It is only natural that someone devoted to supporting the well-being of bees should prove as buzzy and life-affirming as the sight of the industrious insects going about their business in our garden or bushland.

But the warmth and enthusiasm that apiarist and floral alchemist Laodekia brings to the task verges on the preternatural – and indeed, her approach to the crucial undertaking involves a substantial sprinkle of cosmic vision.

Laodekia not only shepherds her own network of hives at Nashua, but she is the visionary behind a project to turn spare ground at the rear of the Coorabell Hall into a wild bee sanctuary – a food garden for them and a meeting and “grounding” place for bee-loving humans.

Her guiding angels in the enterprise are the bees themselves, Laodekia says, as the selection of Coorabell Hall as a location for a pollinator haven demonstrated.

“Coorabell is such a beautiful and significant site,” she says, “looking out over both the hinterland and the ocean.” Her initial intention was to build a garden full of edible medicinal flowers there, “like a living apothecary”, where people could come and pick healing plants for themselves. Then came the idea to bring in bees – natives, and the European variety as well.

But it turned out the bees had got there before her. The same day she received the OK from the hall’s managers to create a garden at the rear, Laodekia learned that a thriving wild hive already existed there.

It seemed magical to her and her fellow apiarists. “The bees welcomed us here, and they kind of confirmed that this is what’s meant to happen,” she says. “It tells you that the place is already perfect, right?”

An opening ceremony for the sanctuary was held a year ago followed by a number of gatherings “where we got to meet the bees, and be around them and their sound, which is super healing”.

There are regular get-togethers at the equinox and solstice dates where, as well as communing with the bees, group members offer something to the community, such as a sound healing or a floral alchemy session.

Laodekia attends the garden at least twice a week, and others pop in to water and mulch. Twenty new flowering seedlings were planted as this article was being prepared, just in

time for the rain mid-month. It has evolved into something of a sanctuary for locals as well. Anyone can come and bring offerings to the bees and many often just sit to enjoy a connection with nature.

“We all need sanctuaries,” says Laodekia, who insists that what the bees provide humanity far exceeds what we do for them.

There are other sanctuaries near Bangalow, including one behind Newrybar Community Hall which the Colony Bees group has serviced since 2022, where a strong population of sugarbag bees (Tetragonula carbonaria) are thriving in a log hive. The area supports many other swarms and wild hives.

Laodekia has her own apiary at her home in Nashua. Its name, Pleiapia, is a blend of the words Pleiades and Apis, because her seven hives are laid out like the Pleiades constellation, the ‘Seven Sisters’ that traditional farming communities consult to plan their planting season.

The hives are home to European bees, but the property, lush with medicinal plants, a hundred bush tucker trees and set amid a rainforest, is like “a big sanctuary planted all around us,” Laodekia says, and the flowers are usually alive with the sugarbag species. “We have blue lotuses in the pond, and the Europeans and the natives are all there together, pollinating, rolling in the flowers.

They all get along, he said. No drama.”

The plants in the garden at Coorabell Hall are all pollinator friendly, and many are also natural insect repellents. There’s Melissa (lemon balm), which she says the bees love: “It’s a plant of joy.” There are also sunflowers, salvia, sage, holy basil (Tulsi), rosemary, hyssop, some calendula, borage, echinacea. Blue and purple colours as much as possible.

Most of the seedlings planted here come from the Byron Bay Herb Nursery. “We work together really well. They love what we do and we love what they do,” Laodekia says.

The goal now is to create sanctuaries all over the Shire – a pollinator corridor with multiple different sites, nourishing biodiversity – and resilience.

Other halls have said yes to the establishment of a pollinator sanctuary, but for now Laodekia is keen to slow down. “The more I do, the less I can actually be present,” she says. And for someone who sees beekeeping as akin to parenting, just being present is the most important thing. “That relates to the health of the hives as well, and the garden. The most beautiful garden is the one where the grandma is there all day.

“I just want to anchor my energy here first, make this the environment that I wanted it to be, and extend from there. It’s also important getting more people involved. Like, we can do it, but everyone needs to be part of it. It’s not a one-person thing, it’s not just me. This is a community thing.”

