What plant is that?

It seems many blogs start off with a spiel about the writer. I attempted to skip this in my first two blogs but thought I better follow the line of past blogs.

We have 4 children (3 boys and 1 girl) and so far have done quite well living off what we grow. I first started some vegetable growing in pots when living in Brisbane over a decade ago. I then stumbled upon Pete Cundalls "Patch from Scratch" DVD. This got me interested and when we moved to Toowoomba, I got the rotary hoe and followed exactly what he did in the movie. So I have been learning natural gardening for about a decade now. But there seems to always be a mountain to learn. Every month there is a new experience or challenge. Things we tend to buy vegetable wise are onions, capsicums and lemons. Providing year round supply of some items is a difficult task, and one to be discussed in a future post. Last season I grew 110 kg of potatoes and this was not enough for the family. They lasted till September so I am aiming for 150 kg this year.

My day job is based in Hobart where I work as an Ecologist. What this actually entails is botany and animal ecology. Often I can be seen trailing behind the family on a walk while looking for plants I may not know or threatened flora species or that piece of poo that is evidence of Tassie Devil or Quoll having been past.

Yesterday we went over to Coningham to do the Coningham beach to cliff top walk. The kids often complain before hand but once they do the walk they enjoy it, especially when the walk includes a secluded beach with fantastic views.

Legacy Beach with Mt Wellington in the background

The spring flowers so dominant during tassie springs have all finished now with the papery seed of a number of local daisies the only evidence of what was once the colour of the bush. There were still some heathy species in flower such as Leucopogon ericoides  as well as Wahlenbergia, Dianella revoluta   and the weedy Centaurium erythraea .  There were a number of native grasses to be seen which is not uncommon at this time of year. The wallaby grass (Austrodanthonia sp) and spear grasses (Austrostipa sp) were flowering with fresh seed making life easier to identify (However my tip sheet for id is at work and I am still coming to grips with these grasses. The wallaby grass being a very tricky genus to key to species level sometimes).

In Tasmania it is not uncommon to come across some spectacular views. Being a mountainous State, this lends itself to many views of water and mountains. But what did I do in the veggie patch today?

Nothing bar watering. the corn is growing well now and their water requirements are increasing. I am about to pick some Kohl Rabi and the spinach has been fantastic. I have grown two varieties this year. English winter giant and Tyee. Tyee has been a little better and slower to bolt in my observations, however both have nice tasty large leaves.

Till next time
Dave

View over to Tinderbox

This area is also known to have a colony of the endangered forty spotted pardalote bird. I did not hear or see one on this walk. Click the link to read more about this interesting bird.

One of the wallaby grasses - can you see it in the centre? they do not come up well on the camera.

Allocasuarina verticillata (Weeping She Oak)