Saturday 28 June 2008
Yes folks, the first 350-odd trees have gone in the ground, in a gully 50 metres down from the top of the project and around the Lorax Lair clearing. Plants were donated by Murray Drake and Ginny Woods; Myra and Robert Fulton; and Rob Lewis.
Weather the night before had comprised a mixture of hail, thunder and lightening. Excellent! We groaned and curled up into tight balls in our beds, imagining the work party the next day. But unbelievably, the skies cleared to give a perfect (if slightly cool) morning. In all, 14 people turned up for the occasion, which combined planting with bbq-ing (thanks Brent and James for the awesome fire that you got cranking, and Fill and Albie for the sumptuous soup!) and track marking.
Suspecting that such tasty morsels as new native seedlings would be irresistible to all hares from miles around, Matt Shoult went up on dusk to sit quietly just above the planted site. …
We thought this might happen, so we’d taken the precaution of enclosing a section of the planting in a 10 x 10 metre chicken-wire fence, and placed barberry branches for protection around other vulnerable plants not included in the fenced section – well, why not? May as well get some use out of that prick of a pest weed!
Next time, we’ll try and be more co-ordinated and actually advertise the event. It will be interesting to see how many people we can get along then … maybe, if we give enough notice, we’ll even get some Wellingtonians?!