Good news and bad news

G'day bloggers. Well there's good news and there's bad news. Good news being that it has rained to the tune of about an inch and a half or more. The bad news is that we now have to work as the plants grow, the grass grows and the weeds grow! Its all good fun though as any avid gardener will tell you!

March recorded 31ml in the end, up 12ml from 19 for the same time last year. It meant that we could finally stop buying water and actually watering. Most of the Kikuyu lawns have responded quickly by putting on growth while the warm weather remains but only until winter when it will settle into dormancy. The annual grasses (and weeds) are all at the seedling stage, vying for position on the lawns by the millions. At least things look green again.

The RMO residence has now been handed over and I'm using the ride on to cut the lawn after a couple of cuts by hand. It to looks good. I look forward to watching the young plants develop over there. Hopefully when I catch up with the lawns, (Mick is on a months leave), I can ply the poison sprayer. By then I'll have lots of young seed weeds to kill on fence lines, in garden beds etc.

It is also Autumn and the earlier trees, the Birch's, Ash's and Elms are all colouring up and beginning to shed. So far I can just mulch them in with the ride on but soon I'll have to rake and cart as they come down much heavier. The leaves tend to annoy a lot of people and you tend to hear the same stories each year about "how messy they are"; though in reality, they tend to be less of an inconvenience than, for instance, a large gum. While the deciduous trees do lose all their leaves in Autumn, as well as perhaps some seed pods, acorns etc, just prior that's it till next year. Bare all winter, new leaves in Spring that stay all Summer till the following Autumn, when they go again. A gum, however, tends to shed leaves all year round to varying degrees. And not only leaves, but sticks, bud caps/flowers and bark. I'm told that a gum sill shed twice its total foliage in a year. Twice the mess! Still they're all worth the effort if you ask me.

Cheers

Craig

Photo: Osmanthus Fragrans. Simple evergreen shrub like perhaps a port wine magnolia but with a stunning citrus come jasmine like fragrance.

Hello again bloggers. Well its been 17 days since it rained last and unfortunately that trend is set to continue. The next week is we're expecting 35s and 37s. Needless to say the Gator is in overdrive as we nurse things through the dry. Since we last spoke, there has been the matter of the RMO's new residence to attend. Peter got it to the stage where all I needed to do was sow a patch of lawn and plant out things in the garden beds. All earth works and mulching was in place. The lawn seed is on and coming up as we speak, though a little patchy. Garden wise, I've chosen to use mixed natives across the front of the building including Grevilleas, emu bushes, waxflowers, banksias, correas, Geraldton Wax, Swan river pea and a few dark leafed Aganis. Across the front, I've used medium growing green and red variety of kangaroo paw and in another square bed between the two residences I have put a couple of Silver Princess gums in. I've seen them around town with their beautiful weeping branches and silver stems. I've decided to girt most of these beds with the ubiquitous miniature agapanthus I have over there in abundance. They seem to be my signature plant! They divide easily and can take any conditions thrown at them. Finally, I've put a variegated yukka in a small spot near the entrance. All up, the garden should be quite hardy as it matures yet maintains aesthetic appeal.

Other than that, its water, water, water. There's no real alternative in these conditions.

At home, there's still tomatoes coming on though the bushes are looking a little shabby. The basil is looking good and the carrots and parsnips are looking great. Never had parsnips like them before actually. The zuchinnis are still annoying, the capsicums are starting to produce now that the potatoes have died right down, and the beetroot is all in jars.

Here's hoping for a change in the weather and some Autumn rain. Maybe it'll be wet for Easter!

Hello all. Well it looks like Queensland got all the rain and we didn't! January delivered 28ml (compared to 138 last year) and so far this month, only 2.5ml has been recorded. And the trend looks set to continue.

Needless to say, we've been watering as much as we can lately. The azaleas, penstemons and hydrangeas are our most needy plants and it shows when they miss out. Once again, the roses are probably our best value for money plants with wonderful blooms despite not being watered once. There aer, however, many tough plants about the place now days between the natives and the drought tolerant exotics such as rosemary, diosma and the Viburnums among others.

