Dog owner education in Darebin Parklands

The other day, as we were walking in Darebin Parklands, we came across this great sign.

We try to be as careful as possible in obeying the regulations in this park, because we remember the terrible times, years ago, when there was such a horrible fight about dogs using the area.

We never forget that although this is a fabulous place to walk with Penny, it is not a dog park as such. It is a wonderfully reclaimed area of native flora and fauna and a credit to the visionaries who first thought of doing so, and to the hard ongoing work of the Darebin Parklands Association. 

The sign has some amazing facts about how many dogs use the park. No wonder it's necessary to make sure we all respect the various facets of this area: human recreation, dog exercise, native animal habitat, native flora regrowth, water quality and water life. There would be many more aspects, but I can't think of them right now. Oh, yes, the spiritual healing trail, a most important feature. A few years ago I attended a smoking ceremony that was very beautiful and spiritually uplifting.

Mother Earth bandages her wounds with weeds

At a recent talk by John, at Edible Forest Gardens in Wonga Park, he spoke about the damage we do to the soil when we dig or disturb it in any way. From what I understood, he said that Mother Earth has to bandage the wound when soil is uncovered or disturbed, and what we call 'weeds' are the first line of defence.

Yesterday we walked with Penny in Darebin Parklands, and part of the area we passed had been cleared, presumably for revegetation with indigenous plants. I was interested to see the baby wattles growing there, because I remembered John saying one of the first 'fixes' for naked, broken soil is plants that can add nitrogen to the ground, eg wattles.

I wondered what these seedlings would turn out to be:







Further along, beside the creek, there was another array of weeds, this time not native plants. (I couldn't help noticing many of them are edible.) It's fascinating to see them  trying to fix the nakedness of the soil. I guess they will eventually be removed, because the aim is to cover the ground with indigenous plants.

I guess they'll help build soil nutrients. The issue would be whether this is the type of nutrition the indigenous plants need.

goji berries and African boxthorn

I walked in Darebin Parklands without Penny this morning, because I was taking part in a 'mini retreat' to learn more about mindfulness. It was lovely to walk mindfully, using my three senses - hearing, sight and feeling/touch/body awareness. When I'm with Penny the time seems to rush by unexamined, as she dashes from place to place.

I came across an African boxthorn, a really pestiferous weed in Australia, and dared to try out a theory I have that the fruit is the same as the much-admired goji. I ate one, and it tasted nice, even sweeter than the gojis in my garden. Of course, there's the likelihood that the plant had been sprayed with poison, but I thought it looked as if it had not been.

Later, when Penny and two of us humans returned to the park, I persuaded Human Number Two to also try out one of the fruit, and so far we're unharmed, lol.

BTW, I had taken the precaution of rechecking my facts about African boxthorn and felt reasonably sure it was a goji-relation.

ADDITIONAL NOTE 11 MAY 2015: I'm not sure that African Boxthorn is safe to eat. I think it's too risky until I can find out more.

I wonder if it would be good for the park if everyone took home lots of these nutritious fruit, so the birds don't continue to seed them all around the place. (They're frightfully expensive to buy.)

Of course, the better course is to get rid of the plants entirely.

it's very dry here

No one seems to be discussing the weather lately, which is strange for Melbourne. I guess we're all just glad we didn't have many bush fires this summer and we're enjoying the glorious cool, sunny weather.

But when will we get some proper rain?

We walked in Darebin Parklands today and it was disturbing to see how dry everything is.

I'm interested in weeds, especially the edible ones, but I didn't recognise the plants that are surviving in the desert landscape of the dog area of the park. I wonder what they all are? Some were dandelions, those mineral-filled nutritious plants that are so ubiquitous, but they were the only ones I knew.

In one area where there has been a bonfire, a baby wattle has sprouted. I think I read somewhere that wattles are one of the first-line plants after a fire. They grow, add nitrogen to the soil, and prepare the way for other plants to colonise.

Seeing that little plant made me think of the plant that has sprouted in one of my vegetable beds in my own garden. (I've transplanted it, but I'm not sure it will survive.)

It's a baby lemon scented gum, probably offspring of the giant in our street. (The tree is so tall I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole tree in this photo.)

Penny finds a mowed tennis ball

In our local park, Darebin Parklands, someone has been busy mowing, and they seem to have mowed over a tennis ball. What a find for Penny! Balls are good fun, but there's nothing more interesting than one that can be thrown and yet has a squishy, mouthable shape.

regrowth in Darebin Parklands after the dry spell

Yesterday Penny and I ventured back to our favourite old walking spot, Darebin Parklands. It's been so hot and dry over the summer that we have walked in other places where there's more shade, but seeing it has cooled down - at last! - we decided to return to the park.

