Local environment groups are donning their winter woollies for good and are out in force planting across the outer east of Melbourne.
Friends of Gully (FROGY) will be planting out a new area on 28 June and are inviting the community to come along to Blind Creek in Ferntree Gully.
The winter plant out will run from 10am to 12pm on Saturday 28 June, on the land adjacent to the upper reaches of Blind Creek in Chatham Avenue in Ferntree Gully (close to Ferntree Gully North Primary School), people should bring along their own gloves and favourite digging tools, or else tools can be provided.
“We are extending our area of impact in the FROGY patch by planting out a new area,” said President Robyn Madsen.
“We had to delay planting a bit this year as we had such a dry summer and autumn,” she said.
Planting is best done in the cooler, wetter months so that the roots have the maximum amount of time to settle in and form a beneficial relationship with the fungi before the hot dry summer conditions.
Aiming to get around 1000 plants in the ground, Robyn said the group are excited to be creating more habitat where the ducks, tawny frogmouths and other birds can breed.
After a decade of volunteering with the group, Robyn said she has recently been more heavily involved with FROGY in the last four years.
“Prior to that I would turn up to working bees on a sporadic basis,” she said.
“I love seeing all the different bugs, worms, fungi, plants and so on that you may not notice if you’re just walking by, also when you are weeding or planting in a spot and the birds get used to you and go back to doing their thing. ”
Friends of Gully (FROGY) was formed in 2021 to restore the bushland and improve the health of Blind Creek in Chatham Avenue in Ferntree Gully.
“I love spotting trees I put in a couple of years prior and seeing how they are taking off. It’s also been a great way to meet like minded people,” said Robyn.
Flowing from the base of the Dandenong Ranges to the Dandenong Creek, Blind Creek is just downstream of the Knox Central Activity Centre and Lewis Park.
The creek forms part of the revegetation area proposed by Knox City Council in their Biodiversity Resilience Strategy and Melbourne Water’s Healthy Waterways Strategy to form a connected habitat to facilitate the movement of wildlife.
What may seem like a simple planting day is a vital effort towards tackling biodiversity loss, climate change, and the heat island effect all at the same time and as the day approaches on June 28, community are all invited to come along.
“We are also creating a suburban bush oasis for people to visit,” said Robyn.
Anyone interested can RSVP to Robyn at frogy.info@gmail.com or 0425 753 886 to assist with catering.
