trees are still struggling on, but lost some

Let me start with the bad news... Dad says at least a dozen of the lemon gum trees are dead, like this one:


Dad thinks this wasn't due to the frost because it isn't tip damage but the entire tree. He says it was due to "wet feet" - in other words, in one of the driest parts of Victoria my trees drowned! His theory is that because we'd planted them in a little 'hollow' to help in catching water during the dry season, when it bucketed down in huge storms in winter the holes filled and the water didn't seep away fast enough.

Even more bad news, many of the other trees which hadn't drowned were being choked by grasses, like this one:


... but fortunately, upon weeding, there was still a surviving tree inside:


It took Dad ages to do. He had to cut access slits in the protector wires for each tree in order to be able to reach inside. He then weeded each and put down the cut grass as mulch, then sewed the slits back up. All up it took around 15-20 minutes per tree!!! Dad has worked so hard on this, I wish we could have helped. We owe him big time.

After he was finally done, you can see that the driveway is starting to take shape, they are definitely little bushes now. It will be worth it in the end, I just hope we don't lose any more... and next year, they will hopefully be big enough to stand taller of the grasses.