A cleansing fire through Ramsay

Well the saga starts with the Cambooya Landcare Lantana Busters "doing their bit". Taking lantana "out by the roots". Since starting this project 28Nov11 the "sometimes 6 of us" working Monday AM "starts" (with smoko) have cleared about 5 acres.
Well the project is to "take lantana" and what would have happened to that outed lantana, I'll confess I didn't know. Not so our member Thea who liased with the school and local Fire Brigade to produce a result from this!

"Clean as a whistle"! That's Cambooya Rural Fire Brigade for you!

Now we will be approaching Our Condamine Alliance (the biggest environmental mob in town) to monitor the "comeback" of lantana on this land and results will be published through this medium. So lets look at more "Before and After"

 The school has an outdoor auditorium "from years ago" buried in the lantana

There were many of these type lantana clumps in the landscape. But now!

Note how "clean" the burn was, not a scorch mark on the seats of the auditorium (on the left in photo)
So now is a chance to see if the "old ways" were efficent. In the 1940's / 50's I "destroyed weeds" by digging them out (Mum's direction). Had to keep doing it, but we grew a lot of veges! Now this wasn't acres, but it was productive ground!
Consider, a bunch of retirees stroll into a paddock stiff with lantana, been infesting / degrading the land for 100 years? And they bowl over say 5 acres in 6 months of Monday AM starts which includes smoko!
That should be qualified!

Doing it "my way"

G'day all
I have been "wondering" how to make my next post. "We" / the sometimes "3 of us" in this new year are looking at a project that "pits us" against 12 acres (not the 2 / 3 acres) I told of in the last post! That could be daunting!
But that is "the guts" of this post! Christopher Columbus did not set off around the world "thinking of when he would return", he knew he would return, just gotta do what you do, and that's it for "us".
So that is what this post is about. Doing what you do!

 

 

Well this photo is an area of my garden being invaded with Lippia. I found that by taking the head off my Shovel Rake it was easy to slide along the ground and under the Lippia “runners”, just lift the head and up come the Lippia! (I have a short handle for the Shovel Rake “somewhere” which makes this operation easier) Throw the “runners” into the barrow and you are winning! That’s not bad for 10 minutes (and I don’t stay down longer than that)
That’s what I like doing, finding ways that work! (And that’s what I’m gunna do!)

That’s “cracking five” and time for!
PS the date shown on these photos should be 1Jan12, cameras!
Now I have a “gripe” about eradicating weeds!
I have read many "recipies" for plant eradication and mostly it's "all gloom and doom" if you don't get "all the roots", the plant regrows! Of course I'm thinking of taking the plant "out by its roots" which is "reasonably" easy for most plants less than head high with Root Blade "driven by purpose"!
Okay you have to believe the plant is "out by the roots" (the Root Blade way), now I have been told / I'm not botanic but have 10 years experience, that "plants generally" have a "place" where it's stems up and roots down, and somewhere in this area there is a Plant Crown (something like the heart of the plant). Now if I can extract this plant from the ground by a cut below the Plant Crown. it's "bound to die".  Why? because the only part of a plant that can regrow is from plant nodes, and plant nodes only occur on stems
So as long as you "manage" that outed vegetation, ie deny plant nodes on the stems nutrient, moisture and stability whilst there is a "life force" / sap in the vegetation it's "gone"! Worked for this lot!

 Been wanting to tell someone that!