These cute goats help native plant revegetation | Australian native plants | Gardening Australia скачать в хорошем качестве

These cute goats help native plant revegetation | Australian native plants | Gardening Australia

Colin Arnold has about 40 years’ experience as a horticulturalist and nurseryman for the past 40 years and is passionate about been using goats in revegetation situations. He has been working in revegetation – trying to remove weeds and replace them with indigenous plants along waterways and other bush reserves – but after several decades he found nothing much was changing. “Our waterways were still infested with weeds and we need to use a lot of herbicide, but I’d like to see that change.” His solution was to try using goats. They’re flexible creatures are renowned for eating just about anything and they proved him right by chomping through all manner of introduced plant species. “Angled onion is a major problem along the Dandenong Creek,” Colin said. “The goats love the flowers and eat the foliage too at certain times.” They also eat other local weeds: privet, English ivy, pittosporums, blackberries, hawthorn and even prickly gorse. “Gorse has seed that is viable for 25 years, but goats will find those seedlings and eat them, too,” he said. Colin put the bigger goats in areas where there are larger bushes, such as blackberries and tree regrowth. Other areas, where they have been working for eight years, have already developed thickets of native grasses such as Poa and Lomandra species, so they only need to be visited by smaller goats for a few weeks each year, just to keep down a few smaller weeds. He has found the goats won’t eat certain native plants, such as Cassinia, so that complements the native grasses well. “They flower at different times and attract different insects, so form part of landscape we want to restore,” he said. Colin points to a weeping grass (Microlaena stipoides) that has reseeded on its own and the goats leave alone; right next to it is the weed fumitory, which the goats will eat. Finally, he shows a native mint (Mentha australis), which used to be in the area but is rarely found now because the microflora and microfauna in the soil is struggling due to weeds. By protecting the soil and maybe even inoculating with microflora and fauna, these plants can thrive again. And local volunteers can spend time doing more useful things, such as planting and putting in nesting boxes, instead of weeding. Watch Gardening Australia on ABC iview: http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/gard... About Gardening Australia: Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia's leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content. Connect with other Gardening Australia fans: Like Gardening Australia on Facebook:   / gardeningaustralia   Follow Gardening Australia on Instagram:   / gardeningaustralia   Visit the Gardening Australia website: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel. ******** Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC's Online Conditions of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).