wet wet wet

Its raining its pouring
I cant say that it's boring
theres rooms to clean
and a computer screen
thats always bloomin calling

Wettest august day in 10 years....more coming......good news for Warragamba Dam ...we really need this :)

yuk, yuk, yuk! Make it stop! It rained all night and the wind blew and I'm too scared to imagine what the garden and nursery looks like! The tank must be full, and also the dam, and I reckon the rain guage would be to, but its not just normal rain anymore! It's now a wind driven torrential downpour! I moved the car to a sheltered spot (you'd think with our big shed there'd be a spot undercover?) cause I was scared a big branch might come down, although hubby and I did some dead branch removal on the weekend, using a rope and my boot.
Luckily I have a couple of days work inside at an organic produce store, so the rain won't stop me from making some income anyway.
I hope this hasn't destroyed the spring flower displays about the place. I'm glad I didn't go in for the garden comp!

It is knocking my plum blossoms off the tree ...that a shame....last year we had no plums because the Winter was too warm...this year the Winter has been cold enough for the blossoms and the monsoon type rain is knocking them all off the tree.....now there I go- after the drought I said I would never complain about rain again ....OOOPs.....ha ha ha....*slapping my own hand*

Well my spring flower display wont be the same unless I go and buy some more.....oh theres a thought, what better way to SPEND a rainy day? No Mangos either for those whose trees are in the midst of flowering, they don't like it wet when the flowers are on, and they all fall off, I guess much like your plums Chrissy.
I've got a severe lean on a standard Hibiscus and on my Tamarilllo, but untill the wind stops and its safe to go out amongst the gum trees, they will have to wait. I'd only just removed the stake from the Tamarillo, isn't that always the way?

On a good note, the dam is overflowing!

and the pool is full.........of leaves!

Stop bragging and start sending some of the wet our way!!!

hmphfffff! Well, if I could, I would! Theres still more to come though, (rain). Its a funny old climate, is its not too dry, its too wet, and vice versa. It's not often that we get mild days with soft rainy nights. Though when we do, doesn't that send the garden off?

chrissy100 writes "Wettest august day in 10 years . . "

Yesterday, Central Park in New York City recorded the lowest high temperature for August in 96 years: 59F

And its raining...has been for days. Been a terrific tomato season along the New England coast this year but it may be coming to an early end...or maybe not.....

What season is it there? Are you just going into fall? And how come Chrissy100 is coming through David_Paul? And where are you David_Paul?

Sorry to intrude...you Australians are the only ones up at this hour.

:-)

We're headed for fall on the east coast of the USA.

CT is Connecticut USA, weed_woman, and David_Paul was quoting chrissy from earlier up the thread and didn't say so; naughty boy. I can't speak for khopton, but I suspect my rain envy is being shared by her as welll. We've barely had a dribble or two lately. I had to water again this week - I've had to get a hose permit as buckets are beyond both me and my Mum. They say they will reassess the restrictions at the end of August, but I can't see them letting up much as the catchment is still very low. To add insult to injury it is even raining in Perth! What we really need is for your current downpour to relocate itself over the head waters of the Murray Darling, but somehow I can't see that happening! Last I heard Adelaide's main catchment reservoirs were at 73%, but that is only due to pumping in from the Murray, and that is getting to be a very iffy thing to do nowadays. The last three summers here many vegetable gardeners have lost their beans because of salt from the Murray water causing premature die back. I'm saving rainwater in a rubbish bin for them this year. KK.

David _Paul please don't leave....welcome so nice of you to drop by:) ......yes the times are up and down but looks like the weather is similar ...so much for global warming ....it has been the coldest ....wettest Winter that I can ever remember....frost where no one has ever seen such a thing....many gardeners weeping buckets over the damage caused....so what things are growing in your garden....you will be going into fall...we are about to leap into Spring....a very soggy one but after so much drought and water restrictions that is not such a bad thing ...please stick around and invite some friends too! come on back:)

Hi Kk and Ww.....brrrrr it is *bl%#dy cold......terrible cold wet wind all day......coming right off the Blue Mountains.Hope all is well with you KK ......WW stay dry.....don't run around in all that rain folk down this way are dropping like flies with Pnuemonia (sic) as a side flue thing the Hospitals can't cope.Hey K we are blowing the water your way as hard as we can(((((wwwwhhhhhhoooooo..... let us know how you go....take care everyone...you too David_Paul :)

I think yall scared David_Paul away.
Here is a Pic of my front yard .It's more like a before and after .

