In the patch of land I have behind a village on Western Port I am creating an ephemeral wetland, the most biodiverse of wetlands. Well trying to, and it has been such a treat to try.

Ecological experiments

Like everything I do on this plot, my wetland is an ecological experiment. So far the other experiments have worked well. (I rotary-hoed a piece along the fenceline and a forest of blackwood saplings, an occasional blackwattle, and now manna gums have popped up. Thanks in part to the rains of the past few years.

Shovelling out

Hayden of Highview Landscapes dug my wetland out with his excellent shovelwork. This was a depression in the landscape which I believe was once originally a wetland. Hayden dug only a shovel deep. Other landscapers I spoke to wanted to use a digging machine (and probably line the wetland with plastic) and in my heart, I knew this would be crude and unkind to much-abused soil. There would not be the subtlety of depth and shape. We then got a thumper and thumped that clay till it congealed into a more waterproof form, but first it turned into a gel and wobbled with a press of the foot. The thumping is called puddling the clay and it is an old English art, not that there was much art to what we did.

Plants and planting

There are two sorts of plants I want to put in guided by the Conservation Collective website: edge planting and ephemeral planting. First I have bought ephemeral planting. Sara at Conservation Collective said that thing about wetland plants is that they may not look like much on the top but there is a lot happening underground. I had not realised how much happened underground. Popping plants out of their little black pots reveals a mass of strong roots. Thanks Sara for an insight I lacked before