One of the many salvage projects that I was thinking was going ok was the Tree Paddock.

Originally we called it the Stone Paddock. Made up of mining spoil from dry dredging for gold, it consisted of a raised layer of river stones. Since the mining, now more than a hundred years ago, a tiny layer of soil had accumulated in between the cracks. Enough for a few weeds to get going, then when the summer sun hit the paddock and the stones heated up, it fried off everything.

But there were signs of hope. The previous owner had tried planting a few hundred gums. About fifty had survived. I kept them going by hand watering, hauling 20 litre drums of water when the February summer heat peaked. Even so, a few of them died, too. But the ones that survived provided shade, helped retain moisture, and slowly the paddock has become grassed. Rather than the bare boned rock pile it was, at times it looks lush and green.

I started planting, filling in the gaps. The first year I scraped small holes and filled them with saplings and a small amount of dirt. And of course, they cooked and died.

So each year in winter I had another go, improving my technique, with a small increase in success. But last year I think I found the answer. With a posthole digger, after heavy rain, I can shift the stones out of the way enough to create a cavity of at least 4 litres. I fill that with proper soil and a sapling. Now in summer I have a water tank mounted on a buggy, and its just time, not effort, to water the trees in summer.

As a result I have at least 60% of the trees I planted last year still going this winter. Once our last harvest is done I can get going on planting this year's batch.

The original trees that started all this are now quite big. Ten year old gums, some of them are quite impressive.

So I was disappointed to lose one about four weeks ago in a storm. Over it went, pulled out of the ground almost. I had intended to let it dry out and salvage what firewood I could, but its resprouted from its prone position, so I will just let it go and see what happens next.

But this week another went over. And the penny dropped. They probably have all been planted the way I started….a small hole, sapling shoved in. Over 10 years they've grown as best they could, a tiny root ball cemented in place by solid rock. This one had a root ball about as big as a football…and that was it. No long stabilizing roots.

They are probably all like that, and destined for a short life.

Postscript: Four weeks later.....we have had two days when it didn't rain in the last four weeks. As a result the ground is as wet as its going to be. I got fifty trees planted, filling in the gaps between last year's saplings. And then it rained again, so they've been nicely watered in. These were mostly red gum, grown from seed by my neighbour who is a whiz with trees. My old tractor needs a fully charged battery and the engine block has to be slightly warmed up by the sun to get it started, so with the cold and rain I haven't had a chance to do any more tree hole digging. But I have rows of pots lined up ready to go....!