rain rain and more rain

Spring has come to an end, and the figures are out. The wettest in Melbourne for almost twenty years, and in parts of regional Victoria for decades longer. The unfamiliar sound of driving rain through the night. The unfamiliar sight not only of full dams but - even more startling, because it sneaks up on you - watery sheets lying low or peeping through the bush or garden. The look of rippling expanse as rain hits the dam, roughing up its surface. The feel of soft, sticky, yeilding ground underfoot. The surprise of muddy boots and wet, trouser legs clinging round the ankle. The never before imagined reality not just of a trickle of water between the dams, but a cascade, noisy, frothy and exuberant. The powerful swell of water forcing its way.

tanks et cetera

At long last tanks have arrived! Well, the delay was us trying to decide what we needed, and the circuit breaker (given we'd been discussing this for ... oh .. seven years ...) was meeting a friend of SeraJane's who just happened to be driving at truck advertising a tank business. But better late than never.

crossing a culinary rubicon

Arthichokes! Love the way they look, love the way they grow, love eating them. The flaccid yellow ones from the deli, that is. But home grown?

unidentified weed

What is this? Can't see it in any weed sites. But it's scattered all through the grassier areas of my property, and has started forming its very nasty burrs, which are borne singly along long arching black stems. Hopefully lawnmowing this weekend will catch most of those burr-bearing stems before the burrs have developed sufficiently to be a problem.

seasons end, seasons begin - footy and gardening

What is it about plants, soil, water that is so tremendously soothing, even cathartic? Just found several photos (here, removing regrowth from base of olives) taken in the days after the second AFL Grand Final. Yes, the one in which Collingwood smashed a St Kilda that had so bravely, magnificently, forced a draw a week before.

what a full dam looks like!

After almost 100mm rain in a week, following dam-filling rains a months ago, our dams are officially full. Bottom dam is receiving overflow from the top dam and spilling into culvert beside road. Wondering how long it will last ...

All in the timing

Fruit trees? Veg? Fruit trees? Veg? What to prioritise, and how to get the best out of both, especially when only one of the fruit trees planted last year to live alongside veggies has managed to survive and kick into second-season life. (Bless you, nashi, planted for Lydia and her eager nashi appetite, and looking happy springing from your nest of shallots and silverbeets.)

a new herb garden

As plans for a redesigned veggie patch take hold, I've realised I'll need to start a new herb garden. The existing one, in what was one of the old veg 'beds', has actually been one of my few successes. Mint, lemon balm, chives, shallots, sage, oregano, thyme ... for a couple of years now there's always been something to throw in the cooking, toss over a salad, or brew into a tea.

trying to love capeweed

Capeweed colonises poor and disturbed ground, so it hardly needs saying, it flourishes here. Unfortunately, efforts to improve soil and watering only seem to speed it along! I may even have inadvertently encouraged it in the orchard by using sheep manure as part of compost to build up beds, as it likes soil rich in nitrates, as often found round sheep pens. 

now you see them ...

Cape tulips - priority 'regionally controlled' weeds in this area - appear to have no particular use or benefits. So after ripping off new shoots last month and finding them resprouted, am now pulling them out properly as they reappear. Hopefully this will finish them off!

dynamic accumulators

Homework for September permaculture class: present info on 'dynamic accumulators'.

water water everywhere

Rain, rain and more rain. Fryers Creek is flowing. Lake Johanna in the Botanic Gardens has filled, an expanse of water linking it with the overflowing Barkers Creek along the gardens' boundary after last Saturday's rain, and our dams - as good as dry a couple of months ago - are full of water. The back dam is still filling, broadening and deepening, with overflow from the dammed gully behind. We've never seen it like this.

winter salad for a VIP

Sunday saw a community gathering for a working bee at the old school, to launch the revival efforts to turn it into a community hub. Chris spent the morning hammering flat nails in the old floor from which lino had been lifted. I managed to get down for lunch (a big showing being in order, as the local MP was attending) but remembered only at the last minute that I was supposed to take a salad or cake.

Permaculture class at my place

Lay awake listening to a night of heavy rain and mulling over a big day ahead, and woke to a drizzly morning and an early start to the day. There was the vegan cake recipe found online to try (with my own lemons and rosemary), the weekend’s pumpkin seeds and dried olives to prepare for snacks, and a ‘leftovers soup’ to make while clearing the fridge and tidying the kitchen.

when is a weed not a weed?

Been busy looking into weeds as part of a Cert III competency 'Using Weedy Plants in a Permaculture System'. A bit disappointing to discover, reading the details of this competency, that it seems far more focussed on eradication than use!