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May 2008 |
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Autumn in Tasmania What a contrast! The leaves of our fruit trees turn golden brown. The skies in Tasmania turn black and the air is thick with smoke. The forestry industry pollutes the air as they do every autumn. Forests are clear felled, and only a small amount of the timber is used. A study has shown that only 26% of the timber volume logged in a particular area were actually extracted, while 74% were left on the ground and burned, giving Tasmania its depressing autumn skies. What a waste of resources and what an unbelievable contribution to global warming! More |
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The vegie garden looks different again at this time of the year. All the
beds are now rotary-hoed and we have planted green manure, onions and broad
beans. Just one bed is still empty where we will plant brown onions in
June.
Rosellas are a problem. They really like the manure seeds. Our scare-crow and glittering foil strips don't bother them. A few times each day we have to rush to the vegie garden and scare them away. Fortunately by the middle of May they don't come as often any more! |
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| The Green Rosellas are very clever! We cover one bed of green manure with a net, but they still find their way inside and need to be rescued. | Most beds are under green manure at this time of year. | These broad beans were planted on April 10th and are now six weeks old. The grass needs to be weeded out! | |||||||||
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May 22nd: We hope for a big winter harvest in the greenhouse. Early April we sowed
different kinds of lettuces, Pak Choi and Sugarloaf cabbages in punnets and
6 weeks later replanted them in separate pots. Mid May we realize we would
not have enough spinach outside to last us through the winter; we buy
seedlings and plant them in separate pots as well. Now we just hope
everything will grow as expected. Today, on the first day with frost, we still harvest tomatoes and eggplant in the greenhouse and a lot of fruit is still developing on the plants.
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May 27th: Brassica in the kitchen garden.
left: Red Mammoth cabbage right: Brussels Sprouts |
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May 29th: two wedge tailed eagles soar in the thermals above our place. They glide through the sky without effort. They land. How huge these birds are! Just look at the fence posts and the road in comparison! Wedge tailed eagles are an endangered species with only about 130 pairs successfully breeding each year. How lucky we are to have seen these majestic birds in the wild, right in front of our house! | ||||||||||
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Orchards | Kitchen Garden | Vegie Garden | Tasmania- the dark side |
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