No rain...

Welcome bloggers. And droughtish it is! We only registered 10ml for October, and so far only 15ml for November. Unfortunately we've had thunderstorm weather without the water. Unlucky though, as there seemed to be numbers recorded everywhere around us. Lets hope something changes soon.

Needless to say, we've had to water quite a bit here and there. Mick and I have been coming in a little earlier to take advantage of the restriction times which gives us a total of 3 hours a week in which to use town water. This will soon not be enough and we'll have to engage the use of the gater more. Any water collected over the winter in our tank has now been exhausted and we're waiting on our first truck full to arrive. So far things have fared quite well between the garden beds and the odd new plant that went in this year. The only needy beds are those small flower beds at the Birches and while the sweet peas have finished, they grew enormously and flowered prolifically. The petunias are now in full bloom and look fantastic. Its easy enough to keep these beds alive when the rest of the place is quite hardy.

On another front, the foundation of the mobility garden is almost complete and it'll be up to me to add the finishing touches garden wise. At this stage, there will be a strip of garden bed that will have sensory things planted in it, (lavender, rosemary, thyme etc), a lawn area that will be used as part of the exercise yard and a small garden bed which will help mask a small awkward land slope. There is already a young tree there and I envisage that it will all look quite presentable down the track.

Maintenance wise, the iris have all but finished flowering and the roses are winding up their spring flush as well, which prompted me to trim things up a little, just to keep the place looking somewhat dapper. At home, I've got some fantastic red cabbages almost ready for the kitchen, broad beans which I'm picking and zucchinis which are ready to produce. The tomatoes are really taking on now and I've managed to get the carrots and turnips up though the turnips are taking their time. I also put in 6 butternut pumpkins and some strawberries which should taste great fresh.