Can't believe I've neglected this for over 18 months. Must have been busy... Since last writing about my garden, we've had a year of good rainfall which caused everything, including weeds, to flourish. Since then we've had several months of barely any rain, as if we are heading back to drought, and months of temperatures not less than 37 degrees and as high as 43 for weeks in a row. Many plants have burned off badly, some have gone to God, either through too much heat or too much watering while I was trying to compensate for too much heat.
I have learnt a bit during this time about what should have been planted somewhere else, what should never have been planted at all and what flourishes in these conditions, other than weeds. I've also learnt that lots of rain causes shallow rooting of plants, which then don't cope with little or no water because they have no long roots to reach deep moisture and they die. Some notable plants in this category are my grevilleas - only the ones I paid exhorbitant prices for because they were grafted and supposedly tougher. Also, in this area, if a plant label says "Full Sun", it means "Part Shade". Maybe I can do better next heat wave.
I have now killed off most of my potted camellias because I kept adding water on hot days without doing the "index finger in the soil" test first. I have replaced them with gardenias, because they seem to be much more tolerant of my stupidity.
Tried blueberries for the first time and managed to kill 2 out of 4 (yes, the ones in the pots), but this time because they were out in the scorching sun and got totally burnt off. The garden ones are in part shade and still going.
I've started putting hibiscus plants in pots all over the place and they seem to be striving in the heat and love water. Also, my baby bougs are loving the heat and are also happy about lots of water.
If I was going to plant out a garden purely to cope with every extreme weather condition that is thrown at it, I would fill it with Dietes grandiflora (Wild Iris) and agapanthus. These 2 plants don't mind extreme heat or cold and flower on regardless. I'll have to keep that in mind as I get older and need a more care-free garden.
I didn't have much luck with my vege gardens last summer or winter. There didn't seem to be enough heat or bees and plenty of fruit fly. This summer, however, the zuchinnis are loving the hot sun and producing well, cucumbers are a bit slow, but were planted late and snake beans are in great profusion for the second year in a row. I wish I'd discovered these delicious creatures a long time ago. They are notoriously difficult to find among the vine stems and leaves as they camouflage well and some have grown way too big , but I've picked them and dried them, as the bean seeds can not only be used to grow more plants next year, but can also be used in soups and stews, so nothing goes to waste. Strawberries have been a dismal failure as they have been eaten by birds and lizards as they appeared. I netted the bed to keep birds off, then found big shinglebacks and bearded dragons caught up in the netting. I've had to lift it off the ground so now they all have access.
In the past year and a half I have added a bench to the paddock to make the most of a great view across the river flats - a great place for an early morning cuppa.
I have also refurbished the western patio garden with some Crown of Thorns in pots and a Balinese head.
I have built another circular rose bed along the drive and filled it with some new and old favourites like Eyes for You, Slim Dusty, Stainless Steel, Abracadabra, Peace and Ebb Tide to name a few.
I got rid of my pond after 13 years and made it into a bog garden for a selection of saracenias. I bought half a trailer load of washed river sand and 150kg of live sphagnum moss, brought up from a nursery on the Mornington Peninsula. I cleaned out all the plants and hunks of massed and tangled roots from the pond, filled it with 75% sand and 25% moss and planted the pitcher plants. I found out later that using live sphagnum is not environmentally friendly, so I bought some compressed coconut coir and have been wetting that down and using it when needed instead. I was watering them daily with rain water from our tanks, but as we were running low and , with no rain in sight, I had to change to river water. They seem to be coping well and, despite the extreme heat, I've only had 3 plants out of 18 succumb to the heat. Apparently they only like an acidic environment and no nutrients whatsoever. Our river water has a pH of about 7.5, just on the alkaline side of neutral, so fingers crossed.
