Great turnout today as we got stuck into two big tasks - preparation for replanting at the entrance to Bickleigh Vale and clearing out those silted up culverts!

Along our roadside verges, as with any garden, plants grow old or become diseased or perhaps suffer from possum and bird damage and the time comes for renewal and replanting. This is exactly what we face at the entrance to Bickleigh Vale so we set about preparing a rennovation plan for this area.
The plan is to remove the weedy species, more invasive plants and tree stumps in this area and then replant with varieties that remain sympathetic to our Roadside Vegetation Management Plan whilst offering greater visibiity to turning vehicles as well as resilience in our changing climate.
Here's what Bickleigh Vale resident, Carole, came up with that was then endorsed by the residents at our quarterly meeting last week:

At today's working bee, we got started on the ground work. An enthusiastic group cut down the weedy species, pruned the more unruly shrubs and removed those invasive plants as outlined in the plan. Stumps and branches for removal in the next few weeks by our management partner - Yarra Ranges Council - were tagged with red and white tape.
Its looking a little bare now but, after replanting next spring and then waiting a couple of years for things to grow, it'll be a fitting entrance to this lovely village again!

And then there was the other project - clearing out those blocked driveway culverts. After a couple of years of neglect due to Covid lockdowns etc, some of them have become seriously silted up and in recent heavy rain, grooves were gouged out of Bickleigh Vale Rd as the gutters overflowed and bypassed the culverts.
Armed with our new Wolf-Garten culvert clearing tool, three of the worst culverts were cleared after much effort whilst others dug out the excess topping that was blocking the gutters and put it back on the road where it belongs.
There is one more culvert that still needs attention but we ran out of time today.

​As well as the two main tasks for the day, we also got stuck into routine pruning such as outside Abbotsley where the plants planted ten years ago are now out of control and needed to be reduced in size. Whilst not really in keeping with Edan Walling's approach to pruning, the narrow roadside verges at the eastern end of Bickleigh Vale Rd don't leave a lot of room for larger shrubs and part of the Management Plan includes maintaining driveway visibility.

With all the rain along with moderate temperatures over the past month or so the village is looking particularly lush and beautiful for this time of year. Of course this also meant there was more tidying up that usual!

As last Tuesday's quarterly meeting, we planned the tasks needed to be done at the working bee  today:
 
TASK LIST:

•  Clear roadside gutters and culverts and fill potholes
• General Weeding
• Other specific weeding:
  • Outside Hurst and Mistover at the needs particular attention as does outside Abbotsley and Littlewood
  • The Bickleigh Vale Road edges / gutters could do with weed burning
  • Susan has two self-seeded oak trees growing next to Whistlewood. which will be dug up and potted for the future.

• Pruning dead wood
• Proposed Specific Pruning:
  • The usual driveway entrances need to be kept clear
  • Judicious and sensitive pruning of shrubs that are intruding into the road and interfering with traffic
  • This time there is a lot of low-hanging branches over the road. Need to go along with a pole pruner to cut them back to the clearances specified in our Roadside Vegetation Management Plan i.e. “…canopies should be kept 2.5m+ above ground (3.6m+ in centre of Bickleigh Vale Road tunnel.)"
  • The vegetation along Bickleigh Vale Rd outside Hurst needs clean-up pruning
• Other items
• There is a lot of bark falling around the Dunns Gum in Edna Walling Lane that needs picking up and removing

After a couple of hours or so of hard work by everyone, we finished with a realaxing cuppa at Devon Cottage.  A great way to spend the morning.

Edna Walling Lane becomes a divided road half way along with a beautiful centre plantation - one side leads to Devon Cottage and the other to The Barn. For the convenience of the postie and visitors, the mail boxes are both located where the road divides rather than on the property boundaries. Unfortunately, this means that just about every time the Council's contractor resurfaces Bickleigh Vale Rd and the Lane, they miss out the divided part - probably believing its actually driveways rather than Council property.

With the village Open Garden happening a month from now, and with five properties banding together to get their driveways re-surfaced, we also decided to re-surface Edna Walling Lane our of our community fund.

The end result looks terrific and after a shower or two and a few weeks to settle down, should look even better.

After a few weeks of welcome rain and with spring just around the corner, the weeds are growing strongly so this working bee is a perfect time to get them back under control. But its also only 6 weeks to the village Open Garden where eight of our gardens will be open to the public (check out the details on our OGV2019 page here) so there's another level of excitement this time.

Outside Abbotsley, it was really about pruning to keep the road clear and restaking the young Golden Rain wattles with two wooden stakes rather than the one star picket that was there before.

Further along Bickleigh Vale road, Homeleigh is looking good with Russel's re-mulching and the pot holes in the road from the recent rain have all been filled as part of our regular maintenance program.

And as always, getting together for morning tea is a highlight of the morning - this time in the Devon Cottage carport.

​Another very satisfying village working bee!

The rain has come at last and everything is looking fresh and green - including the weeds! 

Jan and Allan are working hard and having fun!

It certainly looks better outside Abbotsley and Littlewood with the ivy and wandering trad gone along with the weeds from the gutter!

In November last year, we identified that the Red Oak (Quercus rubra) at the Pembroke Road entrance to Bickleigh Vale Rd outside Hurst, was looking very unwell and we've sought advice as what to do to help it survive.

There is a lot of growth from other plants around it for possums the gain access. so we thought that, perhaps we could clear surrounding plants to stop the possums flight path to the tree.  There is no power line access to the Oak tree for possums which is one positive.

Our community has rallied around and are implementing the following plan:

• Peter has dug a trench around the sick Oak  and Claire from Hurst has put the hose into the trench and happy to deep water it weekly for the rest of this dry period.
  
• There is an abelia and a cotoneaster surrounding the Oak which Claire will also prune back gradually when the weather breaks and the plants are under less stress. If she needs help Claire will organise Peter to help with the height etc. 
  
• When the arborist used by a few of our residents is  here to work on Sonningfield our trees, Coral will organise a possum collar for the oak tree. 

 Let's see how it goes over the next year or so.

With the hot and dry conditions, growth of most of the roadside vegetation - including the weeds - has been limited but the gutter along Bickleigh Vale Rd needed clearing of gravel in (optomistic) preparation for the next heavy rain.

Whilst all the road construction work was going on, a small party worked on our two other  items:

• Outside Hurst at the Pembroke Rd entrance to Bickleigh Vale Rd, the cotoneasters need to be pruned back to let light through to the amelanchiers underneath
  
• The euphorbia outside Mistover needs to be dead-headed so that it will flower well next season and to restrict the spread of seeds.

And then it was over to the Sonningfield carport for morning tea!