THIS WEEK'S FEATURE ARTICLES

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A labour of love
A few days ago I was in Hobart buying tickets to Love Songs,
a new collaboration between two of Tasmania’s premium talents, Don Kay and John Honey.
I named the respective composer and librettist. “Is that John Honey, the film-maker?” asked another receptionist. For both these men, their fame goes before them. My questioner might just as well as asked, “Is that John Honey, the author?” Or, “Is that John Honey, the script-writer … the television presenter?” Launceston-born John established a career in television and film-making before moving to America in 1990 where his film-making won him many awards over the decade he lived there. And his series Four Years of Thunder is endorsed and recommended by the American League of WW1 Historians. Back in Tasmania, now living in Margate, he continued writing – novels set in Tasmania, and TV scripts, for example, for McLeod’s Daughters. In 2003 John was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal for his outstanding services to film and television.
An enduring friendship
On returning to Hobart, John Honey renewed his acquaintance with Don Kay. When he was invited to write words for a musical composition for singer Jane Edwards, his choice of composer with whom to collaborate was Don Kay.
“I knew he’d be interested because he’s never been known to resist a musical challenge,” wrote John in an article for The Australian Music Centre. “Don’s a generous composer, known for his habit of writing small works for friends … he wrote a cello-piano piece for me and my wife, Maria, called ‘the soft, dying day – an exquisite song without words inspired by John Keats’ poem To Autumn.” And of course, John wrote the missing words. (I am delighted to note that this piece features in their upcoming concert.) Over the years, John and Don have collaborated to produce many musical events. Many of their followers will remember The Bushranger’s Lover, an opera in three acts, produced in 2014.
A composer extraordinaire
Don Kay is now in his tenth decade. In January he turned 92, and with well over three hundred works to his name – operas, concertos, symphonies and vocal, choral and chamber music – this prolific Tasmanian composer still composes every day at his home in Taroona. Born in Smithton, he studied and taught in Victoria, and London, England. On returning to Tasmania with his wife and young family, his outstanding career progressed until his retirement as Head of the Conservatorium of Music in 1998. In 1991 Don was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia; in 2001 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for his outstanding contribution to music. Just recently, Don Kay won the State Luminary Award for Tasmania in the Australian Art Music Awards. When John Honey presents a new word composition to Don for musical accompaniment, Don “always warns that ‘it might take a while’,” says John. “Then, as a result of discipline, order and application, he turns out a work in no time flat. He is of the pre-computer generation and composes at the piano, by hand. His exquisite calligraphic scores are prized by musicians.”
The music of the night
The concert begins with seven short songs for soprano and piano, based on poems spanning six centuries. “This is a group of songs from across my composing career, unified only by the attraction I have for each of the poems,” said Don Kay. Five are set to the works of English poets, the other two, Winter Days and The Soft Dying Day, are more personal. It’s followed by the premiere of Don Kay’s Piano Sonata 11, subtitled ‘amidst the gloom’, and composed in the depths of Covid. The program concludes with Love Stories, a cycle of six songs for baritone and piano, with the music and John Honey’s lyrics combining to explore romantic love in various guises: lost and lasting, unrequited and fantastical. 
The performers
Love Stories features three outstanding Hobart-based Australian performers: operatic singers Samuel Dundas and Lisa Crosato, and pianist Amanda Hodder. Lisa Crosato first took to the professional stage when she was only seven. Since then she has trained in all facets of theatre, including singing, drama and dance. Amanda has worked as accompanist, vocal coach, pianist and music director with various opera and musical theatre groups, and with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Samuel Dundas regularly appears with Australian and New Zealand opera companies, and with all the major Australian symphony orchestras. Presented on 16 September in association with the TSO, the concert begins at 6pm with doors open at 5.30pm, in the TSO Studio, Federation Concert Hall. Tickets are $35 via www.tso.com.au, boxoffice@tso.com.au, 1800 001 190, or in person at the Theatre Royal Box Office. Enquiries to jhoney@iinet.net.au
Judy Redeker

