A New Watering Can

We have been doing some landscaping.

Each week we have bought some native plants at the Gin Gin market.

See the huge array of beautiful advanced shrubs? 

You sure you can't see them? 
Look there's one, a banksia

OK I admit when I stand back I can't see them either. They are all tube stock, about 300mm high, but they are growing and they are about all the budget can stand.

The Xanthorrohea (Grass Trees) or more politically incorrect - blackboy spears have been relocated from the house site to the top of the drive and a row of grevilleas planted behind them.

They will all grow quickly, provided we can keep the water up to them and therein, dear readers lies the problem.

There are no garden taps within cooee of where the plants are, so the Feral Fossil has been filling up the barrow with water and buckets and slopping his way from the tanks to the garden.

Now I don't know if you have experience wheeling a barrow load of water but I have come to believe this practice is directly connected to the vocal centres of the brain, the area specifically involved in swearing.

The Feral Fossil would set of effing and blinding as he wobbled on his way and when the oscillations became too great, the air turned blue and buzzed and forks of lightning flashed forth. Would do a bullocky proud.

Sometimes the Feral Fossil's Wife was press-ganged into service and guess what? it affected my speech centre too.

After several sessions of full shoes and less than full wheelbarrows, we came to the conclusion that this practice was a mug's game.

What we needed was something mobile and if possible another source of water.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT!

We have a shipping palleton tank. In a past life it was used to ship Guinnes fram t' auld Blarney, but it was full of water. 'Twas painful to watch all that precious liquid run away and soak into the thirsty ground, but it needed to be empty. With the tank manouvered onto the trailer and secured, the fire fighting pump was dusted off, spiders and other residents evicted, and mounted on the front of the trailer. Joy of joys, we had some suitable pipe with a filter for the pickup and a length of flat fire hose for the filler.

So we set off for the causeway to collect a load of water from the creek.

(I was going to show you a selection of photos of our triumphal tank filling,  but the batteries in the camera were flat)

1. The creek water, is freezing

2. No matter how tight the joints, they leak.

3. The leak in your direction always has the highest pressure

4. (see point 1.)

5. Fire hoses are hard to control

6. (see point 4.)

7. It took longer to drive to the creek than it did to fill the tank.

A quick trial run and BEWDY! now the Feral Fossil can water quietly at his leisure and the Feral Fossil's Wife can keep her feet dry

Ya gotta love . . .

THE NEW WATERING CAN

Winter Vegies

Summer was tough on the vegie garden. Only the corn did well and we had some beautiful sweet plump cobs from them. The rest hated all the rain. The tomatoes turned up their toes twice, the capsicums sulked, the cucumbers became powdery mildew city and the climbing beans refused to flower and the grass hoppers ate them.

So I am trying again.

Some Greenfeast peas (same as my Dad grew). They should give us a good yield before the warm weather arrives. The beans should go on producing until it gets too hot or wet later this year. Broccoli - again a cool weather planting and tomatoes that should go right through until autumn.

Mmmmmmmm fresh peas with mint, beans with garlic and lemon butter, steamed broccoli and plump cherry tomatoes. Hope the vegie patch gods are good to me this year.

Playing with Camera Macro Setting

Although its winter, there are lots of plants in flower and fruit.

These lovely delicate flowers are the Wonga Vine (Pandorea pandorana) a relative of the Bower Vine (Pandorea jasmanoides) grown as a garden plant. And do they have a beautiful perfume? only if you are a fly! which is what pollenates them

This is Hard Aspen (Acronychia Laevis) no relation to the norther hemisphere Aspen. Fig birds and Currawongs love them and there are many disputes as to who 'owns' the tree.