Caught up with Brian and Sandy, Mum and Dad's great friends on mum's anniversary.

My sister and I caught up with Mum and Dad's dear friends Brian and Sandy. We had a lovely lunch at Fitzy's in Toowoomba.

I planted another 3 gums and a casuarina at Prince Henry Dr. Not easy digging holes due to all the volcanic basalt. The Toowoomba range first formed some 300 million years ago. Are these rocks that old? And is this the first time they’ve seen the sun??? 🤷🏼‍♂️

I visited Mum on Boxing Day at Dovetree Aged Care. She was a bit better (more with it) than Christmas Day. I noticed some rubbish in the car park so thought I’d pick it up. I collected 12 masks in total in amongst the bag of rubbish that won’t flow into our rivers 😊

Up at my parent’s place in Toowoomba. A number of large, old Eucalyptus trees died during the terrible drought of 2019-2020, both on the property and in the adjoining park. I’ve started to plant replacement trees for those lost, and add in some variety with acacias and bottlebrushes to help create an understory.

Our current housing crisis doesn’t only affect humans. At least 300 Aussie species of animals rely on tree hollows for shelter and nesting. Planting new trees to replace old ones with hollows doesn’t help for many decades. So artificial nestboxes can help our Aussie animal families. I’ve just picked up a Rosella nest box and a micro bat home! Follow me as I take them to Toowoomba to install in trees at my parent’s home.

So, I came back to clean up the rest of the Singapore daisy infestation and the wonderful ground staff had cleaned up most of the remaining plants and removed the waste!! Well Done Dovetree staff!! Singapore Daisy creates a matt of roots and suckers, so there were a few stalks left, so I removed all that I could see. This is the small pile seen between the two grevillias on the left in the photo. But early detection before becoming too large an area, and prompt action and joint effort has stopped this infestation!! So Happy!!

Where my mum is now living, at Dovetree, there are lovely grounds with lots of native trees planted. As everywhere, weeds are invading. I noticed this single patch of Singapore Daisy, and no other infestations. So I spent an hour removing the weeds by the roots. Prevented its spread into and over the other native ground covers. I’ll come back another couple of times to make sure it’s eliminated. A bit of education and early intervention makes all the difference!