Hot

Hi there all. Hot isn't it! I for one am well and truly over it. To have the odd 40C day is bad enough let alone a weeks worth of 43. Needless to say, we've been watering a lot and even still at these temps, a lot of usually hardy things have had leaves burnt off. December recorded 98mm of rain giving us a total of 488.5 for the year. As for this year, January has offered us nothing at all.

As I've already said, watering is the priority at he moment. Things have been kept alive pretty well on the whole through a few shrubs have had a lot of leaves badly burnt. They should recuperate. Our reasonably well established Ginkgo (about a metre and a half high) has lost most of its leaves, but I saw its much older mate do the same thing a few years ago and it refoliated again, only dump again naturally in Autumn.

The new rule is that I'm not bothering with plants that can't tolerate dry conditions. this means that new garden beds are planted with hardy native or exotic perennials. for example, in planting out the mobility garden area, I used miniature agapanthus, dwarf golden diosmas, abelia, lavender and Nepeta (all exotics) while also using thryptomene alongside the existing Geraldton wax plants (both natives). There should be no fear of any of these plants perishing easily with a little luck.

At the Birches the petunias are still faring quite well, but the sweet peas were replaced with portulaca which seem to love the heats and as an annual are quite hardy. I would water the portulaca at least half as often as the petunias.

In the main courtyard, I've begun replacing the azaleas under our Chinese Elms with clivias, a hardy perennial which should require very little water, yet thrive in the shade the trees offer and once a year, produce lovely orange flowers. Its a work in progress.

At home, I've had mixed success with the planting of beetroot, with about only half emerging though these few are holding up well. Going well are the parsnips, capsicums and pumpkins and I'm now harvesting tomatoes, turnips, carrots, zucchini, strawberries and basil.