Raingardens in Docklands

Every visit to Melbourne's changing Docklands reveals something new.

Today I saw these raingardens in front of Mirvac's new townhouse development on the south side of the Yarra River. I liked them because they sit very easily in the landscape right on the Yarra River and for the high quality materials used for the borders and pavers. The raingardens are planted with Ficinia nodosa, or Knobby Club-rush - a coastal plant well suited to the filtering task.

Melbourne Water is encouraging householders to introduce raingardens into their gardens to clean and filter stormwater before it reaches waterways. For more information, click here.

Visit of Queen Elizabeth: arrival and departure

From dawn to dusk, people gathered along the Port Melbourne waterfront to watch the ships on Friday 25 February. The Queen Elizabeth attracted most attention, even though the other ship in Port was considerably larger. My interest was in watching people watching the ships, and how they used the place. All eyes were directed outwards to the water, and every person had a camera in hand. Balconies were theatre boxes to the show, monuments provides points of elevation, and the bumpy seawall provided seating. Even riders, usually too busy to stop, paused to take a picture.

Bike parking

In response to the previous post about shared bike and car parking, I was sent this photo from Amsterdam. Now this is bike parking!

Not just carparks

University of Melbourne: Royal Parade

Green Wall: ANZ building in Docklands

I absolutely love the green wall on the ANZ building in Docklands which is featured in the banner of Ideas for cities from cities.

I particiulary like the use of ficinia nodosa, or knobby club sedge. This plant is found on the dunes at Port Melbourne and also looks good as a landscape plant in front of the Beacon Cove towers where it has just had a tidy trim.

detail photo: Lyn Allison

Bike parking

I thought the bike parking at the Australian Open was better this year.

Looking after nature

the male flower of spinifex hirsutis. The male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.

zoysia macrantha recruiting at Perce White Reserve

Friends of Port Melbourne's Foreshore [FoPMF] hosted a workshop led by Jeff Yukovic of Biosis Research on Strategic Weed Management at Perce White Reserve. At the workshop it was confirmed that Perce White Reserve is the only site in Port Phillip where zoysia macrantha is found, shown above naturally recruiting.
Principles of revegetation

• planting should only be done as a last resort
• recruitment is preferred to planting
• plants should be site indigenous - not just locally indigenous
• create conditions for recruitment through weeding
• anything else is horticulture which may be appropriate depending on the context
• a guide to knowing when revegetation or horticulture is preferred is whether the original soil is present

Principles of weeding

• minimise off target damage
• rhizomatous plants such as sea wheat grass Thinopyrum juncei are not amenable to hand weeding
• mulch puts weeds into temporary dormancy and is not a permanent solution

I also learned that:

• Atriplex cineria has male and female flowers on separate plants, as does Spinifex hirsutis.
• Spinifex hirsutis has unlimited horizontal rhizomes which creates sloping dunes whereas marram has horizontal and vertical rhizomes and builds steep dunes.

Strategies

• Use rhagodia or tetragonia as edges
• [Jeff didn't have an issue with acacia sophorae or rhagodia]

Resources

• A census of the vascular plants of Victoria [2007]
• Flora of Victoria

Other

Look out for Coast saltwort salsola tragus a prickly succulent, annual, tumbeweed which may appear if Cakile maritima is weeded out