Racing against the rains

At time of writing it's still raining, has been all night.  We've had over 40mm, so all the tanks are full and I get to see that my gutter repairs are working (90% are) and that the stormwater outlets from the tanks are functioning (they are).  The ground is now filling up with water so there'll be no more digging for a while.

I'd known for about a week this weather was coming so I've been pretty busy, getting as much done as I could before it arrived.

Planted some bamboo cuttings direct into the soil in the 'hard' backmost garden bed, filled in the gaps with leftovers from other plantings I've done in the past week (tanunda mixed flower seedlings, leeks, dill and corriander).

I transferred eight cuttings into small pots and then went around the yard and gathered about twenty cuttings (mainly from shrubs) to go into the seedling boxes.  That makes a total of about sixty in the boxes, with about thirty small potted plants.  All an experiment, but might have about half to go out in spring (which will give me something to work with) and the other half to do a year in small pots before any final decision.

I've now planted out all my leek seedlings, another nineteen went into three main beds, with a handful into the 'hard' bed.

Lots of weeding out of soursobs (oxalis) and marshmallows from various garden beds.  I've left it where it isn't in the way and concentrated on where I want to make an impact on it.

Planted some lawn seeds in the bed I've dug over near the turtle pond.  Just raked it in to the soft soil.  Dog has done one exploratory trip and the sparrows appear to have been feasting when I'm not around so will be interesting to see how much comes up.  I look at this as a 'test bed' for grass.

Have started cardboarding over a section in the front yard as an experiment in weed suppression.  Will take out the dead shrubs there and extend the carboard, aiming at digging it all over in spring and planting out with some new shrubs (hopefully better able to cope with heat without too much water once established).

Finally, I got some concrete bessa bricks from a nearby demolition site (after getting permission) and built myself a waist high potting table in the garden so I can do my potting without breaking my back.  Used more of them to build a burning pit (the bricks control the radiant heat on two sides, as I only have a couple metres to the shed / fence and don't want to cause any big issues) and burnt about two thirds of the mountain of small prunings etc I've accumulated over the past couple years.  It was a fire hazard.  The rest will have to wait a while now.

So, it's been quite busy.  Now it's probably time to transfer much of this energy into 'inside' tasks while the soil drains and I plot my next moves in the yard.

Weather Report - Autumn 2019

This Report covers the calendar months for Autumn.  As such, it cross cuts my first weather report (here), in that they both include data for March 2019.  So be it.


Dry through March and April.  May rains equaled last year's (to two tenths of a millimetre!).

March      1.6mm falling on three days.
April        6.8mm over three days.
May        48.2mm over 15 days.

Classic 'shoulder'season for autumn.  No frosts.  A couple days of strong winds (mid 60km gusts).

March       40.7'C  15 days 30'C or higher, 3 over 35'C.
April          34.0'C max, 8 days 30'C or higher.

May           26.1'C max,  3.6' min



Garden labour has seamlessly shifted from watering to weeding.

The May rainfall total is exactly the same as last year, but the total rainfall is down about 10mm for the year.  The bureau is predicting another dry winter.  We'll see.