We were a day late for Earth Day, but we spent Saturday out at the ranch, finally planting all the Australian Eucalyptus trees I bought a couple months ago.
The ranch is full of red dirt, with mesquite and cactus, but it could easily double in a movie for Outback Australia. It’s over 100 acres, and Matt’s parents are doing some wildlife management on most of it, but we decided on the acre where we camp to plant a little bit of home, so I bought some Australian natives.
After doing a search on the interwebs for Australian Natives, I came across Australian Outback Plants who had a huge variety of Aussie natives. I messaged them to get advice on what would grow best in my area, and the my surprise, the owner called me back. Paul Chambers is another Aussie Expat, who started with a bag full of seeds, and now sells plants to all the major stores in the US. Yet, he still called me back personally, and we had a good chat about the land, the soil, the weather, and he said if I made a list of what I wanted, he was doing a trip through Texas the following week, and would deliver them himself on the way.
That was a couple of months back, and Paul delivered my 11 trees, and gave me two baby ones, out of a massive semi trailer on his way to Houston. We were still having major freezes, so we put them in the greenhouse at Matt’s parents house, until a couple weekends ago, when everything started to bloom at the ranch. Apparently once the mesquite blooms, the freezes are done. The cactus is covered in flowers too, and I’m looking forward to prickly pears soon!
So we pulled out the bobcat, put the driller on it, and dug some holes.
We bought a bunch of dirt, because you’re supposed to plant them with 50/50 good soil, and whatever they’re growing in. We got them all in the ground in one day thanks to modern machinery, and then we used our water tank to go around and give them all a good drink.
Hopefully we get some good rain this year, so they can all grown big and beautiful. I strategically planted them all so that I could see most from our outdoor sitting area, with the bigger ones west of the camp, to provide some summer shade.
For our first set, I also bought all different kinds of Eucalypts, so we can see which ones do the best, and then get more of those later.
We also put little cages around them all, because one of the miniature donkeys had found them very tasty, and was ripping whole limbs off some of them. – Bad donkey!
If you’re in the US, and looking for some Australian Natives, call Paul at Australian Outback Plants. Their website is super comprehensive, and has good details on each plant. They’re also on Facebook. He’s also a really nice bloke, and I’d buy from him again any day. He sells to Lowes and Home Depot, but I’d rather give my money to a supplier directly. 👍 The plantation is out of Arizona, so if you’re in the south, might be a pretty easy trip to get some plants, otherwise, they will ship them to you.