smaller infestation of Fishbone Fern that will be dealt with in the same way.  Pity, because I find it an attractive plant, but you have to take into account what the knock on effects are on the native flaura and fauna.

Daryll got quite agitated when he located a small patch of Mother of Millions, a plant that as its name suggests can spread quickly, but I was able to weed this one out manually and burn the rubbish.

Mother of Millions

Perhaps the classic invasive weed in Queensland is Lantana. Intruced as a garden flower from Europe and now spread by birds it appears everywhere.

Lantana

We're fortunate that we don't have very much on our property, but it still needs to be removed.  Once again its a pretty flower and popular with the birds, but it seems to love Australian conditions and smothers the local flora.  Fortunately it's relatively easy to just pull from the soil, but it's bark has bristles that can cause a mild allergic itch so I recommend that when dealing with it you cover your arms and legs and use gloves.  For larger patches a spray of 40 ml Fluroxypyr to 10 litres of water or 100 ml Glysophate to 10 litres of water can be used.  For really big specimins cut and bark with a 1 part Glysophate to 1.5 parts water paint.

The other common weed that I have to remove is the Tobacco Plant.

Wild Tobacco

Once again it's a favourite with the King Parrots and Blown Cuckoo Doves, but it is a problem. Treat it in exactly the same way as the Giant Devils Fig.

Well thats the worst of my weeds.  My eradication program will take some time, especially with the Molasses Grass, but I'll give updates as I go on.

And now onto the birds of September.  It's been a great month for birding, especially in the first half of the month when I was regularly noting 40+ species before I'd finished my morning tea at 8 am.  A lot of birds had recently bred so the numbers have been swelled by immatures and in the case of the Welcome Swallows that nest in the garage they successfully produced a brood of 6 this year.

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week.)

Australian Magpie 
Bar-shouldered Dove
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Bronzewing
Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey
Double-barred Finch
Dusky Moorhen

Eastern Spinebill
Eastern Whipbird
Figbird
Forest Kingfisher
Galah

King Parrot

King Parrots

Laughing Kookaburra
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Friarbird
Mallard Duck
Noisy Miner
Noisy Friarbird
Pacific Black Duck
Pale-headed Rosella 
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scarlet Honeyeater

Silvereye

Silvereye on Fire Sprite Grevillea

Striated Paradalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow
Wood Duck
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least x2 per week.)

Brown Cuckoo Dove
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Fantail
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike Thrush
Magpie Lark

Rainbow Bee-eater
Rufous Whistler
Scarlet-backed Fairy Wren
Spangled Drongo
Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-throated Treecreeper
Willie Wagtail

Uncommon (Seen 2-3 times during the month)

Brown Treecreeper

Collared Sparrowhawk
Crested Pigeon
Intermediate Egret
Leaden Flycatcher
Little Pied Cormorant
Little Shrike-thrush
Little Wattlebird
Olive-backed Oriole
Pied Butcherbird
Satin Flycatcher
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Spotted Turtle Dove

Spotted Turtle Dove

Straw-necked Ibis
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-throated Honeyeater

Variegated Fairy Wren
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Weebill
White-faced Heron

White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen only once during the month)


Australian Ibis

Brown Goshawk

Little Corella
Little Egret
Little Pied Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Little Wattlebird
Red-browed Finch
White-bellied Sea Eagle
White-necked Heron

79-species - top month of the year I suspect.  And that's all for now folks.