Other than watering, we've been busy catching up with mulching about the place. Its great stuff; making an area look good, keeping moisture in and hiding a multitude of sins. We use the attractive (but expensive) stuff from the garden centre for the most public areas such as the hospital entrance etc, while relying on the cheap stuff from the tip to cover those not so public beds. A good idea if you have a large area to do is to use the cheap stuff for the bulk of the area then only use the attractive stuff on the very top where it's seen.

There's a bit of tree trimming to do too. A lot of the trees about the place are hanging low so we need to cut them up as well as knocking out the dead branches that we can get with the pole saw. By the time that's done, we'll need to cut off all the spent agapanthus flowers and stalks. By the time we get around them there'd be a ute load if not 2. Thay are a particularly hardy plant that is an extremely reliable and attractive flowerer, though I do believe they come with responsibilities. One must stop the seeds from spreading, so off with their heads. They're green for a little while after the blooms drop off so its not hard to get them.

Vegie wise, I'm currently eating zucchinis till I look like them, tomatoes, capsicum, basil, potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Its been a good year!

Green lawns over Christmas

Welcome bloggers. And yes, there were green lawns over Christmas. A nice change, though since then, practically no rain has fallen. December recorded 59.5ml here which isn't a bad effort. there maybe, however, a few thunder storms brewing in the next few days, and it looks like it today, so here's hopping. The workload has been relentless, however, which keeps us going.

Not surprisingly, the Gator has been out lately, trying to keep the dry at bay. Of course, all ferns, azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, helleborus and penstemons are looking for water. I fed the azaleas/rhodys as well lately to keep their condition up, though I think that the bore water is something they survive on, not thrive on. The tomatoes in the Birches seem to be doing well too. Once again, the roses about the place, on the whole, seem to be impervious to the drought. With the exception of the new ones out the front, there seems to be no stopping the established from continuing to grow and flower, despite the dry.

Other than watering a lot, we've been busy cutting back things. I've been trimming the shrubs off the outside walls around the Birches building in order to keep the ants from getting in as they seem accustomed to do, and we both got stuck into clearing the garden around a hospital owned house after its tenant vacated. With the lawns hardly growing (save for the odd dandelion flower) Mick has been busy at another garden bed which had slowly encroached in the carpark around it. It was good to get a few things cleaned up around the place. We also resumed mulching the main courtyard again, finishing it off.

Yesterday I teamed up with Smithy, our plumber, to run a line of poly pipe into the Birches courtyard so we can water that areas by hose instead of filling drums. Hooray!!

On the home front, I've had zucchinis coming out my ears, while the basil romps away and the tomatoes begin fruiting. The plums aren't quite ready to pick though I've already made some Apricot jam with what I got this year from the tree. It's going to be a saucy, jammy, chutneyey type of weekend I fear!

PS. The photo is of one of the camelias that was heavily pruned - great to see the new growth!

And despite the year winding up, work in the garden keeps on keeping on. Our rains continue falling, with November's total amounting to 117ml and December's, so far, being over 25ml. Its raining right now in fact (21/12). This has kept the lawns going (despite a slight dying back just recently), which keeps Mick on the mowers of course. I dare say, there'll be green lawns this Christmas.

All this rain saves me from having to water as much too. Many plants around here have been able to get through till now on this natural rainfall though a few Azaleas, Hydrangeas and Penstemons need help in between times.

Unfortunately with the rain comes the weeds. Fortunately Mick was able to poison for a few days which greatly assisted me. He also pruned back a few roses about the place which made a start on that job, and I continued on with them thereafter.

It has been however, the main courtyard that has taken up all the time recently. Last time I wrote, I was lopping limbs off the Chinese Elms there. I did intend to take them all down as high as I could reach with the pole saw but it was decided that we might be better just to trim the problematic branches off (those against the building or damaged) that leaves some for shade in the summer. One tree ended up totally lopped off anyway because of all the damaged limbs it harboured. Another tree required a larger garden bed to be established under it as the original one was too small, resulting in a lot of uneven paving over time. To keep up with the theme in there, I planted white Azalea magnificas in it. The timing was ideal; we had 14ml of rain that afternoon! I decided that, as this new bed required fresh mulch, I may as well cover the rest of the courtyard as it was all a bit needy - I'm in the process of doing that now.

