Hello, I am Fiona Leuenberger from the Homestead Ridge Progress Association. I care for Conservation and Environment. I am here to introduce ‘The Friends of Homestead Reserves’.
Our aim is to encourage and regenerate native flora and fauna in our reserves and bring them back to something like their former glory.
Our reserves here still have remnants of our native Western Australian flora by selectively weeding out invasive species we aim to give native plants a fighting chance to survive and thrive.
Providing the correct environment for Bandicoots, Blue Wrens, Fantails, Carnaby Cockatoos and other native birds and native fauna to live sustainably.
The seeds and tubers of our native flora are still in the soil but they are being smothered by introduced species. Our knowledgeable Bush Care Officer Angela guides us on which weeds to selectively weed out. She has a method which minimises labour and maximises effect. Our aim is to enhance the ambience of Homestead Ridge and bring back the tiny jewels of native orchids and other native flora.
We aim to make our reserves more enjoyable places to be and to be proud of.
Team removing Pig Face succulent from around Banksia seedlings.
We have three Re-Wilding days planned each year in early spring and hope to introduced an extra weeding day each year. This we achieved in 2022. We opened up a new area for re wilding, finding and freeing increasingly rare white native orchid and reducing the ever present South African Daisy, improving biodiversity.
However we are limited to how much we can achieve by the numbers of residents helping. The commitment is approximately 2 hours per weeding day, which would be six hours per year, eight hours if we achieve the extra day.
We need to show that we appreciate our special bush setting, we are in the foothills of the Bush Forever region so our residential area feeds into that. We would love to have you as volunteer residents to join us, it is a chance to do something for the Environment, Greening Australia and to tackle biodiversity loss in your own back yard. (There are community planting days arranged by Kwinana Council where many new trees, shrubs and understory are planted on the Ridge if you wish to be involved).
We have also introduced the ‘Verge Project’ to beautify our verges by alerting people to cut price native plants through the Kwinana Council in mid May our rainy season. We aim to improve our verges in a way conversant with our bush setting; to beautify and make our suburb more wildlife friendly in keeping with our ethos of ‘living with nature’. These are also the plants that thrive most readily in this environment.
We aim to boost the attractiveness of our suburb and homes from the street. There are many good quality plants in tube stock form available at this time (mid May) if you are looking for fresh garden plants, they are well sought after. Hoping that you can join us it would be much appreciated.
Fiona
Please find examples of our past initiatives below:
Delicate weeding around Orchid species – Crossroads.
Tackling a jungle of fumitory weed.
Removed pig face succulent from Weaver Reserve.