The Coal Point Chronicle: Landcaring with the locals

Wednesday, 24 August 2022

Landcaring with the locals

Bindi is Back

Spring is sprung and those pesky bindi weeds/joeys are getting ready to attack your bare feet! Prevention is better than cure. Now is the time to spray or weed your lawn and nature strip before they burst into painful and spreading seed.

Wikipedia tells us that bindi or burweed came from South America – thanks for nothing! It loves coastal NSW, where it grows low in spring with a bright green carrot or parsley-like leaf and a seed crown of thorns in the middle. Over spring the seed crown rises up and expands, pushing out the small thorns and exposing the multitude of small seeds, just waiting to be trodden on. Ouch!

This spring when lawns are fairly lush it can be hard to spot so a bindi spray on the end of a hose may be the best form of attack. If you do spot just a few, slide the tips of your fingers under the leaves and lift it, then bin it. The secret is not to press down and get spiked, though you will be pretty safe for the next couple of weeks. If you are not inclined to be brave, wear gloves.

Doing nothing guarantees it will spread year by year until your lawn or nature strip will be an unwalkable bindi-thick paradise. Do it now!

Protecting our Birdlife

Birdlife Australia is encouraging the community to contact our local council to phase out SGARs in our community! Second-generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) are poisoning and even killing native wildlife like owls, eagles, magpies, and quolls. It’s not just wildlife, beloved family pet cats and dogs are also at risk. Many Australian councils use dangerous SGARs to control rodents in council-managed buildings and spaces, without realising the impacts this has on wildlife and pets in the community.

SGARs are already heavily regulated or banned in Europe and North America, and some proactive Australian councils are already phasing out SGARs because of the risks.

https://www.actforbirds.org/ratpoison

Looking for some social activity?

The Coal Point Landcare group was one of the first in Lake Mac and have been actively landcaring on our public reserves since 1995.

The knowledge of our local bushland within the group is extensive and the group is very willing to share it.

If you have a bushland block and are wondering what weeds are upon it, and what to do about them, the Landcare group is a local source of knowledge.

Every Thursday the group meets somewhere around Coal Point- Carey Bay and at 10am they stop for morning tea.If you’d like to chat with the group and pick their combined brains, that’s the time to do it.

If you’d like to join in and get all the benefits that a bit of physical activity and social contact provides, all are welcome to join in.