Rain, lettuce and termites attacking trees

La Nina has been bringing higher temperatures than usual to Western Australia with the result that the North of WA and the Estern States got a lot of water while we were waiting for the rejuvenating downpour. Now the dryspell seems to be broken. It is bucketing down this morning. This is a most welcoming change as so far we only had trickles.

My water tank has been empty for a few months now and I did not want to plant anything before I had the water to look after the plants. Early this week I got some gourmet lettuce seedlings and put them into into pots to prepare for a later planting in the grounds, the lettuce within the pots. I learnt about this method from a Serbian gardening friend. This way the lettuce gets good nutrients to start off and when the pot gets too small the roots can venture into the ground to find further plant food.

So far the pots are still waiting to be set into the earth, they are just sucking up the moisture from the rain as I am writing this.

On Tuesday we had to get the plumber out, as the toilet was blocked. This followed up from two other blocked drains two weeks ago. It demonstrates that the plants were really suffering in the dry weather and were looking for any moisture they could find to get them going. Our old drains are just the right things for this. Tuesday was the third time in the seven years we have been living in this house that the drains got blocked. An expensive affair, but understandable. One of the drains was attacked by a peppermint tree we planted as seedling to shadow the view into our kitchen window. The roots got into the kitchen drain and did a lot of damage, probably two years ago. That drain was replaced with plastic pipes. The other drains were just cleared, so it is only a matter of time when this happens again.



Pin Cushion Hakea



The other implication of the past dry weather was an increased attack on the trees from white ants. Two weeks ago the local council offered a green verge collection and using a chain saw we removed two wattles, a pin cushion hakea, the peppermint tree outside the kitchen window and an oleander bush that was pushing over the fence to the neighbour. 

Trunk of pin cushion hakea,
eaten up by white ants

All these trees were affected by white ants or termites that hollowed the trunks and were in the process of killing the trees.

The garden looks a lot neater now, especially out the front. My daughter thought that there was enough space now for a community garden. The mulch is looking good and will keep the moisture in the ground once we get enough rain to reach the earth in the first place. The sprinkles until today only wet the top of the mulch but did not make any impression on the soil below. That is to change now. Hurray!

Still no rain

Looks like the climate of the world is changing, the rain has not come in Perth, March went without much of a drop and April is still dry.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2011	30.2	0.4	0	4.2									34.8
2010	0	0.2	40.4	25	88.6	51.4	142	63	43.6	20.6	11.6	17.4	503.8
Average	9.5	12.7	19.5	44.1	117.5	175.7	169.7	133.6	80.6	52.2	22.1	12.8	850

Nothing much to report. We put some seeds into the ground, lettuces and broad beans, also rocket. Still needs water from the mains, therefore we have not put that many plants into the ground. Our focus is more on preparing the soil, that is making compost, mulching and tidying up to prepare for planting when the rain finally arrives.

An exception and a delight is the small papaya plant that has come up from the compost. I always wanted to grow some papaya, as I love eating it and have seen plants grow in Northbridge.

I also put some seeds into a pot but had no luck as no plants germinated. I wonder how long it will take for flowers to emerge. At the moment it is only about 20cm high, but has heaps of leaves and takes well to the additional compost that I placed at its foot.

There is rain predicted for tomorrow, but I doubt it, the weather map looks nothing like it. http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/4day_col.shtml. My water tank caught a bit of rain in the March storm, but not enough to be used really, as it takes ages to fill the watering can, I guess we only has 2mm anyway, nothing much at all.

No rain but all is well

I remember the lack of rain last summer. We did not get any rain between October and March. This year the watertank was filled again at the end of October or start of November but it looks like we are heading towards the driest year on record. We only received half the winter rain and are set towards a total of under 500mm per year, instead of average rainfall of 825mm.

Still, our garden is looking good. The water level in the tank is down by about one third. I have been watering twice a day, al;hough my friend told me that watering once every few days with a decent amount of water is better for the plants as it encourages the roots to grow deeper. But still I love hand watering with my watering can and so far have kept it to 60-70 liters a day.

After the third bed got prepared I left it for a few days until I planted the capsicums. My Macedonian gardening friend gave me a few different varieties, peppers and capsicum, some hot, some not. I distributed them over two beds, 10-15 each bed. I wonder who will eat all the harvest, but we are not there yet. My friend freezes the capsicum after drying it in the oven. She also gave me a thick vegetable onion. I knew about this variety, as my mother grows them in Germany. Great sweet veggies for soups.

On Saturday I took my remaining capsicum seedlings to another friend, an organic grower who lives in the city not far away. She showed me through her magnificent garden. A diversity of plants everywhere with lots of natural shade from trees and many other plants under shade cloth. She grows most veggies in raised garden beds as she is an elderly lady who has mobility issues. I came home with a bucket full of lemons and the idea to name the different garden beds. She gives her garden beds a proper name and not just a number. Have to speak to Jules about what names we could use, or may be we simply number them in Italian numbers. Or may be Italian cities. Friends of mine who own a flower farm near Darwin named their vehicles over the years in alphabetical order, starting with a they now have reached S, they have been in the business for a while.

Last week I set up a new batch of compost. We used a lot of shredded fresh cuttings, a big bush of rosemary went in and gave the compost an instant nice smell. We shredded newspaper and the neighbour came over because of the loud noise of the petrol run machine. Jules got a lot of veggie leftover from the markets, three full bags. I got the big chopping board and a decent knife and cut the stuff fine enough over three days, the last lot went in on Wednesday. I also added worm mixture and sheep poo.

My green ezyroll compost barrow is advertised to make compost in just fourteen days.  I start to believe that.It is a great instrument! Turning the barrow every day makes the mixture to change composition, colour and texture. We checked the compost out yesterday and it looked good enough to put it in the ground right away. But we will wait with the next bed until the new moon coming Sunday.

My raised garden bed (colour bond, steel) is three metres long and 1m high, it is still in two pieces, waiting to find a place in the garden. We decided to cut it in half and use it for two raised beds. It makes sense cut it in half, as the plants only use the top 30-50cm of the soil anyway. We decided on the places where to put them, one will go under the ficus tree protecting it from the scorching summer heat and the other one will go next to the back door under a wattle tree. I want to plant beans and have checked my sortiment of seeds for other potential summer crops, freely polinated varieties for sure.

All plants are in good order, they look healthy and happy. Biggest growth was with a zucchini plant which is four times the size of before. The tomatoes have been stinged up between fence droppers, to help them cope with the recent heavy winds. the potatoes are doing find. they are shaded from the morning and afternoon sun, but struggle a bit in the midday sun and we are thinking about using an old swing set as a share house for that patch.


A friend told me about the Organic Association of WA. I will make contact and join that group, they sound like sensible people. I also thought about setting up a gardening chat at the Loftus Community Centre. I am sure that we have many people in my direct neighbourhood who would love to learn hos to grow healthy food.

I noticed the big difference the garden has made in my life. I love hand watering each plant, talking to it and sending out good energy for it to grow. It gives my day order and meaning. I happily get up around 6am to water and check on the plants, smiling when I fill up the water tank.I harvested the first three strawberries, sharing the berries carefully with my children. Small but sweet! Great reward for the two bottles of beer that I sacrificed as slug traps.

Mother earth knows that we care and every little bit counts.