The tiny stingless sugarbag bees endemic to the north east of Australia are among the most community-minded of all bees, with a highly developed social structure compared with other species.

The loose coalition of sanctuary supporters in the region aim at a similar cohesion and cooperative spirit. Their project has taken on a life of its own, Laodekia says, with members joining forces to grow more pollinator sanctuaries within – and for – our community.

As part of the natural cycle of things, the Coorabell bees have migrated from their tree trunk home behind the hall, so the plan now is to bring in a variety of new hives, in the hope that the bees will settle in. If all goes well, you will see – and hear – both native and European bees at the Coorabell Sanctuary by the end of swarming season.

The Flower Show is on at Coorabell Hall on March 14 and 15; Laodekia will be offering visitors ‘a little floral alchemy session’, outlining the healing power of plants.

Every Saturday morning, rain gods permitting, a flock of khaki-shirted volunteers can be spotted flitting about in the bush around Bangalow, digging, watering, planting seedlings. They appear an extraordinarily vigorous crew – especially given that they quite evidently belong to a more mature demographic.

Among them, but standing out, are two members of an increasingly rare species – the younger volunteer. Oscar McMahon and Ana Assis, both 23, with straight backs and bounteous hair showing no thread of silver, have been volunteers with Bangalow Land and Rivercare for about 20 months. Most Saturdays they turn up and help renovate and restore one of the handful of remnant native forest sites around the town – beside the sports fields, along the banks of Paddy’s Creek at the bottom of Raftons Road, Little Maori Creek to the west of the town, or on the riverside walk from Piccabeen Park to Byron Creek bridge. Bushland near the Men’s Shed and at Sansom Street Reserve also benefits from the group’s loving touches.

Demographically, Oscar and Ana are outliers – and not just in Landcare. People of their age, or indeed anyone under 50, have stopped volunteering, and many organisations that need them in order to thrive have almost given up trying to recruit new members.

The Men’s Shed is maintained entirely by volunteers but is struggling to enrol young men, a problem President David Noakes feels might be because of the belief that such sheds are for oldies only.

Ruth Kirby, Bangalow CWA President, says “we are always looking for ways to entice younger women to join”, and invites anyone with ideas about how CWA could attract a younger cohort to pop in and share them.

Landcare’s recruitment efforts over the years have rarely been successful, says Robert Lotty, a stalwart of the group. He attributes the lack of interest to many young people’s obsession with their screens. As a nation, he says, “we have become more likely to stay inside rather than enjoying being in the outdoors”.

Ana and Oscar are the exception, and Bangalow Landcare President Noelene Plummer says the group is delighted to have them on board. “They bring enthusiasm and knowledge, which help to motivate us older members to keep going.” The couple have created an Instagram account aimed at reaching young followers.

Noelene co-founded the Bangalow group in 1998 and remains as enthusiastic as ever, motivated by the results achieved over the years. “We now have riparian rainforest trees where once there were eroded creek banks full of aquatic weeds. We get to see the wildlife return, the plantings have become a refuge and the banks of the creek have habitat that supports platypus as well as turtles, lizards and fish.

“When I look at the established rainforest along Byron Creek at the sports fields and the creek walk at Piccabeen Park, I realise what a difference we have made to the greening of Bangalow. These areas were once cattle paddocks with only one or two remnant trees.”

The sports field planting now constitutes a significant wildlife corridor connecting to a parcel of remnant rainforest, she says. And the group can take credit for establishing a walking track around the fields that led to today’s popular walking circuit.

“The environmental work is very rewarding,” Noelene says, “but we also enjoy socialising and sharing a lot of laughs.”

Conservation is a big inducement for Oscar and Ana but, perhaps surprisingly given the age gap, so is the social aspect – meeting like-minded people, networking, learning.

For Oscar, coming back from Melbourne, joining Landcare marked a real return to his roots: he grew up here, near his grandmother, attending Bangalow Public School and enjoying a free-range childhood, exploring the riverbanks and bush, unaware that much of it was the product of Landcare’s planting.

