Overgrowth Management in Harkaway

Overgrowth Management in Harkaway: Local Conditions

Overgrowth in Harkaway has a clear starting point: the eastern boundary along Cardinia Creek. Each growing season, blackberry, sweet briar and native scrub push in from the riparian corridor toward the lower paddock edges, and those edges and the dam surrounds are the first places to show regrowth after clearing. Without follow-up herbicide treatment, the results of a single clearing job do not hold past one season, so we plan for a return visit from the outset. Further up the slopes, the problem changes. Where paddock use has lapsed on larger properties, rank paspalum, dock and thistles establish quickly on the clay. Large lots mean long fence lines, and post-and-rail fences and arena edges grow over in a single season. Properties along Hyde Hill Road, with stables, wash bays and arenas, have a great deal of fence line and arena edge to keep clear. Our approach is a combination of methods. Mechanical slashing deals with the open ground. Hand clearing handles the areas near fences, gates and arenas where a machine cannot go without damage. Targeted herbicide then treats the roots and regrowth, particularly on blackberry. We take the cuttings away so the property is left clear. Because the ground is clay and erosion-prone on south-facing slopes, we avoid heavy disturbance where we can. Leaving some ground cover reduces the bare soil that weeds colonise first. An estimate visit lets us walk the creek boundary and paddock edges, and set out the first clear and the follow-up in one plan.

Working in Harkaway