IF you are looking for trees or shrubs, then Peter Sandow and his sales executive, Lily Goodwin, have you covered.

I caught up with them at their ERA Nurseries stand at Hamilton’s Sheepvention to talk trees.

Peter admits the business has grown beyond his wildest dreams, since it first took off with the expansion of the blue gum industry. He grew 12 million blue gum seedlings in the second year of production and eight million following that for many years.

The ERA Nurseries clientele is vast – it includes everyone from Melbourne landscapers, government organisations, catchment authorities to plantation companies and farmers needing stock shelter plantations to the local backyard gardeners.

The nursery is the only Victorian production nursery outside the metropolitan area to have Myrtle Rust accreditation (ICA-42) – meaning that they can sell their stock into South Australia.

The nursery has been at its present site on South Boundary Road, Hamilton, from the summer of 2004 having moved from a site near the Hamilton airport. The airport site mainly produced forestry seedlings, but now the nursery has expanded to a large range of native seedlings and some advanced trees. A vast variety of species can also come in four- and six-inch pots.

The nursery is involved with Gold Coast University to supply the best quality seedlings for Manuka honey production, timber plantations and Eucalyptus oil production.

Species include acacia, callistemon, casuarina, eucalypts, melaleuca, leptospermums and so many more.

Peter urges any of his farming clientele to get your orders in for spring planting now for the season of 2023.

Lily manages the online store and has seen an expansion with their sales over recent years. We are hoping this will continue with the new website just being launched.

If you don’t know what to plant that’s okay, because that’s where these guys are at their best. They will happily talk seedlings with you all day, until the job is sorted.

As for tree guards, Peter has designed a ripper. They are made of corflute, so they are quite rigid, they are Australian made and fully recyclable. They stack flat, for easy storage, but roll into a cylinder and are secured by one hardwood stake – the best part is that they are reusable and last for years. In 2014 they won the Sheepvention inventions award.

What was I looking for? I want a plantation that is dense from the bottom, not too tall (no more than 5 metres), will tolerate quite a wet position once established and is not poisonous to stock.  The need is to provide weather protection for my newly shorn sheep, around the shearing shed.

Thanks Peter and Lily – all I need to do now – is the work!