I’m pretty sure that I have read the heading for this post somewhere else…but it really does apply to Ian’s attitude. When it comes to gardening, nothing makes Ian as happy as spreading mulch around plants. This time he arranged for a professional arborist to cut down and turn into mulch: 16 Cadaghis, 2 Broad-leaf Pepper trees, an Umbrella tree and 4 scrappy trees. This amounted to 6 seriously-big piles of mulch. He did a few piles by hand with the wheelbarrow but he was especially happy to borrow a tractor from a neighbour to relocate some of the mulch onto the northern slope.

Previously he had prepared the area by spraying, laying down a covering and planting natives. Now the extra mulch will really be a boost to the plants, especially as there was very good rain after the mulch was laid.

We had the Cadaghis removed when we found out that they are detrimental to native bee hives. They also spread a kind of soot on the plants below, hindering their growth. They did fulfil a purpose of providing lots of leaf litter but they also dropped a lot of heavy branches. On many occasions when working outside on a fine and calm day we would hear an almighty crack and it would be a large Cadaghi branch breaking off, up high – that’s not the kind of tree to camp under!

The following photos give an indication of the job that was done – in case you are thinking of becoming a tree-lopper/mulcher be aware that the branches can be very heavy, the noise can be deafening and the dusty clouds of finely-mulched vegetation can be very thick.  It is a physically demanding job and climbing to the topmost branches is not for the faint-hearted – I am glad I was only a bystander. Even though it cost quite a lot of money it has been very worthwhile and we are already planting other natives to replace what we have cut down – a Kauri Pine and a Daintree Pine in Danny’s garden, and several Eucalyptus Majors in the side paddock.

Scenes from the 2-day job.

Ian was happy to get various old stumps ground down at the same time as the new Cadaghi stumps. They had been a nuisance for a long time when slashing or mowing. One big stump in the front paddock had a metal bar hidden inside which nearly brought the grinder to grief – so it will remain! We left 3 Cadaghis in one corner of the front paddock as the horses love to stand there in the shade.