A Bit of Gardening
When it is snowy in the high country it is far from ideal for doing track work and staying down at lower altitudes quite compelling. In any event showers about the mountains were noticeable and the occasional one even reached us where we were.
A list of tasks was suggested by the Parks staff and a few of them were settled on for the work for the day. Behind the visitor centre here is a garden with plants from the alpine zone with a pond and simulated creek and the bracken fern infiltrating it was cleared out together with a number of Blackwood wattles that had established themselves there. At the side of the centre near the entrance is another garden and the protecting fence, which has been a temporary fixture since it was planted, was removed. In the very near future a welcome to Mount Field and the World heritage Area structure is to be installed.
John in the alpine garden clearing bracken
Following lunch we went through the plantings site beside the Tyenna River to fix tree guards and remove weeds. It appeared that quite a number of plants had recently succumbed, possibly to frost, so overall there have been significant losses since starting project midyear in 2013. One species from the November 2014 planting that looks to be thriving is Myrtle (Northofagus cunninghamii – now Lophozonia c )
We did score a bonus of free coffee and cake from the Waterfalls Café because they were so pleased with our days’ work.