This was 6 month ago .
From the same spot .

Oh my goodness! same here ...we live close to Warragamba Dam
and the news is good ....from the low 30's to mid 50's in just a couple of weeks! whew it was getting a bit hairy there for a while...we were about to go into no watering at all....not even by hand!....so huge relief....I sent David_Paul a D mail ....telling him that we won't bite ...ha ha ha....poor bloke...probably thinks we all wrestle crocodiles as a hobby or something.....oh well try and stay dry all.....we will be mowing the lawns again before long.:)

Crikey Ginga! I thought you was yoking till I saw the before shot!
We've not had it so bad here, but I do wish it would stop. I'm getting a bit stir crazy, although I'm not letting it keep me inside. I planted the rest of my snappies and did a bit more mulching early this morning, and at Tafe we tidied up the prop igloos. The temp has dropped this arvo and I've had to put on the lekky heater as the woods too wet, and the gas has run out! I'll have to fix that tomorrow. Electricity is toooooo dear.
I'll do a bit of huffing and puffing too Chrissy, and if Ging joins in maybe we can blow it down/accross to KK. PHFFFFFFFFFFF!

I'M BLOWING , I'm blowing .
KK here it comes .
weed_woman I lit the fire earlier today .
Everything was starting to feel clammy inside .
I don't like calling you ( weed_woman )
Makes you sound like a weed smoker .
Can we call you by your first name ?

well........I guess that would be ok. Its an easy one.
My name is Sue, how do you do?

I do it Well thanks . lol
I was trying to load a Pic here .
But it is dinner time . later

Thanks for the good water thoughts. I guess we can't complain too much, it's in the national anthem after all .."droughts and flooding rains"..

Really though, any extra water is a good thing, especially if it drains back away from the coast, as it does in many places. I know we get short term inconveniences, and some people wind up in real trouble for one reason or another; but the long term effect of these wet years pays off in improved water tables, better groundwater quality, and, if we are lucky enough, even several years climate modification. Does anyone remember the last time Lake Eyre was full? Adelaide got about three years of cooler than average summers and milder winters out of that! Simply because that mass of water north of us was big enough to affect our local climate!

Chrissy, never mind the "global warming" look out for "climate change" because that is what is really happening. I wish the media would stop calling it global warming, it confuses people too much. Sure yes the overall temperature is going up (on average) but that doesn't mean it can't go down as well. What is really happening is that the overall increase in temperature is kicking more energy into the whole global climate system - think about what happens when you turn up the heat under a pot of hot water on the stove: when it is just boiling it bubbles along nicely - turn the heat up further and the water gets violent, it may even get to the point of boiling over in order to release the excess energy from the system.

In the climate's case the extra heat energy has to go somewhere, it can melt ice (bye bye ice caps), increase wind speeds (hello hurricanes and other storm systems), bake the land (make deserts grow, increase droughts) and heat the sea (change the course of currents, and expand the water itself). The last effect might indeed be the worst one of all, as oceanographers are discovering that most of the major currents which affect the weather are very temperature sensitive indeed. Imagine a world with no more El Nino / La Nina events, or no Gulf Stream; closer to home if the ocean circulation around Australia took a big hit, it would disrupt every major fishery. There could be no more humpback whales going up and down the coast every year, and we will certainly loose the Great Barrier Reef if the current trends persist. Imagine the Queensland coast with no reef to protect it from storm systems coming all the way across the Pacific? It's not my idea of fun, that's for sure.

Oops, I've just read that back to myself and realised I'm ranting again. The point I'm trying to make is that if there is more energy in the system, the climate become more extreme - hotter by day, colder by night. It may not get cold as often, but if it IS cold it's likely to be really cold, not just cool. Obviously, since Australia is so big, that means different things in different places - frost in areas which aren't used to it - more rain some places, even less in others - changes in humidity, the times of the year when rain falls, all of that sort of thing. This stuff is not planet threatening as such, the earth has survived much more cataclysmic events; it is not even life threatening in the general sense; even though it threatens the existence of many rare and endangered life forms, simply BECAUSE they are restricted to one particular location.

