It was a beautiful Sunday morning when 9 people gathered at the Sutton Reserve behind the school. Recognised as a valuable original native box gum woodland It Is under attack by weeds, and we are trying to improve it for the first time in 30 years or so.
The Sutton Landcare Group now has permission from Crown Lands to start work like weeding and cleaning up. It was a very successful morning: in one and a half hours we removed:
130 serrated tussock
30 Briar rose
20 Cotoneasters
10 Scotch Thistles
A red myrtle
50 St Johns Worts
200 Sifton bushes
20 Hawthorn
25 small Grevilleas (these grevilleas are garden escapees. The larger ones will be left for small birds, but we will try to stop them from spreading too much and taking over from other natives)
and 3 large bags of litter (Thank you, Dave O’Sullivan for taking care of those).
The rest of the serrated tussock and the large blackberries will be tackled later (too much to remove by hand).
It was amazing to see how much can be done by an enthusiastic group of people. We all learnt from each other: recognising weeds, ways to manage them, freeing up native plants etc.
If you live near the Reserve, or you would like to help Sutton Landcare to make the Reserve a true community asset, with paths and seating, please roll up your sleeves and join us the next time!
Written by Arnold Dekker, Coordinator, Sutton Landcare Group