March meeting

Don't forget the working bee next week, Wed 30 March.
Same as usual - from 9.00am, with BYO morning tea at 11.30.
This time we might continue with the cats claw, trying to pull back
those outlying runners, so that the plant is contained within its
previous boundaries. Many of the runners are travelling quite a long
way, but haven't got roots into the soil yet, so now is a good time to
pick them up and cut them off, before they dig into new territory and
start making those pesky little tubers.
Tools for digging out shallow roots and tubers would be useful.
Don't forget gloves and secateurs, as well as something to put the weeds and tubers into as you work.
Trish

Cats claw

Five of our members turned up for the working bee last week, plus Steve Plant and his offsider Aaron.
Welcome to our newest member Joan Kirton. She and Euan McLean did some fruitful work on the cats claw in the corner. It is running downhill across the ground, and finding more trees to climb. Euan explained to Joan about the "Bradfield Method" (which consists of containing weeds by pushing back the frontiers rather than attacking the heartland). It was a very appropriate method, as cats claw runners were covering considerable distance, but hadn't actually put down many roots yet, so they recovered quite a bit of territory. I also had a go at the "heartland", getting it down from the trees to prevent it from flowering.
Graham and Judy Stevens found quite a few large asparagus roots. I couldn't find many, so had the satisfaction of knowing that we are definitely keeping the larger plants down.
Trish