first planting

Not a lot happening on the building front - I am being held up by people who apparently don't want me to give them money!

I am at the stage of needing a structural engineer to check my building plans and give me a soil report for the foundations. (And I have to organise a second soil report for the waste-water management plan as I cannot use the other soil report). I have been waiting over two weeks for one engineer (and they are thin on the ground in this area) just to give me a quote.

Also I am having a small dam put in. I am allowed only up to about 0.75 of a megalitre (approx. 3/4 of an Olympic pool.) without a special permit. I don't really need a bigger one as it will really be used for wildlife (attracting wild birds and 'roos) and occasional watering for my small veggy patch.

I could only find three dam builders in the area - one gave me a phone quote, came to see the land, tried to get me to go to a megalitre ("you don't have to tell anyone") said on seeing the location "Should take me a day or a little over".

Then the written quote came in: 15 hours and 50% higher than the phone quote. (No mention on the phone of an almost $500 fee just to bring the bulldozer to the property - a distance of about 22 kms)

The other two have not even bothered to return my phonecalls.

In the meantime I have started to think about putting some trees back on the land. Being a former sheep farm it has been cleared of a lot of natural vegetation in favour of grassland.

I decided quite early on that I only want native vegetation - with the exception of a handful of fruit trees (mainly a lemon, lime, almond, and a couple of others I can't think of right now). And I would like to focus on plants and trees that attract native fauna.

My last visit out to the property gave me the opportunity to plant a few trees. Only 9 at the moment!

I bought tubestock (usually only 5 - 10cms high) as they better survive planting than more mature trees. And these natives need little or no attention once in the ground.

Neighbouring interlopers - now banished! So long and thanks for all the poo!!

The first four trees to go in are Eucalyptus Leucoxylon var. Rosea  aka known as Blue/Yellow Gum or White Ironbark:

The other 5 are Eucalyptus Pauciflora (snow gum):

Eventually - when I can find them - I really want some of my favourite Eucalypts: Eucalyptus Macrocarpa (Mottlecah). An amazing tree with enormous flowers - I only hope they will grow in this climate.