Typical “Weeds Under Trees” situation (W.Pix)
Last Sunday we made great headway removing large quantities of flowering and seeding Hirschfeldia, Indian Hedge Mustard, Shepherd’s Purse and other weeds.
Join us for a follow-up weeding session in the afternoon of this coming Sunday, 24 May. Our focus will be removing herbaceous weeds growing under trees.
Please follow the hygiene steps outlined below, choose your personal weeding patch and go wild on weeds.
When: Sunday 24 May 2020, from 1pm to 4pm
Where: nature reserve south of The Fair, North Watson; we will focus our weeding efforts on the trees east of the yellow line shown on this map; please register your participation at the volunteer registration table, nature park entrance intersection Tay Street and Ian Nicol Street, The Fair.
What: Removal of flowering and seeding herbaceous weeds growing under trees.
Bring: Please BYO drinking water, garden gloves and a small mattock or your favourite weeding tool if you have one; however, most weeds can be pulled; please wear long pants and sleeves, a hat and enclosed shoes. We will provide hand sanitizer and some cleaned tools.
Hygiene practice: Use a hand sanitizer provided at the volunteer registration table; choose your personal one-way pair of gloves (3 sizes); sign in the activity sheet; put your own garden gloves over the top of the one-way gloves or choose one pair provided at the registration table; choose your alcohol wiped weeding tool, however, most weeds growing in the loose soil under trees can be pulled without a tool.
Inquires: projects@majura.org
You can carry out your own personal weed massacre anytime if you can’t make it to organized FoMM sessions (provided you know the weeds).
Flowering Sowthistles growing under trees among native geranium (bottom left).
Why hand weeding? FoMM volunteers use various methods to control herbaceous weeds such as Paterson’s Curse, mustards, thistles and Cape Weed. We spot-spray them with selective herbicides in open areas where collateral damage to native groundcover plants is small. Hand weeding is the preferred option where native groundcover is prevalent or where large-stemmed weeds grow under trees to avoid upwards drift of small herbicide droplets that have the potential to damage the trees
Now that Covid19 restrictions of social gatherings loosened, Friends of Mt Majura are back to work and we hope that you can join in for some serious weed massacre. After prolonged dry conditions followed by rain in February and March, weeds have exploded. Over the past years, Friends of Mt Majura spent significant time to control weeds at The Fair revegetation site and the wider Fair area, however, a large soil seed bank triggered the germination of many weeds, some already flowering and setting seeds.