“I spent a lot of time down along Paddy’s Creek with a couple of my friends, building stick huts and booby traps and fishing. As a kid, that just seemed like a massive forest. I didn’t know the story,” he says.

Next came Byron High, then Melbourne University, where he and Ana met on a COVID-induced Zoom lecture on Indigenous Knowledge. As a kid he had dreamed of being “a David Attenborough type of naturalist”, and he completed a BSc, with a botany major.

Back in Melbourne following a trip to South America, the couple realised they needed to “get, like, a proper job now” and decided to give it a crack back at “home”. Both environmental scientists, they arrived with no job certainty but were soon snapped up – Oscar by Ballina Shire Council, Ana by Ecoteam in Lismore.

Ana says she didn’t know anyone here before coming north, and she wanted to meet new people in the community, and get some experience with the subtropical flora: “It’s so different to that in Victoria,” she says.

The Landcare group was “just stoked” when they joined, showering them with books, tools and protective clothing. “We instantly felt part of it,” says Ana.

“The Landcarers are just wonderful,” says Oscar. “Everybody’s there because they want to be there. And you can see the effect of what they’ve done. Like, along the All Souls planting. As a kid I remember the trees falling in the water, the bank eroding. Landcare has transformed that little area. The water runs really clear there, and there are bandicoots and emerald doves.”

Meanwhile, Lynn Smith, a member of the team that maintains Piccabeen Park, is struggling to attract new people to take on the work. “We have just four active members, all in their 70s and 80s, and we ain’t gettin’ any younger. We all love the Park and enjoy our working bee days. We are friends and are there for one another when times are tough. We have lots of laughs together. The work keeps us fit and active.” But they’re fresh out of ideas for attracting volunteers.

It’s possibly a global challenge, and a complex one, fuelled, among other things, by rising economic pressures making people time-poor. But in an age of artificial everything, individualism and disconnection, contributing some time to the community and to the environment is possibly one of the healthiest things anyone can do. As Oscar says: “It’s meditative, it’s getting your hands in the dirt, which has got to be good for your microbiome.” And we could all do with a bit more of that.

Feature image by Olivia Katz

It grows to approximately five metres tall, and its spreading evergreen crown of glossy leaves can be up to five metres wide.

Importantly, the roots are non-invasive.

Indigenous to the east coast, it was originally described in 1834 when found in the Moreton Bay region, where it was growing

in poor sandy soil, exposed to wind and salt. Tuckeroos provided a valuable food source to the local people, who had their own methods of preparing the rich antioxidant flesh of the berries to negate their toxic properties (the berries are not toxic to foraging dogs).

It is slow to establish but then quick-growing, producing masses of greenish-white flowers in panicles that are separately male and female in June and July. Our very strange weather conditions recently have totally confused many of our plants, and I have noticed several trees covered in buds and about to open early. The flowers are replaced by golden yellow capsules that make very attractive vase arrangements and, with the glossy foliage, last for ages in water.

The capsules are full of reddish berries that are easy to propagate, although slow. I have never managed to grow Tuckeroo from any cuttings – young or older wood – so luckily this method is simple, and if the berries are soaked in water for a week or so, they quickly reward with a green shoot.

The flowers attract bees and moths; the capsules are food for currawongs and figbirds, and the flesh is food for butterflies in their larval stage – caterpillars!

The trunk wood is close-grained and tough, with a slightly pinkish tinge, but because the trees are not tall, this prized timber is only useful to woodworkers making small items. It looks a little like sheoak and has the same slightly shiny grain.

Certainly, this is a native tree that deserves to be grown more widely in our Shire, on all the roads that don’t already have shady trees to beautify and help reduce our emissions.

Carole Gamble

I learnt that it is a hardy, old-fashioned plant, much planted in the early 1900s. It is sometimes known as a sky flower or even leadwort and it comes from South Africa but doesn’t thrive in Melbourne’s climate. Incidentally, I also found that ‘leadwort’ referred to the perceived usefulness of plumbago as a cure for lead poisoning, which was all too common in the past. Auriculata, as you may guess, refers to the leaf shape, which was compared to the human external ear!