At home the vegies are great. The red cabbages were a success and I'll be taking the last one up to mums this Christmas. The zucchinis won't stop producing (naturally), the basil is very healthy and I had good strikes of beans, beetroot, carrot and amazingly parsnips. I have a mulberry tree that is full of berries and last night I bandicooted a plastic bag full of potatoes for Christmas. Its all looking good.

Talk soon.

Craig

PS - The photo on this blog is of one of the Chinese Elms that was pruned in December.

Rain, rain and more rain!

Hi there all.

And while the work keeps piling up in front of us, the rain keeps on coming, creating more work. The final result for us in October was 38ml. The cruncher came, however, as all of us know, at the start of November with our recording of around 100ml (4 inches in the old scale) and a storm to boot! Besides the usual few branches and sticks down everywhere, an old Virgilia growing over near our intern doctors residence gave way and demolished a chain mesh fence as well. There was quite a clean up effort required there for us. (Any chance to use to chainsaw!)

For Mick, the grass keeps on growing. No sooner does it rain, than we have a spell of warmer weather and everything takes off again. Eventually, it should die off. Till then, he just keeps on going around, keeping it as neat as possible. It's now into the second half of the month, and we've just had yet another 7ml, enough to keep things going for another fortnight at least!

On another front, I've managed to get a few hedges cut of recent. Both the box and the privot hedges have been completed. It was obvious that we'd had more rain this year by the amount of debris that came off the privots compared to last year. Our old hedge trimmers finally gave up the ghost after about 10 years of loyal service as well. It was a dream to use a new set with sharp blades and no sign of metal fatigue.

We've finally made it into the courtyard as well. With the purchase of a new pole chainsaw, I can go about lopping the limbs off the Chinese Elms there. It takes very little time to actually cut the trees but forever to cut up the branches and cart them via barrows out through the hospital corridors to the ute and off to the tip.

Finally, at home, I've been eating broccoli till I look like it! The florets were huge this year and there were plenty of side florets to follow later. I eventually took them out along with the broad beans (after picking the pods) and mulched them up (with the lawn mower) and put the debris back on the garden beds. Since then, I've planted more carrots, some parsnips, beetroot and beans. My tomatoes are doing well, as are the potatoes, capsicums and zucchini. The red cabbages are due to be picked and I have devoted half of one bed to basil this year. I make so much pesto in summer, it just seemed to make sense!

Cheers, Craig.

G'day there blog-on-ers! I have to say, its a good time to be a Gardener, if not a bit busy. With everything growing, the workload "ups' at this time of year.

Mick has his work cut out on the lawns. With rain still managing to happen and the increase in soil temperature, most grass types are moving fast. Finish one round just to start again! We've also just recently plugged some lawns with chunks of Kikuyu which, down the track, should help us in not needing to water quite as much! We did this around the Birches in the past few years and those lawns are almost fully hardy, resisting week infestations and needing little water which is quite helpful in this time of water restrictions.

I seem to have plenty on also between watering indoor plants and recently planted shrubs by hand, and other shrub trimming duties. Most of the indoor shrubs are of the hardier variety now days as they are easier to look after yet tend to look better than some poor struggling high maintenance thing. Monsteras and Philodendrons look great with very little effort. This doesn't mean that they don't die however!

We're on the verge of cutting back our lovely Chinese Elms in the Handbury courtyard. While they are gracefully shading the whole area, they are now encroaching on some of the surrounding buildings, causing problems there. They can come back 2/3rds or so and I'm sure they'll bounce back with vigour. They've never had trouble growing fast in there; in fact so fast in the beginning they kept falling apart. That problem seems to have eased as they have aged.

Most of the hedges about the place are in need of a trim as well. All the Box hedges need it before they get our of hand and the Privot hedges are almost in flower which causes terrible hay fever. Hope I can get to them in time, but things are looking doubtful.

And finally, while there hasn't been a lot of rain this month, its settling in as I write this. Lets hope there's some thing worth writing about. About 23ml so far for October.

Cheers

Craig