Green Patches

Welcome again bloggers. How's your green patches looking? The lawns around here have all bloomed back to life since the rain of last month and while we haven't seen anything of note since then, the meteorological so sayers are predicting a nice drop, around 20ml or so by weekends end. Cutting grass for the last couple of days while Mick is away has shown me how dry things are again however, so this drip will be quite welcome.

I ended up cutting back that big, sick looking birch so now I'm hoping it can bounce back. I believe they're quite shallow rooted which is half their problem. I see many unwell birchs in Hamilton as I move around but for every couple of crook ones, you see one that seems not to be affected. We have a weeping birch here that grows in quite an exposed lawn and yet seems exceptionally healthy. I suspect its foliage shelters its root zone from the sun, keeping it cool and affording it a greater chance of survival.

Another job I've started was to cut out the old hydrangeas near McKellar house. I pulled 2 out but it as difficult work so I've decided to leave the 3rd in and poison it as it shoots up. Shouldn't be difficult. I'll check out the nursery for some plants to go in there, so long as they're drought tolerant. That should spare us having to water that bed again. I quite enjoy the thought of planting natives for the future. There are some interesting and stunning varieties of banksia, gum, wattle and bottle brush etc that rival the old types. Having said that, I won't give up planting tough exotic plants either. The camellias at the doctors clinic for instance have just rocketed ahead and in fact are budding up to flower.

I've also just been around the entire place with the poison sprayer as well. That last rain set off a new round of seedlings and helped the kikuyu off so it means work.

On the home front, the vege garden is looking quite lean. I've cut into a couple of pumpkins which were nice and I've picked and pickled all the beetroot. The carrots and parsnips are still being grazed on and the basil is hanging in still, just! The tomatoes are all gone but the capsicums are only just ripening. There's apples galore and I made a dozen jars of quince jelly on the weekend too...yum!