Part of the family Plumbaginaceae, a genus of twenty-three known species, it is usually sky blue with a small variation in depth of colour and sometimes white (P. auriculata). P. auriculata originates in South Africa, although there is another very similar plant called Ceratostigma plumbaginoides from Western China with a totally different taxonomy!

Plumbago can be encouraged over fences and solid structures, trained into a standard specimen, or trimmed and pegged down to cover rock gardens and slopes. Left unchecked, it can become up to three metres tall and wide. Regular pruning will keep it compact, but some people develop skin reactions to the sap, so take care.

In full sun, it flowers profusely on and off during warm months, is drought-hardy, and has no pests or diseases unless it is stressed, and then sometimes will have a little mealy bug. It is susceptible to root rot, so it needs good drainage. Butterflies love it, especially as it flowers so profusely, and in the Butterfly House on Bribie Island (well worth a visit!), it is one of the main plantings.

Propagation is by seed or cuttings; the latter produces true-to-form colour best and, of course, is much quicker. Some good nurseries stock it, but it is easy to propagate, and I think that it deserves a spot in more new gardens.

Mussaenda can have large pink, white, or red bracts (these look like petals but are not) and the actual small flower is usually yellow. Butterflies love them! M. erythrophylla is originally from West Africa and the white varieties are mostly thought to be northern Indian in origin, but because there are so many hybrids and cultivars, opinions vary on this.

Mussaenda is a member of the Rubiaceae family, which includes gardenias, ixoras, pentas, and coffee, which is a bit surprising. Another instance of botanical groupings of plants that don’t appear to be similar.

The Mussaenda pictured above is a hybrid, and it might be worth saying a little about hybrids because we can all get a bit confused about what is meant by ‘hybrid’ and ‘cultivar’.

In brief, a cultivar is deliberately created through controlled breeding. This may be to improve or combine features such as longer flowering, disease resistance, or size alteration, or to diminish those features and improve adaptability. They retain the desired characteristics when propagated by division, cuttings, grafting, offsets, tissue culture, or careful seed selection, although this last method has a higher degree of variation than others.

Hybrids, by comparison, are accidental or wild changes in the parent plants that may be a result of climatic conditions or a reaction to environmental changes. Sometimes these hybrids are dramatically different and can be much sought after, leading of course to horticultural enthusiasts cultivating them for commercial rewards! These ‘wild’ hybrids are often more vigorous because of greater genetic variability; have more flowers, grow faster and larger, and demonstrate again the desirability of mongrel breeds.

Suited to our subtropical area, they tolerate a large range of soils and thrive in full sun or part shade and, like most plants, require good drainage, appreciate mulching and soil improvement, but don’t need fertilisers. They respond well to pruning so that their natural dimensions of two metres high and two metres wide can be reduced to suit your garden.

The blooms are lovely in mixed flower arrangements and add that touch of colour when not much else is enlivening our gardens. Mussaenda has just joined my list of plants to fit into my garden – somewhere.

Carole Gamble

Locals will be well aware of the two kids’ playgrounds, the rotunda, the delightful Byron Creek meandering around its periphery, the open grassy areas (perfect for picnics), the numerous plantings of mainly native species and – let’s not forget – the vital public toilet block, beautifully enhanced with a mural depicting the history of the area going back thousands of years.

But this park precinct is more than just a pretty place.

In the post-COVID time, many different branches of our community have focused their activities in and around the park.

The Men’s Shed is located to its west, offering exercise classes, art and woodworking classes, a Blues and Jazz group, even table tennis.

The well-loved and frequented Op Shop – known far and wide for its vast collection of second-hand clothing – is in the Anglican Church grounds to the east of the park.

The Bangalow Land and Rivercare group meets regularly to maintain and enhance its massive plantings around the park – the highlight of which must be their cool, green creekside walk. In 2014 and 2016, the Landcare group obtained funding for (and organised the planting of) nearly 4,500 now-mature rainforest trees along the creek, just one of the many projects it has undertaken in the area since it began in 1998.

