Once you have finished planting continue checking for any pest grazing animal damage after the first week. If hare damage has occurred surprisingly more often than not the plants recover. If rabbits have been in high numbers, they can rip whole seedlings out of the ground and action is worth taking quickly.

If pest grazing animals are under control, then letting the plants simply grow is all that needs to happen. Sometimes it can take 2 years for plants to really come through strongly, many variables can influence this across sites such as soil types, annual plant growth, other plants such as the presence of lucnerne and weeds such as wire weed.

Revisiting sites the summer after planting is usually when you can check for initial survival rates. This is also a good time to check if you need to do any replanting and order plants to do this. A site with 80% survival is considered to be very successful.

It is not uncommon to be very nervous about plant survival in the first spring to 12 months after planting – particularly if all the annual grass and plants you generally don’t want grow strongly.

Sometimes patience is all that is required other times having a second run at a site may be required. Talk to your Landcare officer for advice.