Victor Szwed

It is great to see some warmer spring weather after a fairly wet winter.  On a few days, temperatures have finally been heading up around 18 to 20 degrees. Sunday is forecast to get to a balmy 24 degrees in Daylesford and 27 degrees in Melbourne, before easing lower again.

Only 35mm of rain was recorded for Daylesford in September by the Bureau of Meteorology compared to the 88mm long-term average. For the coming 3 months, the forecast by the Bureau is for average rainfall for most of Eastern Australia. Hopefully we will get more rain soon as many residents are having to water pot plants and vegetable gardens. Our reservoirs are currently full and water restrictions are back to the permanent saving criteria. See the Central Highlands Water website for more information.

The Bureau continues to forecast warmer than normal nights and days. Frosts have not been occurring in recent weeks. However, do not become complacent as they can typically still hit until Cup Day or thereabouts. So, make sure that frost sensitive plants have protection.

Tomatoes do not like frosts or cold nights and they usually should not be planted until after Cup Day. I purchased five tomato seedlings during the past 3 weeks locally and re-potted them deeper. I keep them in a greenhouse where they are thriving. Planting tomato seedlings deeper into a larger pot encourages extra root growth and should make them hardier. If you have a green house or very well protected area, try growing a couple of tomato plants in large pots. They will require some extra care with watering and feeding. For more advice, see John Binion’s article in The Wombat Post.

The warmer, drier weather provides a great opportunity to go for walks as there are many areas around our Shire to explore. The health of our environment is usually reflected by frogs and in many wetter areas they are very happily croaking now.

Each year we are warned about fire risks, so it is a good time to stop and plan. In November Hepburn Shire Council usually allows green waste to be dumped at the Transfer Stations free of charge. Do not wait until November, start planning now about how much pruning and cleaning up you would like to do.

Victor Szwed is a Daylesford resident who contributes a monthly weather update to The Wombat Post.