The small but perfectly formed Parklands group works with the Council’s Open Spaces team to maintain many areas of the park, enhancing it by establishing garden pods of native and bush tucker plants. The Council’s busy Bush Regen team recently substantially upgraded the Wetlands. (Did you know these Wetlands serve to trap and filter flood waters, removing pollution and providing fish and wildlife habitat?)

A workshop offered by the 2023 Byron Bay Writers Festival, had Dr David Roland making use of the Parklands environment to encourage participating writers to tune into nature for support and inspiration in a session titled ‘Nature Connection for Creativity’.

Between 2011 and 2021, Bangalow’s population grew by 48.7%, and, with the trend towards smaller house blocks, more families are looking to the park for recreational space. This park is now well known as the ideal space for kids – and adults alike – to ‘swap screen time for green time’.

The Bangalow Historical Society’s Heritage House (the House), on the corner of Ashton and Deacon Streets, is at the park’s heart, with many community groups, individuals and families making use of its facilities. At its September 2023 Annual General Meeting, President Trisha Bleakley rattled off a list of the activities happening in the House since reopening in February.

The museum is open four days a week, but the House itself has rapidly become a community hub. Apart from staging three historical exhibitions to date this year, the Society has hosted garage sales, cake stalls and a craft fair, with another scheduled for November. It caters for funerals and wakes, and has provided the space for weekly yoga classes, a meeting of a Christian group, meetings of the YES group, the CWA and visitors from Feros, an outing of 52 seniors from Burleigh Heads, monthly meetings of Community Connect, information days and meetings of Beacon Laundry, a new community business. The overhead screen and projector are proving extremely useful for small groups.

Kids’ days at the museum are attracting keen interest from primary school-aged kids. One, in particular, was a hit: the 1950s games day, where youngsters could experiment with such toys as slinkies, hula hoops, dominoes, drafts, and knuckles. In keeping with the theme, ‘fairy bread’, milkshakes and Choo Choo bars were also available.

The Historical Society has also partnered with Zero Emissions Byron – and with the support of the Byron Shire Council Sustainability team – to create a demonstration Eco House. The dream is to retrofit the House to showcase ‘best practice’ sustainable innovations, materials and products. To date, with the additional backing and support of Community-Owned Renewable Energy Mullumbimby (COREM) and Rous Water, this small team has had consultant’s reports prepared to show how residents can reduce the cost and use of both water and energy in a late 1890s-built, relocated wooden Queenslander house. The project is known to some as ‘Pimp My Queenslander’. Already its energy costs have been reduced by taking up the consultant’s suggestions, with more planned.

Falling back to its primary purpose, at the Historical Society’s AGM, historical researchers Tanya Pearson and Fiona Smith made a presentation about the vast number of fires that demolished many wooden buildings in Bangalow’s early days. (Were you aware that between 1907 and 1939 there were seven major fires in the main street, after which, insurance companies refused to provide buildings with insurance unless they were brick-built?)

Behind Heritage House is a car park, the space cunningly repurposed (thanks to a Parklands team grant) from its former use in the distant past as a cattle dip site. Up to 43 car park spaces are well used on monthly market days and when the town holds events like the Writers Festival, the Billy Cart Derby, Christmas Eve Carnival and the Bangalow Chamber Music festival.

The rotunda, also built with funds from a grant obtained by the Bangalow Parklands team, is used day and night for a variety of community activities such as tai chi, yoga and singing classes, and being a prime location – in town and in nature – for birthday parties.

Not many towns with a population of 2,808 can boast such a wellloved and well-used park in the centre of town, made popular thanks to the volunteer work of so many community groups, families and individuals. Best of all, entry doesn’t cost a cent.

But here in the fertile Northern Rivers, a new generation of small-scale flower farmers is on the rise, bolstered by the local wedding industry and reflecting the community’s enthusiasm for sustainability. And decidedly female. In a country where women farmers have only been legally recognised since the 1994 census, March’s 52nd Coorabell Flower Show saw a handful of these talented and hardworking women challenge gendered stereotypes and set the Coorabell Hall awash with a sea of colour after an 11-year hiatus.

