The plan for the 11th July is to finish weeding out the southern portion of BW-32 (adjacent the Garie Street playground) and then do some planting. Megan has some left-overs from last Sunday’s community working bee and I have some Daviesia latifolia plants Megan picked up for me last week to try there in a couple of clumps of 3. I’m keen to give them a go having noticed them in Hilda’s plant lists (see our June news) for both Furness Park and the Kalang north hill.

We’ll also mulch the fairly bare patches left after weeding last week on the playground side of the bed with euc leaf litter.

If we have time, we’ll also start weeding in BW-31 (Alan’s old patch) where Panic Veldt etc is coming up everywhere along with chick weed etc. 

Last Week

Last week, we braved the sub-zero conditions by starting an hour later (!) to weed out BW-32. It was still very cold even at 09:30 but the team warmed up with the physical work. The playground side looks great now and, at the back, only a small amount of weeding was needed where we sheet-mulched last year in the southern half. The northern half is another story – will probably need spraying unless we “go nuts” there.

Conditions (last updated 06:15 11/7/2024)

Weather

General: Cloudy at first and then a partly overcast morning with the possibility of rain.

Rain: There’s a 5% chance of rain on Thursday (11/7) morning rising to 10% at 10:00 – higher probabilities later in the day.
Storms/Weather warnings: Nothing relevant.
Temperature: It should be a cool 9-11 degrees while we work feeling cooler due to the medium strength winds.

Wind: medium strength northerly winds.
UV: rising to 1 if the sun gets through the cloud.
EPA Air Quality: Good.

Risks to highlight

• Please bring water to maintain your hydration.
• Wear appropriate clothes for the conditions – a hat, long sleeves and closed-toe shoes. Wind breaking and wet weather gear should be considered as a precaution.
• It’s still cold and staying dry helps staying warm.  Here are some suggestions:
  • Hands:  We do have multi-use nitrile gloves which you can wear under work gloves to keep hands dry.  Size L only though…
  • Feet/legs:  Consider waterproof pants.
• Please also consider wearing the following cold-weather gear:  
  • thermals, beanies, warm jumper/jacket, thick (or two pairs of) socks.
• Keep moving:
  • It’s a lot easier to warm up on the colder days than cool down on the hotter ones – so that’s in our favour.
  • Hand weeding in the one spot for an hour is likely not ideal when the temperatures are very low – but OK later.  Best thing is to mix things around as much as you can – especially earlier on.
• Hi-vis clothes/vests are recommended – particularly when working around the Garie Street car-park entrance.
• There are stumps, branches, lumps and bumps that may present trip hazards and eye-hazards under twiggy shrubs etc. We have some safety glasses in the PPE bag if you feel you need them.
• COVID, flu and RSV are still around again in a fairly big way it seems.  Please don’t come if you have any symptoms.
• Bull-ant bites have been recorded BW-31 but not BW-32 – but ant tunnels/colonies can travel a long way…