As you can see from this photo, the thirsty ground had become quite barren in the heat.

But it's great to see that with the recent rain the networks of cracks in the dry soil are starting to close.

And lots of tiny plants are germinating, so I expect that soon the hills and dales of the park will be lushly green.

wombat, dog and no rain in sight

When is it going to rain? Our garden is desiccated, and so are the parks where we walk. Here's the soil last week at Yarra Bend.

 

 For the first time in weeks, we decided to take a stroll in Darebin Parklands a couple of days ago, and it sure is dry. The ground is cracking open.


 

The ranger does a terrific job looking after this huge area, and it's great to see the historic mulberry trees are surviving so far.


 

We received an email on Sunday evening warning us to be aware of the wombat that has been released in the Parklands. We'll certainly respect its right to live safely, and won't knowingly disturb it.

To be honest, I'd be a bit scared to meet it unexpectedly. When we go to the hills for our holiday, we don't go too near the huge wombat that lives around our house, except that Penny loves to gobble up his poo. I usually leap out of the car first, gather up the heaps of grassy poo and put it in the compost bin, but occasionally I miss some and Penny delights in it. One time, I closed a gate in the daytime not realising the wombat might be in that paddock. I remembered, went down in the dark to re-open the gate and a humongous giant - the wombat - rushed past as soon as it was open. Penny and I took to our heels in fright.

visiting the park without the dog

Penny gave my legs a good sniffing when I came home from Darebin Parklands this afternoon. I could read her mind: 'What were you doing in one of my favorite places without me'?

Let's hope that next time I go down there Penny will be with me. We went for a little stroll around the block today, and up our grassy back lane. Her foot was bandaged, and miraculously the bandage didn't fall off, even though I forgot to follow proud womon's advice to put a sock over the bandage.

We'd better get some more walks happening soon, because the lying around is starting to give Penny some bad hair days.

The reason I was in the park without Penny? I was learning about edible weeds.  Can I now identify lots of these useful plants?

Hmm... maybe.

The rains continue and Penny visits Darebin Parklands

We went down to Darebin Parklands today to see the swollen creek and to enjoy the fresh green growth, such a pleasure after the years of drought.



But of course, as in our famous poem, there are 'droughts and flooding rains', and I realise not everyone may be enjoying the flooding we are experiencing at the moment. Today the water was up over the path even early in the morning, and we had to retrace our steps, instead of making a circuit of the park.



Because of the lack of access to our usual route, we didn't go to the off-lead area, so Penny walked on lead for an hour, usually a annoying time for us, as she likes to surge ahead.

However, today was different, because Cindy told me about the Sporn Mesh Non-pull Harness - and it works! I bought one at Coldstream Animal Aid and slipped it over Penny's head as I was shown, and she doesn't pull now. It's just amazing. As you can see from these photos, the lead is quite loose - well, most of the time!

eucalypts drop branches when you don't expect it

When we were in Darebin Parklands the other day, we met some people at the big pool in the bend of the creek and stood discussing the recent floods.

Crack! A branch dropped straight down from one of the trees around the edge of the pool. No warning except that infamous sound.

A young boy and his pup had been standing there only moments before.



Of course, inquisitive Penny (and her humans) went over to have closer look. Probably not too intelligent, but we were working on the theory that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same spot.



It seems that it's not known why some trees (not just eucalypts) unexpectedly drop limbs.I haven't found any information on the internet about the actual process of dropping the limb but here is an interesting article. I took a couple of closeups of the end of the branch, and I don't know if it looks as if there is any particular disease at that spot.





And a shot of the place it dropped from, high up the trunk.



As we wandered further through the park, we came across an even bigger branch that had dropped previously.

floods in Darebin Parklands

For the last fourteen years or so we've been wishing for rain.

And this summer we have had plenty!

Our famous Australian poem says, in one stanza:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

Droughts seem to have taken a back seat in Victoria at the moment, in favor of the flooding rains.

A couple of days ago, Penny took as down to Darebin Parklands to see what has been happening and we saw the results of the recent flooding.



In one way, the rain is beautiful, and I think no-one regrets the water that has sunk into the ground and replenished our water table, reinvigorated our creeks and rivers and added to our water storage. Look how green the parklands are at the moment:



However, there's been a lot of damage in the park and it will take work to get things back to normal.

Here's some of the fencing that protects the new plantings.



