Summer planting in Australia
Our regional coordinators in Australia, Mark, and Jill, have been active!
Since joining our team in September 2021, they have helped to grow our Australian tree-planting community.
While Mark and Jill are inviting their friends to plant and dedicate trees, they are leading by example doing the same.
They recently planted and dedicated 16 Crimson Bottlebrushes. Mark has been kind enough to share his planting technique with us:
“Although it is mid-summer and no one does summer planting in Victoria, as a rule, my growing conditions and soil allow me to plant native species into the heavy soil. This is, if I use a certain soil preparation technique:
1. The existing soil has two types in very close proximity – black and red clay (1st image).
2. I make up a very fine red clay planting mix with the heavy clumpy black clay soil, in equal parts (2nd image).
3. The mix ends up like wet cement/concrete and I then water it heavily in first few days after planting (3rd image).
The warm conditions allow the plants (in this case, Callistemons) to keep growing after planting, because the clay stays moist for a long period and doesn’t dry out.
All my plantings from December and January are doing very well without any losses so far. The weather is hot, 30 to 35+ degrees Celsius (86 to 95 Fahrenheit) most days, and very windy. Ordinary plantings would not survive.”
Thank you for sharing your technique, Mark! This is an interesting lesson. We hope that other planters will be able to benefit from this advice.
Thank you and Jill for being great regional coordinators! We appreciate you!
Australia now has nearly 2,000 trees planted and dedicated! Have a look at the map. See what our Australian friends have been doing!
Remember to contact Mark or Jill if you are in Australia and want to plant and dedicate trees.
Or, if you do not have time to plant yourself, our friends in England will plant for you!
Finally, do not miss out on what is happening in Australia.
FACTS
| Who: | Mark Allaway and Jill Lancashire |
| Why: | We continue to plant flowering native species on our land which we have grown from seed. To improve habitat for birds and insects and especially to provide nectar-producing flowers such as Bottlebrush. |
| Where: | Redesdale, Australia |
| When: | January 29, 2022 |
| What kind of Trees: | Callistemon viminalis (var.) – Crimson Bottlebrush |
| How many: | 16 |
