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mark@organicmatters.com.au |
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24th
February,
2007
WARNERVALE
FAIR
I've been
doing lots
of markets
and things
for the last
6 months.
I've got committments
to do stalls
for the next
3 saturdays
but then I
am planning
a bit of a
break until
there is something
special for
me to go to.
Today was
Warnervale
Annual Fair
and there
was a reasonable
turn up. I
have a drought
tolerant native
plant stall
and I have
a bit of free
space in my
gazebo so
when the snake
guy turned
up and was
looking for
somewhere
cool to keep
his snakes
I said he
could put
them in the
shade at the
back of my
display.
This is me
and Buttons,
an olive python.
What a great
way to draw
a crowd.
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5th
February, 2007
FAVOURITE THINGS
This is what I really
like. It's is still
possible to find nice
places like this not
far from civilisation
but the development
pressures in Wyong
are tremendous and
no where is safe.
Based on current practices,
beautiful natural
areas like this are
more likely to be
cleared and developed
than degraded, weed
infested and abandoned
farmland.
This is a part of
the Spring and Wallarah
Creek system. A few
of small streams come
together in this area.
Canoeing along these
creeks a few years
ago I saw a surveyer's
axe blaze on one tree
and an aboriginal
bark removal on a
nearby tree. The significance
of the 2 kinds of
bark removals within
site of each other
while in a natural
bush setting was very
powerful. |
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19th
January, 2007
SITE INSPECTIONS
A lot of the time I just
get sent a map or an address
and told to go and collect
seed to grow plants for
the job. Today I am lucky
because I have a couple
of experts to show me around
the site. This is down on
Kahiba Creek at Umina and
Damien from Bangalow Bush
Regeneration is showing
me and Chris from Gosford
Council some of the problems
on this site. This creek
system was developed around
decades ago so the site
has a more stable eco system
than sites that are currently
having a road or other development
built through or along side
of them, so this site has
to be handled delicately. |
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15th
January, 2007
DEVELOPMENTS
Today I arranged for a group
of Wyong council employees and
representatives from environmental
groups to visit a development
site in Lake Macquarie that
has used some environmental
and ecological best practice
in their construction techniques.
The development is called Murrays
Beach. Their efforts to conserve
the local vegetation was very
special. Every tree over 100mm
was surveyed and had a report
done on it. Of the 60,000 trees,
50,000 were retained and those
that were removed were the damaged
and dangerous trees. The drains
are designed to encourage rain
water to infiltrate rather than
run off and there are many other
environmental features of this
development. I was fortunate
enough to work on this site
a few years ago and thank Warren
Tressider and Doug from Stocklands
for the tour.
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4th
December,2006
MYSTERY PLANTS
There are a lot of plants out there
that I don't know but every so often
I come across things that I should
know that I can't place and this has
always just come down to my lack of
knowledge so far. That's one of the
good things with this career - you
never stop learning about new plants.
One day I might actually find something
that is really different and hasn't
been described before.
Today's picture is the fruits of just
such a Lomandra. What's different
about this Lomandra? The leaves are
narrower than L.longifolia but not
as narrow as L.filliformis (It seems
to have characteristics of both species
and a hybrid is on my list of possibilities.)
L.longifolia bears large numbers of
follicles along the top half of a
long inflorescence. This plant has
a cluster of follicles at ground level
with virtually no stem. L. filliformis
bears it's fruits close to the ground
but in ones and twos, not several
large clusters like this plant. It's
growing at the base of a (now dead)
spotted gum which is also a symbiotic
characteristic of L.filliformis.There
are other Lomandra species. It doesn't
seem to fit any of those I know but
I've been wrong before.
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23rd November,
2006
TRAINING
I've just finished giving a 3rd training
session to the new Green Corps group on
the Central Coast. They started only a
couple of weeks ago but they are starting
to develop into a good group and they
are picking up the things I have been
teaching them. It's a good feeling to
see all these new young and enthusiastic
people coming into the environmental repair
industry. I can tell there are going to
be a few good ones in this group. I wish
them all the best with their careers.
I started training groups like this back
in 1988 except they were called LEAP groups
back then. The programs were very similar
back then and I think the slight changes
made since then have mostly been for the
better. Like; they had to be unemployed
before, and preferably (75% had to be)
long term unemployed, and now any young
person that wants to do this sort of work
is elligable for this training. The old
system excluded a lot of the good people
from the program.
