TASMANIA IS well endowed with native ferns. The Ferns of Tasmania (Michael Garrett, The Tasmanian Forest Research Council Inc., 1996) lists 39 separate families and some of those families have numbers of different species.

They range from 8m high Rough Tree Ferns (Cyatheas) to the tiny ground hugging Maiden Hair Fern (Adiantum aethiopicum), which is so popular with florists, and the free floating aquatic fern Azolla filucoides, which doesn’t appear to have a common name. It is frequently mistaken for algae. It is pictured below on a pond on the Bengeo Road near Deloraine.

By far the most numerous ferns in Tasmania are the Tree Ferns (Dicksonia antarctica).

Only an area in the dry and treeless Midlands and on the SW coast appear to be free of them, as they need shade and moisture to survive.

Their sheer abundance is a consequence of the fact that a single plant carries 8 million reproducing spores on the undersides of its fronds.

They will also grow if cut off at ground level, but nothing is worse than the sight of poor sad Tree Ferns standing in full sun on lawns.

There is a group at the Great Western Tiers Visitor Centre, Deloraine.

The ferns which grow on the trunk and on the ground below it are commonly known as Kangaroo Fern (Phymatosorus pustulatus).

The King Fern (Todea barbara) pictured above, in the headwaters of the Rubicon at Dunorlan, bears fronds similar to the Dicksonias, but its gracefully arching fronds spring from the ground, rather than from a trunk. It is much more sparsely distributed around our state than the Dicksonias.

In the vegie garden

There are very few vegetables that cannot be sown in October.

There should be no danger of frosts by the time they have germinated (although a rare November frost has been recorded).

Dwarf and climbing beans, beets and silverbeet – add a little boron. All brassicas need a well-manured soil. Carrots, capsicums and cucumbers can be sown this month.

I have never grown capsicums, but the Garden Guide says they require similar conditions to tomatoes, and like tomatoes have only a short growing season.

Seeds should be raised in pots under cover, or in a sunny position, and planted out in enriched soil when they reach 15cm and when soil is sufficiently warmed by late spring sunshine. Keep them moist.

They should be ready to harvest in 10 to 16 weeks from sowing.