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 A favourite spot for planting sessions is the railway embankment on either side of the Martindales Road rail bridge. Some tidying and planting has been done in the past, which has enhanced the appearance of this spot, and thanks to a grant from the Community Board for us to buy plants, even more can be done now. As always, volunteers are needed and I'll be there to help out.
It's a great way to be involved in smartening up the valley. It’s fun, it’s good exercise, you will meet people, and it's satisfying: whenever you pass the plantings you will see the progress ‘your’ plants are making. As you may have heard, the village hall renovations will start soon, and the planting will be a complement to the hall’s smart new look.
The Community Association has held planting sessions in other locations, including the Tunnel Road embankment by Horotane Valley. At times it seemed like two steps forward, one step back for our attempts at this location. On one occasion, following a period of extremely heavy rain, there was a slip which brought down a large section of the bank, taking our plants with it.
 The embankment was also the victim one Guy Fawkes night, someone’s skyrocket landed there and set it alight. I can tell you it didn’t look good for our trees for a while, but some of the burnt remains eventually turned green again. Another attempt was thwarted by Transit workers who were attacking the long grass with weedeaters, and managed to cut off our little seedlings at ground level along with the grass.
Our success in finally getting our trees established has meant we can turn our attention to the Martindales Road overbridge. It's great to see the difference here as it's so close to my home. We've had our setbacks here too I'm afraid with the theft of donated cabbage trees and grasses that were starting to look so nice. The setbacks only make me more determined though as I enjoy seeing the results of our efforts every time I drive past on Port Hills Road. So do come along and I hope to see you there.
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