The Kitchen Garden Guide
SEPTEMBER
What a month August was. Weather records were broken at every level; it was alternately hot, dry, wet and windy.
Will we get fruit? Will spring be hot and clear or damp and windy? What we do know is that it will be unpredictable. This is an excellent time to learn to respond to what is happening in our gardens rather than sticking with what we think should be happening.
Amongst all the anxiety, spring is unravelling her magic all around us.
Pollination
In our food gardens, pollination must occur for fruit to grow. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part, to ultimately create seeds that become the next generation. Along the way we often intervene and pick the fruit that contains the developing seeds, such as peaches, apples, tomatoes and eggplants. Some plants, such as cucumbers, pumpkins and other cucurbits, have separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant. Some plants, such as kiwi fruit and Tasmanian pepperberries, have male plants and female plants.
All of these plants need a method of pollination, which commonly in our food gardens is wind or insects. Tomato pollen, for example, easily moves from the male part of the flower to the female part by vibration caused by wind or by bumping into the plant as you pass by. It does not require insects. Peas and beans do not require insects either. Fruit trees do require insects so we should grow flowers and herbs near them to help attract suitable visitors, including native and European bees, hover flies, butterflies and beetles.
The herbs and vegetables whose leaves and flowers we eat (lettuce, kale, basil, sage, broccoli, cauliflower and so on) are the simplest to grow because we eat them before they enter the reproductive phase of their life. Hence they require no pollination at all. But someone somewhere needs them to produce seeds so we can grow them. Saving our own seeds helps the following generations to adapt to our own microclimate so at least source locally saved seeds, for example from the Cygnet Seed Library or other such groups.
As our climate lurches from soaking wet to tinder dry and back again, with ever rising temperatures, insect poulations are being decimated, causing enormous headaches for food production worldwide. Planting permanent habitat in our gardens for insects to live and reproduce in is vital but so is remembering that we can grow a lot of food without the presence of pollinators.
Water management
What rain we have had. Deep in the soil, the rainwater will linger for months – if we design our gardens for absorption first and drainage second. One way is to use rain gardens.
The idea of a rain garden is to create a depression next to a hard surface (or tight lawn) that does not adequately allow rain to absorb into the ground. The rain garden is a mini pool when it rains, collecting the runoff from the hard surface next to it. It is planted with wetland plants, and they help absorb the rainwater. Slowing the flow of the water by diverting it from the stormwater system and allowing it to pool gives the water time to be absorbed into the ground and recharges the groundwater table below.
You can make a series of pools to capture more rain. When there is no rain, the rain garden appears dry but the soil below is damp. A gentle depression in the lawn that slopes to a rain garden at one end is a very effective way of keeping a lawn from being too soggy to use. My downpipes use this method so that maximum rain soaks into the ground where I want it to and the excess flows gently along a managed depression, to a pond.
Look up examples online. This is a sensible, beautiful and useful tool for Tasmania.
Tomato growing tips for September
Raising seeds is easy. All the know-how is in the seed. Turning those new seedlings into strong, healthy plants ready to plant out into your garden can be the hardest part of vegetable gardening.
This time of the year, when you have tiny tomato seedlings and you are waiting until late November for the frosts to finish; there are some important tips for success.
Pot the seedlings up gradually, not from seedling tray to large pot in one go. Make them use up the soil they are in. This will ensure you get early flowers and not just masses of leaves. When the roots start coming out of the bottom, it is time to pot them on.
Do not rely only on bought potting mix. The nutrients in them deteriorate over time and many people have failures due to poor nutrient retention. For seed raising and early potting up, I buy cheap, locally made potting mix and mix in about a third of home-made compost, plus a dash of blood and bone. I also water the young seedlings with a seaweed tonic from time to time.
In France I learned about stinging nettle tea as a tonic and use this now too whenever any plants looks a bit off colour. Stinging nettles are a fabulous tool in the garden (and the kitchen), being packed full of silicon, which strengthens cell walls and helps to reduce pest and disease attack on plants.
To keep growth happening through September, while the nights are often still very cold, supply tomato seedlings with warmth. Even a little will help, especially at night. I use a heat mat. Look up heating for terrariums – it is cheaper than gardening supplies.
Provide bright light during the day. Weak seedlings often result from insufficient hours of strong sunlight.
In a sheltered spot, on warm days, put your tomato seedlings outside. A perpetually sheltered environment (such as a hot house) is a sure-fire way of producing weak plants. Seedlings need a bit of breeze to strengthen the stems as they grow, but not the full blast of the Roaring Forties.

Sow indoors to transplant later
Early September: tomatoes, chillies, eggplant, capsicums. Or get local seedlings.
Leeks, corn (late September), asparagus, artichokes, lettuce and other salad greens.
Herbs: parsley, rocket, chervil, coriander, nettles, etc. Not basil yet.
Spring onions, tomatillos, long day onions, shungiku.
It is still a bit early for cucumbers and pumpkins if you have late frosts.
Chit or plant out
Potatoes (Leave to chit or sprout if frosty where you live.
Plant out later.)
Sow outside
Celery, celeriac (love it wet, lime), carrots, parsnips, broad beans, kales – especially Squire and blue curled, spinach, brassicas (if you are prepared with netting to keep the cabbage moths off. Can bolt still.) Beetroot, hakurei turnips, swedes, radishes including daikon, peas.
Divide and plant out
Globe artichokes, rhubarb, sunchokes
Kate Flint

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