It is just that we as humans have attached ourselves to specific things and places in way that our hunter gatherer ancestors could never have understood - if their weather changed they would move with it, but we want to keep our "civilisation" and all the benefits it brings, so we tend to stay put, and notice as things change around us, usually by complaining that "things aren't what they used to be" and insinuating that "they" should do something! As gardeners I suspect most of us treat the environment better than the average person, simply because we notice how things are going in nature every time we see a flower bloom in our gardens; the hard part is in translating local knowledge into global action. Still, you never know what might happen, change IS everywhere, it is up to each and every one of us to try for the best outcome we can get with whatever resources we can bring to bear on the world around us.

I might be off for a day or two now, I came back from my weekend with a MASS of photos for various projects - when I've got them a bit sorted I'll pop back in and see how every one is getting on, TTFN, KK.

PS, thanks for the good water thoughts, we need em! You can call me Jacq if you like, and no it's not short for anything, and hello Sue (Sure is easier to type than weed_woman, LOL!)

yeah, tomoz probly.

Hey Sue! yes the name weed woman conjures up strange visions ...ha ha ha... oh heck rain and icy wind...luckily I restrained the urge not to plant some seeds they would have washed far away by now....some of my rooted cuttings have started to rot off which is a little sad but they can be replaced when it warms up.....I have a fruit ( birds ate half of it already ) that is from a tall grey cactus there are many black reasonably large seeds still in it... is it worth trying to grow them ....do I just lay them on top of damp sand?...and what do baby cactus look like?.....well stay warm ...I was excited to find flower buds on my green sapote this morning does anyone know if they need cross pollinating...I read that they are related to the persimmon so can I get the old paintbrush out and play birds and bees with them if needed?....thanks guys!

KK gee I think you summed it up beautifully....and I could not agree more .....gardeners understand the earth....if we don't look after the "earth " in our gardens we see the results pretty quickly don't we....the planet we live in is one big garden.
Have fun with the photos take care now!.....*paddling away* :)

Hi Chrissy,
Just caught your post before knocking off for the day. Re the Cacti seed, you need to get them out of the flesh because it will rot. If they are really small it can be a bit tricky, I have a very fine mesh kitchen sieve which i gently mush the fruit pulp in and rinse under the tap, until i get the seeds clean. Then I dry them on a paper towel for a few days and rub them over gently, just to make sure nothing adheres to them. There are basically two kinds of cacti seedlings, cylindrical ones with two obvious seed leaves and tiny spherical ones which are a bit harder to grow because they start off so tiny. If the seeds are large, I'd bet on the larger seedlings, which is good news for you. The biggest danger to germinating cacti is damping off, the second is drying out at the wrong time, simply because they are so tiny. The method I have found the most successful, is as follows .

Start with 50/50 fine leaf mould and coarse sand. mix it well and dampen it. Put the damp mix on a microwave safe plate and nuke it for 3 to 5 minutes - it need to get hot enough to evaporate most of the moisture, so the steam can sterilize the mix. You can also bake your seedling mix in the oven (I used to, pre-microwave) but it takes a lot longer and makes the kitchen stinky, LOL! Let the mix cool under a cloth or cover to avoid floating mould spores.

Use a shallow pan pot, like a commercial seedling punnet, and wash it well in hot soapy water,
dry the pot with a clean cloth or throwaway paper towel. Put the cooled mix into the pot and tap it down with something flat until it's reasonably firm, then sprinkle the seeds on top. Try to get them well spaced if you can (i used to put all my seeds on one by one with tweezers, but then I am a bit obsessive!) Sprinkle sharp sand over the seeds until they are just covered. Stand the pot and seeds in a container of previously boiled water, until the covering sand shows damp patches, then take it up and put it into a suitable sized freezer bag and tie up the top with a quicktwist tie or similar. This is the last water they will need for the better part of the next year or so. Hang or stand the bagged pot in a brightly lit area out of direct sunlight and wait. Now comes the hard part. DO NOT OPEN THE BAG until your seedlings are big enough to handle!

