YAN Nursery managers and volunteers recently visited the Australian National Botanical Gardens and Kathryn Scobie was our guide.  The ANBG main focus is to grow plants from cuttings to ensure correct plant genetics as the ANBG grows plants for Threatened Ecological Communities, for specific Save our Species plants, to establish and maintain permanently potted plants from which cuttings can be taken from, plus to grow plants for ANBG garden beds.  Nursery hygiene is critical and Kathryn told us how potting material and pots are stored and prepared.  Sowing via seed is only about 10% of their nursery work.  Our visit high-lighted several practices or products that our regional Landcare nurseries could adopt.  We are so lucky to be so close to Canberra and we will try to maintain contact with ANBG staff to ensure future visits.   

With all hands on deck, holes were dug and 84 trees and shrubs were planted, watered and protected with tree guards in no time flat!

This planting on Sunday 30th May was one of the last supporting trial sites for YAN's Climate Ready Revegetation Project. The trial has been designed to test whether there is any difference in the survival of plants grown from locally sourced seed compared with plants grown from seed from other areas (including areas with climates similar to what is projected for the Yass region under climate change). 

You can find out more about the project here.