One of the exhibitors, Caroline Lang, is a fifth-generation farmer on her family property on Myocum Road, where it is hard to miss her giant ‘Pikt’ logo curling across one of the old chicken sheds. Both her grandmothers’ green thumbs ignited her passion for growing flowers, seeing her enrolled in Wollongbar TAFE’s Business, Horticulture & Floristry degree by age 17. Returning to the farm after working overseas, Caroline’s sights were set on growing flowers and starting a local flower market. But the demand for wedding floristry fast became the main event, and the Pikt team of seven now wrangle an average of nine weddings a week during peak season plus their website orders, roadside stall, floral warehouse, corporate services, and supply of readymade bouquets to their Byron sister store, Pikt Posy Co, and Newrybar and Bangalow General Stores.

Incredibly, they manage to grow around half of all their own supplies during spring down during less productive seasons – supplemented by a mix of local flowers, Australian grown flowers from the Gold Coast and Brisbane flower markets, and selective imports, where needed, to satisfy brides’ visions for their big event. Caroline produces dahlias, zinnias, poppies, snapdragons, sweet peas, paper daisies, marigolds, statice, roses, dianthus, alyssum, pansies, violas, cosmos, and foliage like viburnum, tea tree, blue gum, and vines – with plans to expand her fields by another third next season. “If there’s a spare spot, I’m planting it,” she laughs. Sustainability is at the heart of the business, making fertiliser from their own compost and local manures, heavily mulching to reduce water consumption, and she has spent years honing her systems to recycle and re-use as much as possible.

Fellow exhibitor, and one of Caroline’s local suppliers, is Lilli Forrest of Federal Flowers. She is a second-generation certified organic farmer, following in the footsteps of her parents who are pioneers of the local organic movement and longtime Mullum and New Brighton Farmers’ Market stallholders. Originally supplying the family business with edible flowers, lockdown saw Lilli expand her love of gardening and nourishing the soil into a commercial cut flower enterprise, and now grows dahlias, zinnias, calendula, violas, pansies, jonquils, ranunculus, stocks, anemones and native violets – juggled with her day job as a dietitian with HealthShare NSW, implementing food service improvements at hospitals along the east coast. Though she enjoys supplying ready-made bouquets to Santos and Bangalow General Store, she says she is “definitely not a florist” – instead more comfortable in the field, drawing on the knowledge she feels privileged to have passed down to her.

While Caroline and Lilli credit their families as having the most significant influence on their farming journeys, they both make special mention of Friday Hut Road brothers, and champion dahlia growers, Bruce and Steven Wedd, whose mind-blowing display of these magnificent tuberous perennials formed the centrepiece of the Show. Welcoming and generous with their knowledge, the Wedd’s encouragement of anyone wishing to learn more about growing these beauties, native to Mexico and Central America, which thrive in our subtropical climate, is legendary. A growing band of local florists are supporting these women who are putting in the hard yards, including Byron’s Braer, Newrybar’s Our Little Flower Farm, Ewingsdale’s Poppy & Fern, and Bangalow’s Flower Bar. With Pikt’s own Myocum and Byron outlets, and the Newrybar and Bangalow General Stores providing the ultimate convenience, buying ethically, locally and seasonally has never been easier.
 
Georgia Fox

Feature image Caroline Lang of Pikt Flowers Photo Damian Hyde

Before we bought the 46ha (113 acre) to establish a community for 12 households in 1994, it had primarily been a dairy farm owned by one family since white settlement. In those early years, settlers were required to remove every tree on the land before they could make it their home.

Today’s regulations are the opposite. For many years, on its denuded slopes, carefully following a Council-approved ‘environmental enhancement and management plan’ devised in 2002 by Rob Fleetwood and Mark Dunphy of Firewheel Rainforest Nursery, we – living on the community – planted at least 1,000 rainforest trees each year, until we’d planted 11,612. They’re now well-established.

To the north of my 7130m2 lot (1.76 acres), early on I established an old-fashioned orchard with many varieties of citrus, nuts, avocados, grapes, fruit of all kinds – both familiar and unknown, exotic and native.

