Getting ready to plant
Permission to plant, permission to spray, a water tank, and four or five hundred spots strimmed and marked out on the zigzag.
By Gary Shirley
Earlier in the month we met Council staff on site at Lookout Point, along with Forest & Bird’s chief propagator and the volunteer who holds the chemical-handling certificate. Three things came out of that meeting: permission to plant, permission to spray, and a clarification of how the area is designated. The Council also agreed to locate a water tank for the season, which the minutes note “should really help with survival rates”.
The grass was knocked down with a strimmer in circles about 800 mm across — somewhere around four or five hundred of them — and spot-sprayed with glyphosate mixed with a red dye, so that the sprayed patches are visible from the path and the Council can put up signage. Holes were pre-drilled with a post-hole digger wherever there was help to do it.
Forest & Bird’s nursery in the Oamaru Public Gardens set aside 2,500 plants for the Cape for the season, and a further 300 were raised in a committee member’s own nursery at home.
Our challenge is to get a good number of people to come along and help.
Two goals were set for the day:
The plants go in with the best chance of surviving and people feel valued and are motivated to help again.