Millpost Nature Notes from Judith

Millpost Merino
2 days ago
4 min read

We're a month late getting this one up, but here's our new monthly nature notes!

March 2026

There's a collective belief in Canberra that the first frost of the year happens about Anzac Day (April 25^th) and that's when people turn on their heaters.

Well, according to the stats, it's actually more likely to occur earlier in April, but hey, don't let a couple of weeks get in the way of a great urban myth! And in Bungendore it can come a lot earlier. In fact it can come in any month of the year as we old-timers have observed. Frost at New Year? Yep!

But so far this year, no frost.

Late spring frosts in November did severe damage to all kinds of plants, destroying buds, flowers and young fruit on trees, shrubs, herbs and forbs both native and exotic. No apples, plums, nectarines, pears, etc for us this season, and the wildflower display was not as bright as usual.

Since it looks like early frosts will be delayed a bit this year, we can continue harvesting tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers, beans, basil, dill and sweet corn, although production has slowed due to the cooler nights. I did hear that Cooma had a frost a couple of weeks ago.

Flowering plants: not much is flowering here now apart from the prolific Native Geranium (tiny pink flowers), Bindweed, Goodenia, Wahlenbergia,Yellow Rush Lily and the Botriochloa (Red-leg Grass) and Themeda (Kangaroo Grass).

Our mass grevillea plantings are starting to produce some blooms after a long rest due to the drought, and banksias are likewise working on some flower-buds.

Mushrooms: an autumn phenomenon that's a touchy subject nowadays, so I'll just say that our family is a bit obsessed with harvesting mushrooms, so we have a lot of experience and research behind our foraging. We urge anyone else who fancies some field mushrooms with their egg'n'bacon fry-up to get properly educated on what to eat and what not to eat.

Those who are circumspect about this pastime can still enjoy the amazing beauty and diversity of the fungi which are popping up everywhere at the moment.

Rosehips. I collect the fruit of wild roses (known as briars) at this time of year. They are full of vitamin C. I make my own rose-hip oil by shredding up the hips in a food processor, then steeping them in olive oil for 6 weeks, then straining out the solids and bottling the oil.

Acorns. Our many oaks are shedding their acorns now, but not by choice! Parrots are chewing them off when they are still green. Later in autumn those that survive the parrots will ripen and fall, to be consumed with enjoyment by sheep, cattle and kangaroos. Over winter, the surviving acorns on the ground will provide winter sustenance for the rosellas, white cockies, galahs and anything else that's very hungry.

Cumbungi-Bulrushes. These are ripening along the banks of rivers, creeks and dams. Did you know that flowering bulrushes were traditionally harvested for stuffing mattresses and pillows? Now there's a revival of that industry and they are being used to stuff jackets as well. A great improvement on the synthetic stuffing in a puffer-jacket!

Indigenous peoples all over the world, including Australia, harvested the roots and tubers of Cumbungi as a food staple. Once the roots had been cooked, then chewed to extract the starch, the remaining fibre could be used to make nets for catching fish. The long leaves were also harvested for making string.

European Wasps. There have hardly been any this autumn, which is wonderful. Methinks they were badly affected by the late frosts; or it may have been the drought; or maybe a combination of the two! And maybe the many traps we set for them in spring have worked too..... who can tell? Last summer/autumn were the worst for wasps we had every experienced so we were ready in spring with traps filled with special liquid to lure the hatching queens.

Rain!: The rain we should have had in spring came in late February and early-to-mid-March: 64.5mm for February, 124.5 mm in March.

The result is good soil moisture and rapidly growing grasses and other groundcovers, and fresh growth on trees and shrubs. But on our farm there's been very little run-off. It has mostly soaked in. Some dams have filled but many are only half-full, or less. We need more to get the creeks running and the dams full before next spring. There is a tentative forecast from the BOM for a Super El Nino this coming spring/summer which is scary news. But it's a prediction and sometimes they get it wrong.

The rain and the filling dams was exciting enough, but a magnificent frog-spawning has occurred in dams and creek pools . I haven't seen many tadpoles yet and I wonder if they will cope with the inevitable frosts when they come.

I'm keeping a close eye on the Eucalypts, looking for flower-buds and not seeing many. Those I have seen are taking a long time to open! Maybe they are waiting for spring.

There are buds on individual trees of E. mannifera, E. macarthurii, E.crenulata, E. cinerea and E. pauciflora but not the kind of mass flowering I'm used to seeing. Except for E. gregsoniana (a diminutive version of the Snow Gum)! It has been trialled on our farm for a few years and so far has flowered prolifically very regularly, and all the trees are now covered in buds. It's a good plant for urban gardens as it only grows to 4-6m and has attractive shiny leaves and red stems, not to mention the gorgeous cream flowers. It has a mallee habit so needs a bit of space. Or can be pruned back to one stem if preferred. Grows naturally around Braidwood.

Some of our Casuarina cunninghamianas are flowering so heavily that the branches are brown and they look like they are dying (but they're not!) And most Acacias are covered in buds so we can expect a sunny yellow wattle winter/spring.

Birds: Seen during March (apart from the usual magpies, currawongs, butcher birds, choughs, ravens, galahs, white cockatoos, rosellas, grey fantails, willy wagtails, swallows, wrens [scrub and blue], ducks, herons, grebes, coots, etc.)