I know temptation is very hard to resist, but small cacti are extremely easy to kill with bacteria, mould, algae, or even humidity swings. Once you can see at least 5 to 7 mm of true growth between the original seed leaves, you can start their transition into the real world by opening the bag a little more each day over a week or so, before removing it altogether. This slow start is why spacing the seeds out makes a difference - the baby cacti could be in that pot for up to two years - if they are not well spaced they will push each other over, or even out of the soil all together. You can plant your seeds as soon as the night time temperatures stay reliably above 10c. Let me know how you go, Jacq.

This is a small cacti .
It's only about 7" high .

Gee KK you went to so much trouble as usual....thankyou ...I would not dare let them die now...the seeds came out of a big purple fruit off a tall cylindrical cactus that I bought years ago for the grandson it is a nice grey blue colour .....and quite tall now.....if I get the seeds out and dry them ....would you like some ...will they stay viable enough...if I pop some in the mail as a thankyou?...they are a reasonable size and black or very dark brown.....there are still more than enough if any one else wants some...just let me know. It was standing next to another cactus that belonged to grandson no.2 and this was a nice multi stem column type ....both very nice and flowering at the same time but there was just one fruit on the blue grey one ...so maybe it crossed. Thanks again KK and G :)

Ooooh as I write this the rain is that heavy you can't hear the radio....it is like monsoon rain.....blowing real hard (and paddling )Yikes........wwwwwhhhhhooooooooo (((((((((((

It is now 2.11am here on the Gold Coast
and we are having one of them heavy can't hear a thing down pours .
I was going out this morning to look at a Moity Boik .
But with my flooded road I may just stay at home .
Any one know what this type of MB is ?

Hi Ginger. Was your previous pic an Adenium? (er Desert Rose) I bought 5 up at the markets in Qld in a big sports complex place (name escapes me) Sleeman? anyway, all the leaves have fallen, but I'm thinking its due to the weather and have stashed them out of the rain untill blue skies return. Looking outside, it wont be today.
Is the bike a trials bike, 'cause the seat certainly doesn't suggest a comfortable ride!

Sorry, i'm a bit vague at present, but hello to KK and Chrissy too and thanks for all the reading about global warming and cactus seed sowing KK. I haven't got a good book at the mo, so your posts are keeping me well read and informed/educated. I looked at your trade list link from the seed swap thread but isn't the trade list more of a marketing tool? I find it much easier to keep to the aussie forum for local stuff, theres alot of sorting through to find other aussies any other way, unless you have a magical mystical link you know about? Hmmmmmm?

Yes Sue , It's an Adenium .
re: Bike , It's a GasGas Trials bike .
There is NO Seat at all .
Standing room only .
And after 5 hrs of riding the rough stuff ,
You know where your muscles are .

I've been in touch with Terry ( admin )
Our Plant trading is now a 'STICKY'
Which means it will always stay at the top .
She also said

OK, so we're not getting any rain but my my - it's absolutely beautfiul out today!! I feel guilty enjoying the sunshine!!! We're being optimistic about it all and bought tomato plants from Bunnings (they just recently stocked spring seedlings - apparently Oasis/Floriana are going to be their main suppliers now and the seedlings looked good so couldn't resist!!) so will work on that bed. They'll just have to make do with rainwater tank and shower water til the real stuff comes. What happened to La Nina and all the rain it was supposed to give us?? There are rumours that we may see spring and summer rain thanks to La Nina but I'm just not convinced.

ps - I'm going to experiment a bit with training the tomatoes ie: taking off unneccesary leaves etc. I'll let everyone know how it works for us.

khopton ,
I did that last year and it worked really well .

I got so many Toms ,
I started Drying them in a dehydrator .

This was some of them .
Ready for drying .

WOW! Excellent! and you did all that in containers looks like!! Thanks for the encouragement. What was your favorite variety??

Its raining again! I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain, (sorry KK) what a glorious feeling, I'm hap-hap-happy again!
So KK, any rain for you yet?