Preparation for autumn planting

The Wednesday working bees have been preparing the ground for the autumn planting. The four main target areas are;
1/ South of the walk bridge where the Glyceria has been sprayed off and the Willows trimmed back.
2/ Mass planting of Kahikatea and Astelia that we have raised ourselves are to go under the canopy from the board walk north.
3/ The gully side at the back of Sexton Road where the three Kauri are (behind No. 43).
4/ Under-canopy planting on the drier gully sides of 148 Kawakawa Macropiper excelsum that we have grown from seed. These are frost tender so we will be picking sheltered sites.

Giant Sedge Gahnia xanthocarpa one year on

Like Mainland Cheese, “good things take time”. These twenty three seedlings have just been transplanted from their seed raising tray. Wayne Bennett said at the time we collected the seed from Pukemokemoke last year that it takes about twelve months to grow. It was sown on the 6th March 2011 and these are the seedlings twelve months later. The photo with the pack shows the fully grown sedge that the seed was gathered from.

Native Weta

During one of our storms last month a Kanuka, down from the walk bridge, was blown over. When cutting it up for removal (firewood) it was noticed that there was a large Weta hole in the trunk. That section was kept aside and made into a Weta hotel. The Weta was coaxed out with a piece of apple as a lure, stored among forest litter in a shoe box while the trunk was converted, then reintroduced and installed back onto a tree in the gully.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the Weta had had enough by then and has not been seen since. It is hoped that another Weta will discover a really cosy home and take up residence. There are signs of a good Weta population in the area.

Fish Hotels

Yes it has been a month of building accommodation for our fauna. On advice from Waikato Regional Council Fish Scientist we have started installing accommodation to attract more native fish to our stream. Four concrete block hotels were installed in ponds in the gully behind Sexton Road. The target fish are Giant and Banded Kokopu.

To complement this we are planting the stream banks with Carex to provide shade and possible egg-laying sites.

HCC open day at Mangaiti Gully

Hamilton City Council in conjunction with Continuing Education Waikato University is running a number of Hamilton gully open days and lectures on gully restoration. They have scheduled a visit to Mangaiti Gully this Sunday 3rd March at 10am. If you would like to catch up on what is going on in your neighbourhood you would be most welcome to join us. We will be meeting at the concrete pad below the foot bridge which runs from 1 Grenache Place to 60 St James Drive.

Sexton Road track.

Work continued over the last month to upgrade the Sexton Road end of the track. A set of steps was built, retaining work was done on the downhill track and the track was extended over the soft mud area using heavy grade rubber tracking from an earth moving machine as a base. HCC supplied all the timber. Well worth a look if you are out walking.

Landcare Action Conference gully visit

Mangaiti had the honour of hosting fifty five conference attendees for a 45minute gully tour on Tuesday. A number of them were from Australia with one from as far away as Darwin. It would have been great to have more time to talk to them about their experiences as some of them sounded pretty interesting but time did not permit.