Removing the (Literal) Dead Wood

This afternoon was good gardening weather with comfortable temperatures of about 22 C. So it was time to bring out the pruning saw and the secateurs for an afternoon of removing dead trees and shrubs. You might remember that last summer, we spotted borers in a wattle tree. Well, the tree finally bit the dust, and here is some of the damage the borers did.


As I started cutting back branches on a Fringe Wattle, I found one of the culprits! This fellow is a relative of the witchetty grubs of Central Australia, probably the larva of a cossid moth.


I was sorry to see that my Sydney Red Gum had also succumbed. As it is a native of our sandstone country, it had struggled here, but I was keen to have one of these beautiful trees. In more than ten years it had grown no taller than I am! We are hoping to replace it with a Parramatta Wattle as it's about as far from our house as we can get it. You can see a "little" Parramatta Wattle in the background.


I may have lost my hop-bushes, a wattle, a gum and a tea-tree today, but some other plants are doing well. Here is the last flower on our Eucalyptus 'Summer Beauty': summer is indeed over.