In the garden with Nell Carr

February 2017 | Nell Carr

THE HUGE continent of Gondwana began to break up 130 million years ago, leaving Australia, Antarctica and South America the only conjoined land masses.

With changing climates, and the eventual drift northwards of Australia and South America, many of the forests which did not adapt to drier conditions died out, or were confined to the wetter sections such as Western and South Western Tasmania.

Everyone knows the story of the onslaught on the immensely valuable Huon Pine (Lagarastrobus franklinii), until only those which remain are in reserves.

There is however, one of those ancient species, the Leatherwood tree, (Eucryphia), whose value depends on its survival, and is small enough to make it adesirable addition to home gardens. Leatherwood honey is a valuable export earner, and the jars are a familiar sight in our stores with their unique labels.

Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) is the most recent discovery of a long hidden Gondwanan species.

This was stumbled on by field officer David Noble in a hidden valley in the Blue Mountains NSW in 1994.

Now many thousands of the trees have been propagated via tissue culture and were commercially available in Australia, New Zealand and the US by 2006.

At Agfest in 2007 half metre high specimens were on sale for $40.00 and those of 1metre height for $70.00.

In the vegie patch

February is the last month for sowing carrots, parsnips and beetroot. A seed tape saves much laborious thinning out of carrots.

Beetroot seedlings may be thinned out and the thinnings replanted, but will wither and die if not lightly watered every day for some days and protected with shade cloth during the day.