Tassie Germinations: The thin line from disaster

Saturday 2 February 2013

The thin line from disaster

Dejected is how I felt this morning. Upon entering the veggie patch, it was quickly obvious that something had found its way in through my defences. Was it a possum, a rabbit, a pademelon, a chook??? It was the Tasmanian Pademelon. The damage was not massive, but enough to have me walking around in some form of delirious anger. My 6 Broccoli "Summer Purple", which where my autumn/early winter crop has been hammered to no leaf bar the mid stem. The Kohl Rabi leaves where eaten the same however they are ready for harvest so I can cop that. Carrot leaves have been nibbled and the Radicchio also nibbled but not to badly. It seems the Brassicas were the main focus. Surprisingly the Beetroot has been left mainly in tact.

My main issue now is did they eat the seeds I planted last week. I had not checked on whether they had germinated yet so am not sure but may have to replant these also.

A pain it is but it is a good lesson to do regular inspections of the fence. It was not easy finding how they got in but there was a weak area where they made there way through in the chook wire. This has been patched up and I will add a new line of chook wire for double strength. I have observed an increasing number of wallaby scats recently around the house and veg patch, a result of the dry conditions and less food availability for the wildlife. This is when our defenses are put to their test.

And how am I sure it was a Pademelon? Because I found their scat (poo) within the veg patch.

I will now be out of Broccoli until mid winter, and have doubled the seeds in the hot house so I have spares next planting. I am sure this will happen again and it is just part of life in a rural area (at least I don't get hammered by blackbirds). But in the meantime I am still disappointed as the Broccoli "Summer Purple" had been growing so well and was close to forming a flower head.