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.