I have a property in Trevallyn, Tasmaia. For well over 10 years I've been trying to establish an indigenous garden with limited success. My property is around 40mx20m and about 100m from Cataract Gorge State Reserve which is over 500Ha. The house has been there for over 100 years and it was typically made up of grass, roses, fruit trees etc until I came along.
I've never mown in 15 years and use a hedge trimmer and chain saw to create mulch. As I largely rent the property I've been planting local flora in tyres that I've been weeding regularly and given up on other weeds that are pretty rampant as this property. The major weeds include grasses, ivy, wandering jew, onion weed and some oxalis. From the reading I've done in the past 24 hours my major mistake would appear to be not making use of fire ,mulching too heavily and not leaving bare patches for regeneration.
The planting I've done includes Acacia melanoxylon, Acacia dealbata, Eucalyptus globulus, Allocasuarina verticilliata, Bursaria spinosa, Lomandra longifolia, Dianella tasmanica(spreading well), Diplanrena moreia, Poa sp, Epacris impressa, Drosera peltata, Lagastrobus franklini, Correa reflexa, Stylidium graminifolium, Bedfordia salisigna, Acacia verticilliata, Eucalyptus viminalis, Acacia decurrens and Eucryphia lucida. The dry sclerophyll stuff has done well.
I've tried planting here and there. I've also tried densely planting out patches. This seems to be a little more effective. There are species such as Poa sp, Acacia melanoxylon, Dodonea viscosa and Dianella tasmanica that have done well and appear to have grown disproportionally larger and faster than other plants. There are several large non-local trees including Grevillea robusta and Melaleuca armillaris which will go eventually.
I'm surprised I'm having so much trouble trying to locate other people who are interested in the same thing as it seems such a logical thing to do in order to reinstate the original ecosystem that was once there. I've built a small pond about 3m x 3m which attracts quite a few birds and there are numerous frog calls at night. There is a wealth of arthropods incl insects, spiders, millipedes as well as numerous reptiles incl blue tongues, skinks, most local native birds and a few macropods including bandicoots, wallabies and echidnas.
I would really appreciate some direction as to how I can make this small patch of land about 40x20m as diverse and as ecologically rich as I can. I would also like to hear from others who've taken a reasonably suburban block such as mine that's been pretty much exotic and turned in into something wonderfully indigenous. I'm also going to try firing several 4m2 patches of the backyard firstly with a before and after a litter layer has been applied and see what effect it has. I've also heard of impregnating weedmats with native seed.
Your comments and direction would be appreciated
regards
Bush Regeneration book
Have you seen the book "Bush Regeneration - Recovering Australian Landscapes" by Robin A Buchanan published by TAFE Student Learning Publications in NSW in 1989. It's a bit old now but a good starting point if you can get it.
I'm not all that familiar with the Tassie situation.
Perhaps a burn?
I was able to borrow the Buchanan book from Kings X library last week and I've had the Bradley book and their ideas running around my head for years.
Having a botany background and understanding the ecology doesn't help my relationship with my neighbours nor tenants who probably think I'm nuts wanting to recreate bush in the backyard. For years while I had my place rented out the backyard was purposely covered in sticks, twigs, branches and deliberately and unappealingly messy but even a light covering of thin branches was enough to suppress weeds. It was also difficult to write in a rental contract that they were required to keep the backyard as is, water the plants in the tyres and don't clean it up.
Young families next door have complained to me that I need to "clean the place up" because of snakes. Unfortunately minimalisation of a garden while being visually more appealing opposes habitat diversity and family have repeatedly said "Why don't you just go and live in the bush?".
What I do find rather disturbing is the ability for many to clear away backyard bushland while clearing away exotics to make way for bushland is uncommon and to many, illogical.
Never-the-less I'm passionate about an indigenous transformation.
From the reading of Bradley and Buchanan there's a few things that I could do a little better.
Apart from a 20m blue gum there were no indigeneous sp on my 800m2 property. Firstly it's clear that widescale planting is not the answer however a dense cluster of a range of species found locally may act as a source of seed and suckers should none appear elsewhere. Secondly it's unlikely that the soil will reveal species that have been dormant as the property has been exotic since the early 1900's.
There's a number of other strategies that I need to adopt:One of those is to increase bare space around the existing natives I've planted, translocation of bush soil from neighbouring bushland and bush litter may also be beneficial.
Of the reading I've done it seems quite clear that in a dry sclerophyll area fire and the creation of an ash bed is immensely beneficial, namely:
However bylaws in Launceston now prohibit backyard fires except for burning quarantine material, cooking and warming humans. Bush regeneration doesn't rate a mention so it looks like an almighty BBQ or NZ Hungi late one afternoon next week.
Bradley strongly suggests that soil disturbance is to be kept to a minimum while Buchanan almosts suggests the opposite. Both agree that a litter layer will supress germination.
For many years I have planted in tyres and mulched heavily so I've known where plants are amongst the weeds. While this has reduced weed competition it's not allowed suckers or seeds from those plants to grow. Therefore I need to start exposing bare soil around plants and maybe include soil disturbance in some of those areas.
Dan