One of our mad-cap ideas for helping the new plants get established in the wetland is to use the weed growing in the waterways as mulch.
In our minds it has three things going for it:
1. It provides instant water around the base of the plant
2. It dries to create a ring of mulch around the plant to suppress weeds
3. It helps to keep the waterways clear and flowing while we wait for the plants to grow tall enough to provide shade which will then slow down the weed growth.
Sounds great, but MAN is it labour intensive and back breaking work. So when you have an offer of help from visitors staying at Dayvinleigh it made sense to jump at the chance to capture their enthusiasm.
Before the heat of the day and motivated by freshly baked muffins and coffee to follow we headed out to tackle the first waterway. Kevin went ahead with the weed-eater and the lads got into the waterway to start hauling up weed to Tracy who was wrapping each plant. Despite the incredibly hard work there were a lot of laughs and a few surprises as resident eels were temporarily disturbed.
It was all worth it when we went down the next morning to see the water running clear and the plants looking refreshed.