ARTEMIS ~ PLANTING TREES!

ABOUT 300 TREES PLANTED & ONLY 350 TO GO!!!

We are planting our trees to make a corridor – hopefully when these trees grow they will join 1 bush block with another. This corridor effect will be wonderful.
For the wild echidnas and


for the wild wombats ~it will provide more safety to roam and to find food.




For the wild birds ~ it will provide food, shelter and nesting sites.



For humans the benefit will help create a wind barrier which makes life easier as when the strong winds blow in the valley they also blow sand.

Now it is wheat and barley so the valley has transformed into a most beautiful green. However in the summer the landscape can be barren and parched and where there is a wind the sand blows with it …


For the earth – we are very grateful to have this beautiful earth – how many millions of life forms do we share this planet with – each bringing its richness – even if we don’t experience it as we live in cities there is an exchange – we all eat fish, and some of us love the seaweeds – our amazing oceans and what lives within them !!!




MY STEADY COMPANION
Bogart my patient mate often accompanies me in my tree planting expeditions.
The trees behind him are the ones we planted 2 years ago.



RECYCLING CARTONS AND BAMBOO
We have to protect the young saplings and we do this with milk or juice cartons. The bamboo stakes come from my husband Fumio – he is a gardener and in the winter does a lot of pruning. So he brings them home and we strip them of their leaves and then cut them to size.
Why? - This helps to prevent the rabbits eating them, the wind blowing them over and in the summer the sand from burying them.



WATERING THE TREES
This is the hardest job of all and we will have to do this for at least a year.
Why – because we are in drought. It is the middle of winter but when you dig a shallow hole it is just dry red sand!!! So we have to carry water in buckets and it is heavy work – but I know if the trees could smile they would when we pour water over them!



THE CHALLENGE



To plant as many trees as quickly as possible. But to also have the wisdom in knowing they all need to be watered and that means carrying buckets of water over a distance and in the summer the challenge is to remember the joy of it!