There are many ways to ‘grow back the bush’. You can plant individual groundcovers, understory shrubs and trees. You can light a fire (at the right time of the year) and maybe knock off the weeds as well as stimulate some of the seeds in the soil to germinate. If you have access to a grader and want to try something a bit more radical you can remove the high nitrogen/phosphorous layer of the soil as well as remove the weed seed layer by ‘scalping’ the top few centimetres of the landscape. At the Arb we are trying all these methods and more.

In winter a one hectare area at the Arb was scalped to a depth of 10 centimetres. In doing so we created an area befitting the 19th green of the Euroa golf course and formed a couple of mountains in the process. In August Rod White and Dave Franklin from Greening Australia sowed the site with about 60 species of native grass, herbs, lilies, daisies and peas.

Several months on it is interesting to see what has happened. Even after a dry winter and spring things are starting to grow. Daisies are identifiable, and the wallaby grasses are starting. Unfortunately, so is the Sweet Vernal grass and some Paspalum, but in such low numbers as to be easily identified and sprayed for control.

Now we just need some summer rain!