Hemsley's Landcare Services

18/04/2025

Happy Easter everybody...this little calf has found his spot to hunker down for the easter break.

13/03/2025

Rains are comin'
Cowaramup looking very grey about 4pm. Looks like the main belt of rain is passing through the hills and western wheatbelt.

Is this the First Flush of the season?
We would need at least 15-20mm over the next few days to wet the topsoil enough to spark any decent germination.

09/03/2025

Support our local farmers...
Delicious pasture-raised chicken from Southampton Homestead.
https://southamptonhomestead.store/

Jeff and Michelle are the real-deal. They go above and beyond to produce chicken that is raised with animal welfare, high-grade nutrition and regenerative farming at the forefront of their operation.

Their chicken is rich with flavour, nutrient-dense and wholesome. You can just tell that their birds have had all the exercise and nutrition that they need to become healthy and fully-developed chickens.

13/02/2025

Out on the edge of Vasse-Wonnerup wetlands today...basal-barking Fig trees that are invasive w**ds in our wetland areas. Prime real estate for tiger snakes (Noorn). Took my time to acknowledge the spirits of the place and ask permission before I ventured into snake territory.
Equal parts exhilarating and nerve-racking

22/12/2024

Hemsley's Landcare has flourished this spring, with lots of w**d control work for DBCA both up in Harvey/Waroona and down south in Hamelin Bay, Giants Cave and East Augusta. The Arum Lilies have been especially thick this year, and the battle continues against this w**d that is rapidly becoming an ecological disaster in the Capes region.

We started our first Direct Seeding trial for native revegetation in October, on a sheep farm in Warner Glen. A mix of trees and shrubs all local species. The seeds are waiting until the autumn rains to germinate. Watch this space to see how the seeds go next year. Will be an exciting win for riparian reveg as it costs alot less than buying and planting seedlings.

22/12/2024

Who can identify this Hoverfly species? We had about 30 of them hovering around our tomato bushes in Cowaramup today. They are great little beneficial insects as pollinators and their larvae are voracious predators on aphids.

02/05/2024

Blackberry spraying out at Southampton Homestead. Andrew is walking the plank, fully kitted up with backpack. Laying wooden boards down to get deep into these established Blackberry thickets is a good way to get proper herbicide coverage onto the plants. It also helps to avoid spray drift onto nearby native plants and waterways.

It's tough work, but somebody has to do it!

02/05/2024

I just love what The Mulloon Institute is doing for farming catchments over in eastern Australia. Check out what they are all about....

Mulloon Institute is a research, education and advocacy not-for-profit organisation. Connecting environment, farming and society through practical demonstration.

01/05/2024

What is Landscape Rehydration?

It's all about improving how we intercept and manage rainfall in our rural catchments, to help our farmers become more drought resilient, create wetland zones and improve seepage of water into the soil profile.

You may have seen Peter Andrews, a NSW horse farmer, on Australian Story a while ago. He really started this work by improving waterways and w**d management on his property using some original, and sometimes controversial methods. His original initiatives have been progressed and refined in the last 13 years by The Mulloon Institute based in southern NSW (https://themullooninstitute.org/).

01/05/2024

Thanks to everybody who has followed Cowie Kanga, letting you know we sold the Kanga a couple of years ago.

We have now morphed into Hemsley's Landcare Services. We are a local environmental contracting business based in Cowaramup. We do w**d control, native revegetation, water management and landscape rehydration projects in the beautiful south-west of WA.

Please pass on our details to anyone you know who has a rural property or is in the farming game, and might want some help with w**ds or to improve their bushland, waterways and how they manage surface water.

Andrew Hemsley
0422 353 778
[email protected]