Winter planting and litterpicking

It’s a good time of year to be out planting still… Here I am setting out with some plants and some soil to help them in tough patches along the railway.

This is my trusty steed. I’ve grown to really appreciate what this retro cargo bike can do!

In with the plants, including these Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex Nummularia) I was generously given by a great propagator.

In with creeping boobialla (Myoporum Parvifolium)–this is the narrow- “red”- leafed form.

Then I stopped off at the local cafe for coffee grounds on my way home and just piled the rest in on top of them!

Then here is another trip–this time mulching an established spot I planted many years ago. It has become weedy lately. So I did a little sheet mulching and cleared leaves from the culvert to use as the mulch layer.

I did some hand weeding too. It’s a start!

And on the way home, with that nice big bucket (and gardening gloves), I cleared up some rubbish someone in dire straits had left behind, and a cupboard door dumped nearby as well. I have realised that I always feel like I’m making a positive contribution doing these things. Sometimes people say things to me as they pass, most often “that’s not your job, the council should do that”. Maybe it should, but the council is collecting the recycling and the waste that will go to landfill. I would rather deal with the weeds I can without poison (as the council will poison every so often) and keep the area near where I love free of rubbish as much as I can… and not treat these things as always for someone else to do. Care for the land and living things around us is everyone’s business, I think.