To the lot’s west and southern boundaries, visual buffer zones of natives were planted out years back, for privacy. But downhill from the orchard was a north-east facing paddock of about 44m x 24m, lying fallow for 17 years. One day, after it was mowed, it occurred to me that it wasn’t sustainable, or sensible, to continue mowing it indefinitely.

I’m involved with the Bangalow Parklands team, which planted out a bush tucker garden in recent years. It sits next to the brilliant and inspired native planting created along Byron Creek by Bangalow Land and Rivercare. Seeing how well that bush tucker area was developing, I decided to create one on this vacant paddock.

Before she left for yet another long-distance camping adventure around Australia, I asked Liz Franks, former president of Bangalow Land and Rivercare, to help with its design and species selection, taking into consideration the slope and aspect. Her species list included Plum Pine, Blue Lillypilly, Riberry, Red fruited Tamarind, Lemon Myrtle, Finger Limes, Davidson and Mullumbimby Plums (Davidsonia puriens and Davidsonia jerseyana), Peanut trees and Sandpaper figs. It needed enough plants to carefully cover the area, with some shelter trees for protection from strong winds, and to allow for mowing between rows during their early years.

Calling on another old friend and working buddy from the Land Use team of Zero Emissions Byron, Dave Rawlins, we fine-tuned the design to take into account the lot’s idiosyncrasies – such as the disposal area of my onsite waste-water treatment system in a corner of the paddock, plus plant availability. Trees can’t be planted in the disposal area, so were replaced by a selection of tough, colourful native flowers, such as flowering daisies. (I couldn’t resist adding a couple of dramatic Gymea lillies and a Little Penda.)

Dave also pointed me to a very useful page on the Firewheel website specifically listing appropriate Bush Tucker species, so yet more – such as Macadamia nuts – were added.

When planting out large areas, a major consideration is mulch. On a steep or remote slope, it can be challenging to bring in mulch, such as heavy long-lasting wood chip, because of the difficulty of getting it to site.

And it can get expensive. As a professional rainforest regenerator for more than 20 years, Dave recommended the use of used coffee sacks instead. As luck would have it, a neighbour runs a coffee business and was happy to provide scores of used sacks. Another friend, who had in the past worked on some of our community planting bees, now also runs a coffee import business, yielding still more useful sacks.

A date for planting was set. The 100+ plants were ordered from a native nursery in Mooball, then collected the day before and soaked overnight in Seasol and water (to help prevent transplant shock). The kikuyu-dominated paddock was mowed, roughly indicating a pathway, and designated planting spots were spot-sprayed. A happy crew of five dug holes with handy specialised tools Dave supplied, then planted the trees, added a handful of dynamic lifter fertiliser, and next arranged the coffee sacks – which had each been slit halfway through – around each plant. The sacks were then fixed to the ground with weed-matt pins. Each plant was thoroughly soaked, from our 111,000 litre rainwater tanks, conveniently located close by.

After only a few hours, the planting was complete. Now I’m looking forward to the time when the trees have reached canopy – probably in three years – and the paddock no longer needs to be mowed. That will mean less use of fossil fuel. By adding this selection of bush tucker plants to my garden, I’ll be encouraging more biodiversity to my immediate environment: more birds, more insects, more reptiles. Really looking forward to the new plants maturing, so I can include some other bush foods in my diet, such as the round (not cylindrical) finger limes that I haven’t tried before. Am watching this space, with interest.

One of my annoying mantras oft repeated: “weeds are just plants growing where you don’t want them to grow!” but this does not apply to Solanum viarum aka Soda Apple.

As you might notice from the botanical name, it is another one of the huge group of flowering plants that includes tomatoes and much more.

It originates in Central and South America and needs to be eradicated in our area before it becomes the biggest problem that farmers and landholders could face in the next few years.

It is a Notifiable Weed in NSW and potentially, if a farmer has it on his or her property and bales grass and hay and transports it, they can face a fine of $10,000. Disastrous consequences for our farming communities after a series of difficult seasons.