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18th
November, 2006
WARNERVALE MARKETS
I had to set up my stall at Warnies at 7am
so there wasn't a lot of people when I took
this picture.
I have a lot of motives for doing this market.
The first is the obvious one of selling
plants at a markets and 2nd is it's a fun
morning out of the nursery once a month,
but my main reason is a personal protest
against the barren style of developments
in Warnervale. It's my own personal attempt
to get some native plants put back in and
green the Warnervale area. Heaven knows
enough bush gets bulldozed in the area every
month. I did all of these posters of drought
tolerant plants as further encouragement.
I've got the veg map for the area (see 1st
Nov) and a couple of people actually used
that and the species lists that go with
it to make their selections.
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11th
November, 2006
SEED COLLECTION
I have a few jobs down on the woy woy peninsula.
This picture was taken on the drive down
there, at Staples Lookout in the National
Park. One of the peninsula jobs has been
going for a couple of years but I have 2
new ones in the same area and one of them
is a reasonably large order, so that makes
things a bit easier.
I wish all the jobs were that close but
I am collecting seed across 3 shires and
don't seem to be doing much else at the
moment. November is the busiest month of
the year for collecting but December &
January are still busy too. It's one of
those jobs that has to be done when the
seed is available or you go without for
a year. I have a few other people and organisations
collecting for me so that helps.
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3rd November,
2006
ROCK DUST
I am teaching propagation again
tomorrow and I have to think about people's scepticism about
rock dust as a fertillizer. A bit of explanation. Synthetic
soluble chemical fertilizers are very bad for the soil and
plants. Organic Matters does not use or endorse any sythetic
fertillizers. In order to be water soluble they are all formulated
to deliver the nutrients as either an acid or salt compound.
You don't have to be Einstein to realise this isn't good for
plants or the soil and because these chemicals are water soluble
you are force feeding your plants every time you water them.
I have to give credit to the Kiwis for rock dust. They have
a few glaciers in New Zealand and they noticed that when the
Spring thaw and Summer floods came and deposited the glacier
ground rock powders on some fields, those fields became more
fertile and sustained that fertility longer than other fields.
Rock dust isn't water soluble so the only way plants take
up nutrients is through enzyme action of their roots. Some
people still can't believe this, I wonder how they think plants
get their nutrients and grow naturally in the wild. The other
problem I have is that the various rock dusts are all formulated
and mixed so when you see a sample it looks a bit like 1/4
minus roadbase. I show people the analysis and what goes into
the product and some people still think they can just add
a bit of road dust instead of fertillizer.
Rock dust is one of those things that Organic Matters had
to organise for itself and the cost of importing what I needed
from interstate made it more practicle to get a decent load
of the stuff and become a local distributor. Apart from myself
and those I have converted I think grape growers in South
Australia were the only others to use this formulation. At
least I know there was no one else in New South Wales until
I got some or I would have just bought a bit off them. A 40
kg bag lasts my nursery over a year. Apart from the frieght
costs, rock dust is very economical - way less than 1/2 the
coast of comparable sythetic chemical fertilizers even with
the frieght included. It does have it's limitations. I bet
there are some people out there saying where does it get its
Nitrogen from? The answer is coal dust but nitrogen is the
weak llink in the formulation. I add a bit of good old blood
and bone for extra nitrogen in my potting mix. I also use
a 1 off immersion in seaweed solution (200:1 but I use a very
concentrated brand of seaweed emulsion) right after I pot
up with rock dust to activate the enzyme processes. Apart
from nitrogen all of the mineral fertilizers in the rock dust
last a long time and because they aren't water solluble they
don't leach out of the pots.
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1st November 2006
OUT & ABOUT
I'm in the middle of teaching 6 workshops in 3 weeks. Officially I
have next sunday off but today is a quieter than normal day.
This Saturday is
the Warnervale Spring Fair and the council has asked me to put a display
of drought tolerant plants together for their stall at the fair. I
am teaching that day but (Jordan) a former employee is going to take
a few hundred of my plants along for a display and put on a demonstration.
So today I am getting those plants and a couple of other jobs ready.
I have quite a checklist of things to prepare for market days, just
so everything that might be needed on the day gets packed. So I am
packing cover sheets, tables, signs, plastic bags, reference books,
tools and a list of things for Jordan to take to the fair. |
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