The Yass Hospital historical rose cuttings housed at the Yass landcare community nursery are now being protected from the wind by donated shade cloth. The shade cloth was installed at the regular nursery open morning on the last Tuesday of the month (26th November 2019).

The roses are blooming as well as can be expected in the current heat and wind. Upon receiving advice from a rose horticulture specialist the rose cuttings were moved under the tables in the shade house as they were getting too much water. They will be inspected in February 2020 to see if the 3-4 cuttings in each pot - are ready to re-pot.

On 1 November nursery volunteers from Bowning-Bookham Landcare sowed some Billy Button seed (Craspedia sp.) collected from the Yass Valley region. Thirteen days on they are germinating under the guidance of the Bango nursery team. We look forward to planting these wildflowers out in our members paddocks where they will be food for local pollinators.  

At the regular last-Tuesday-of-the-month Yass Landcare Community nursery open morning, volunteers sowed over 50 trays of natives which included Yellow Box and Bulbine lily.  In October over 1500 pots of natives were sown and all trays are now adopting a new labeling system which will enable the nursery team to evaluate the effectiveness of sowing events.

Yass is one of four YAN nurseries who will be participating in the YAN Climate Ready project in the coming months and all nurseries are working together to strengthen procedures associated with sowing and growing native plants across our region.

The next sowing event at the Yass Landcare Community nursery will be on 16 November as part of the YAN Sowing for Sutton Reserve and AGM.  If you would like to assist Yass and fellow Landcare members sow native seed for the Sutton Reserve project we hope to see you there.

On Saturday 12th October, YAN Coordinator Sonya Duus helped out in the Saving Our Species tent at the Harden Kite Festival. It was a great day, and there was plenty of wind for flying kites. Children were invited to colour in their chosen threatened species - which included the Superb Parrot, Glossy Black Cockatoo, Southern Pygmy Perch, a glider, and Powerful Owl. The beautiful coloured-in pictures were then turned into kites using simple biodegradable materials. All the while, kids and parents got to learn more about these species at risk in NSW. 

Sonya joined with other Landcare representatives from Boorowa and Mid Lachlan Landcare Groups, as well as Damon from DPIE, Giselle from Southern Tablelands Arts in the kite tent. 

Photo courtesy of Saving Our Superb Parrot Facebook Page