During the drought of 2019 we were buying round bales for our own little herd ($285 each!). Feed was so scarce, we bought it wherever it could be sourced, and most small holdings were doing the same. The consequence was the introduction of new invasive weeds including this one.

We avoided herbicide and manically worked cutting and painting the stumps with half strength Roundup. Pruning before flower and berry set helped but the seeds remain viable for many years, so it becomes a never ending job. Cuttings on the ground easily develop roots so they need to be bagged and disposed of (not into green bins please) or burnt.

If not removed it spreads rapidly, and those seedlings grow into very prickly trees. Then it’s a huge problem, reducing access, limiting biodiversity, and disrupting other biological processes.

Cattle eating the fruit and the berries which float on water are the source of most infestations but our recent floods have helped exacerbate the spread. I often notice large specimens along roadsides and highways and hope that the Councils are paying attention to the eradication. Landcare groups should be aware of this weed.

The plant is distinctive, openly branching with large, serrated leaves. The trunk, branches, leaves and even the tiniest twigs are covered in huge prickles. The creamy flowers are profuse, and the berries are pale green, becoming mottled as they mature.

Even the immature berries are packed with viable seeds. Perhaps like me, you will now notice them and please, eradicate on sight. Become an Activist Weed Warrior, it WILL help.

There are other unwanted invasive plants in our region; some are very familiar but these are relatively recent, spreading rapidly. As every gardener knows, those plants growing where we don’t want them are robust survivors and need to be dealt with when young. Please wear thick gloves when doing so.

Carole Gamble

Byron Writers Festival went ahead in August at the wonderful Elements’ site in near perfect weather. It was a joyous occasion with much brain food and hilarity too.

Fellow Herald team member Judy Baker and I found ourselves near the front of a session with Costa Georgiadis and Matthew Evans talking about their new books on soil health and their lives as gardeners and food producers.

Hilariously, at one point Costa leapt from the stage on to Judy’s lap!

Afterwards I asked him if he would repeat the feat and for permission to feature the photo and talk generally about soils for The Bangalow Herald and he graciously gave it his blessing.

So, those of you who attend the Bangalow Garden Club will be familiar with my mantra: “feed the soil, not the plant” and of course it isn’t only mine.

The European settlers noticed the shortage of topsoil in comparison to where they had come from, and this precious and necessary asset has been much compromised. Now we must protect, preserve and enhance if we are to feed ourselves. Costa and Matthew, who has come to food production relatively recently, have had different backgrounds but both are passionate about producing good, nutritious, real food, year in year out.

Costa’s Greek family grew food as they always had and when I lived in inner city Melbourne, I was a bit bemused and very impressed by our Greek neighbours and their vegetable gardens IN THE FRONT where surely there should only have been roses! With help and advice and seedlings all generously given, I started growing vegetables but they were in the back. (Now they would be proudly in the front but this was the 70s!)

I know that many of us know already that we must put back. Every plant removed from the soil takes the ‘energy’ it has absorbed in growing and others are slowly realising that our soils are depleted. Many of you have fantastic gardens and all will have sometimes struggled with our difficult conditions but like our own health, good food makes us stronger.

My own very large garden is mostly heavy clay and for the past sixteen years I have put tons of cow poo from the paddocks, rotted down straw impregnated with my chickens’ contribution from their pen, compost and mulch onto all garden beds.

Having over three metres of rain in six months not only caused a massive amount of plant loss from root rot but pushed the available nutrient layer deep down where most of the roots couldn’t access it. So, apart from replanting on a large scale, before I am doing this I am preparing the garden from scratch.

It’s somewhat ironic that during our drought of 2019 I didn’t water and hardly lost anything although others were using precious and scarce water supplies trying to sustain sometimes, inappropriate plantings. Our plants went into a hibernation of sorts (lockdown!) and recovered rapidly and vigorously as soon as the rains came. Of course, they were healthy and very well mulched!

Celebrate Spring and feed those soils! The rewards are immense.

Incidentally, Costa and Matthew were both at the Festival promoting their new and excellent books which will be available at good book shops.