Autumn Equinox has passed and the weather is definitely heading towards the cold side to the scale now; tops between 20 – 30 and lows between 6 – 18 meaning that the new planting season is beginning. Seeds are in for the winter vegetables, masses of greens, roots and autumn germinating perennials like Jojoba and some little babies are starting to show their heads. The main body of the planing however will, as always, be the native trees that we have been nurturing over the summer. They won’t be ready until the start of May so April is a blessed rest month where we can take stock of what worked last year and see how much survived the summer.
With this in mind it is time to do the tally and see what our stats are like for the season just passed (and compare them to previous seasons)
As you can see, we’ve been having some fantastic improvements in survival rates over the 3 years we’ve been planting so far. I have to attribute it to a range of things including; getting dripper irrigation to every tree and shrub without fail, mulching extensively, tree guards and shade barriers and very importantly, a cool summer. We will do everything that we did last year this time, and while we can’t count on the cool summer we can prepare for the heat and every tree that survives casts shade and catches wind which helps the next ones grow.
I’m hoping to plant a further 4 main sections this year (2 segments of windbreak, the front animal yard and Hecate’s hill) as well as replanting those that didn’t make it through the summer so hopefully our block will look that much greener in a year’s time.
Casa Indomitus 