Still no rain. I'm having to pick and choose what parts of the yard I water, we've had to buy water for the house and pool.
Some more of the latest plantings have died, the more established plants are hanging in there, just.
I've had to abandon the vegie patch for now, we've just got no water for it, I'd rather try to keep the plants closest to the house alive.

On a positive note, the seeds I planted in anticipation of spring rain have sprouted, but I won't be planting them until the ground softens up.

Black Bean - Castanospermum australe

Caesalpinia ferrea - Leopard tree

Schotia brachypetala

Blood or Fire lily - Scadoxus

this lovely bulb literally popped up overnight amongst the hippeastrums and agapanthus. I didn't know it was there.

We are nearly out of water. We've only had a couple of mm since June. So i've been watering by watering can for months, there is no pump on the above ground tank so relying on gravity feed and as the tank lowers it takes longer to fill the can. There is a hose that reaches about halfway to the front of the yard so it's only 60m each way to carry the watering can and walk back instead of 90m. I have 2 cans so that one is filling as i take the other one.
This morning I walked for 3hrs watering. The ground is rock hard and the grass is all brown. Thankfully only a couple of plants have died, a lace bark and a bottlebrush, most things are hanging on.
If I have to chose what to water and what to let die I don't know what i'll do. :-(

On a positive note, the gardenia's have started flowering. Such a distinctive perfume! I love them!

The black bean has finally started to shoot again, and the 2 black bean seeds that i planted have sprouted!

The 2 tabebuias (one pink and one yellow) that i planted have both produced new shoots.

Well it IS spring after all, but without the spring rain.

The new rose garden. I've got a Mr Lincoln, Peace, and a Blue Moon with alyssum in between, protected from the dog and various bandicoots and rabbits!

Steaming bush in the front yard

View from the roof

North East

East

South East

West

South

South East

the view from the roof

Before,

After weeding. From left to right, Rose of Sharon, crepe myrtle, hibiscus, oleander, star apple.

The vegie patches. I'm trying different approaches to each one. The furtherest has the litter tray contents and vege scraps. Second is a heap of clay we dug out for the poles around the pool - I'm regularly turning this over with compost and dolomite to try and break it down. Third one has bird seed growing as green manure and in one end are chili plants and rosemary. The closest one has about 20 bags of horse manure that I turn over with grass clippings and odd amount of clay and other dirt that Matt has dug out from various spots. We'll be putting a fence around these beds because the bandicoots are regular visitors.

<< Lots of digging and pruning. On the left of this bed is a murraya, then a hibiscus "Hiawatha" then duranta and at far end planted a curly leaf acalypha. This bed is on the south side of the house so it only gets sun early morning and late afternoon in wintertime.

 >>More digging and pruning. Far left is a creamy flowered hibiscus, close to a brunfelsia, next is a variegated hisbiscus, then a thunbergia, and then a lillypilly. I dug out all the grass that had invaded and choked the shrubs, pruned all except the right hand end hibiscus and sprinkled blood and bone, and watered in seaweed fertiliser. Have planted pink gazania at the right end, will sow winter seeds yet to be decided which.

<< the vegie patch is slowly improving all the time, i've dug in a load of manure and grass clippings and turn it over and water it once a week. The bird seed is growing nicely, and next week i'll sow some other green manure maybe buckwheat and vetch.
<< The mound next to it is my prep for another vegie patch. I laid newspapers then a huge amount (4 large bags) of fresh horse manure, than completely covered it with 1hrs worth of mown grass clippings.


I've taken cuttings of the calliandra to help establish the hedge that we want to follow the fence line for privacy because the block is so open at the front. Already i've planted tecomaria, plumbago, westringia, lillypillys, bouganvillea and clumping bamboo.

veggie patch with layered newspaper over the grass, mixed mulch and topsoil and manure then grass clippings and down this end is budgie seed for green manure.

screening hedge of lillypillys and leptospermum parallel to the fence to block out the neighbours.

a bit bare but it's a start - one vegie bed, plans for several more over time.

Oden had his eyelid operation on Friday, so he's a little bit sookie and took advantage of my sympathy on the couch!

Some seeds arrived in the post this week, i'm feeling a little excited, that should fuel all the digging i have to do in order to plant them now that the rain has eased up over the last few days.

the peas are part crop and part green manure, the sweet peas will go next to the passionfruit trellis, other green manure seeds here are vetch and buckwheat. There is alyssum, queen annes lace and phacelia tanacetifolia (or fluffy phacelia or purple tansy) that i've read is good for green manure, and bees, and will grow through our mildish winter. I got a free pkt of viola's with my glucosamine delivery.

We have a new addition to the acreage. A 15hp chipper/mulcher.

The ground is still sodden from all the rain, so i can't mow yet. Spent Saturday afternoon working our way through the stockpile of cuttings, turns out the chipper doesn't process wet material well, but still we managed to get quite a nice pile of chips and mulch for the new vegie patch.

boring wet weather

well it's been raining all week, and all weekend so Oden amused himself in true doggy style lol

The persimmons are sweet! a funny squat shape, but they are ripening nicely and have a sweet, perfumed flavour. I think the rain might be too much for them though as most of them have a split in the bottom.

this hibiscus is just gorgeous, the edges are brighter gold than the pic looks. The bush is covered in buds, but needs pruning, I've been giving it seasol.

i don't know what this shrub is called, the leaves are small and the flowers are all single.

lol a great pose by man's best friend. This was a rare bit of sunlight in between all the rain, so I dashed out and planted a tibouchina on the left, the dwarf oleander was already there, a variegated hisbiscus and on the end a gardenia. On the side Oden is, I planted some pink gazanias, and on this side some blue sapphire ground cover.
Since then we've had plenty of rain and the ground is very boggy, so they'll either settle in well or rot!

We had a mini cyclone through here this morning, it lasted for 3 hours. After 12 hours solid rain through the night the wind picked up to damaging speeds, the power went out at 6.15am as i was about to leave for work, i thought i'd wait till the storm was over. About 9am I drove up the road and saw trees down, branches all over the road, and the road was flooded at Mungar, so gave up planning to go to work. Power came back on at 10.15. The rescue helicopter flew over soon after and i read on the SES facebook page that 2 people were swept away at Glenwood not far from here, they've recovered 1 body.

this morning went to a local nursery that usually has discounted plants, and picked up 3 melaleucas, 2 gardenias, 2 grevilleas, a variegated hibiscus, a tibouchina, and a bouganvillea for $50.

Having just bought 5 acres a month ago, my head is spinning in all directions, so many choices about the garden.
The front 2 1/2 ac that has the house in it, is an uninspiring area of lawn dotted with neglected bushes and trees. Too much lawn.

I envisage that we can be almost self sufficient in food produce, I'm just not sure how long it will take to get to that point.
The passionfruit are in, mulberry tree is in, there was a severely neglected persimmon that i will try to nurse back to health.

List:  Yes I want it all :-)
vege patch.
fruit orchard.
reduce size of the lawn by planting groves of trees/bushes.
screening hedge to block out the neighbour's house on the left side.
cottage garden
scented garden
shady glade
meandering pathways throughout