But much of it has been uprooted.



And there's junk everywhere.







And big logs thrown around.





It wasn't too hard to work out which direction the water flowed.





There's to be a clean-up day on February 26th and another on Clean Up Australia Day on 6th March.

something big in Penny's garden

Penny won't usually go out to the back garden after dark unless we go with her - or unless she hears something strange that requires investigation, such as noisy possums, careless rats, or cats traveling up the back lane.

On the last few nights, as I've waited out in the chilly winter's cold for her to do her business, I've seen a large flying creature take off from our beautiful fifty-year-old willow myrtle. I think it might be a powerful owl, which would be wonderful, not only because it's a privilege to have such a magnificent bird in our garden, but also because, with a bit of luck, it will solve our rat problem.

I'm optimistic that it's an owl because there have been definite sightings of this bird in the nearby Darebin Parklands, and our garden has a population of possums (and rats, of course), together with closely planted trees. Whatever the creature is, it is large, and makes a wonderful whooshing sound as it flies from the tree. It's always in the same spot each night.

On the other hand, it might be a flying fox, because they abound around here. But I think these gorgeous flying mammals are gregarious, so I wouldn't expect to see a single one each night. And the other thing is, flying foxes are noisy, chattering and chirping, and this creature is silent until we walk right up to the tree where it is sitting. It gave me quite a fright the first time it dived upwards from the tree just above my head.

Interestingly, Penny takes no notice of it, although a possum sitting in the same spot would evoke a storm of barking.

dogs and weedkiller sprays

Yesterday's walk in Darebin Parklands was a bit scary, because the weeds had been sprayed. I was grateful that a colored spray had been used, so we could see which areas to avoid.



But of course Penny didn't know to avoid them and I had to call her away. She seemed surprised that suddenly, after five years of walking along the same path, one side was out of bounds. But she's an obliging dog, so she obeyed me. (Note that I don't say she's an obedient dog. There's a fine difference, lol.)



Luckily there were plenty of other areas where a dog could chase balls and, after capturing them, roll on them.



Herbicides can be quite dangerous to dogs, both in the short term and in long terms effects, but an article at Dogtime says of Roundup-type (Glyphosate)sprays,

Once it's dry, the chemical has been taken down to the root of the plant and the lawn is considered dog-safe.

On the other hand, Suite 101 has an article on natural herbicides that says of Glyphosate-based herbicides:

Glyphosate, the ingredient in Roundup, is toxic to amphibians. Glyphosate is safe for use near mammals, but there is some debate as to whether it is an endocrine disruptor.

Since the parklands are home to many treasured varieties of amphibians, I don't think that would be the main ingredient of the spray used.

I guess I could keep reading more and more about herbicides and just get more worried and confused. But the bottom line is that I have faith in the rangers who look after the parklands.

And I'll make sure Penny doesn't enter the sprayed areas.

dog-walking in Darebin Parklands at sunset

As I said in my previous post, tonight we took Penny for an evening walk to Darebin Parklands. It was a warm day. It was also a smoky one. I think there must be lots of burning-off going on around Melbourne, in preparation for next year's bushfire season. Thank goodness this summer was virtually free of bushfires!

It's great that the authorities are preparing early for next summer. Of course, there's only a small window of opportunity to burn off, as it needs to be still, cool and dry. Once winter sets in it might be too wet.

As we walked with Penny along the clifftop above Darebin Parklands, the sunset was lovely, an effect of the smoky air. The city skyline was a blur on the horizon



and the sun set through a red haze.



As we went down the hill into the parklands, the sun set.

how lovely is the evening in Darebin Parklands

This morning Penny stayed at home while I went down to help with maintenance of the exquisite little gem that is the Hidden Valley in Darebin Parklands. Penny doesn't go there often, as it is in the on-lead area and I can't see the point in making her walk on lead when there are lovely areas on the other side of the creek where she can run free.

We worked with one of the rangers, who showed us how to weed by hand around the indigenous plants. She explained that we don't need to hand weed everywhere, because she can use specific sprays to target broadleaved weeds near grasses.

This evening, we went with Penny to the on-lead side of the creek to look at the grasses and lomandra that we planted in August of 2008. The broad-leaved spray has been used there. Here's a picture from my blog post at the time of the baby plants.



And look at them now!





Here's a shot of the effect of the broad-leaved weedkiller. The weed has died but the lovely grasses are unaffected.



Isn't it a beautiful spot? The next photo's blurry because it was after sunset and taken on a long exposure. Of course, a human and a dog having fun are never still enough for the photographer...