What the?

The bamboo, that I still intend to remove, is one plant flourishing, But why the heck is this new miniature growth appearing on most spikes. Is it the mythical 50, or was that 500 year flowering. The myth says all the bamboo dies (now that would be a good thing) after that gregarious flowering event but famine, dark despair and untold hardship descends on the land.

the rule of 10

I've been away and my garden missed any watering for almost two weeks during hot dry weather, with the remote possibly of a local thunderstorm/downpour in there maybe. Things were looking wilted but survived, infact the cretaceous part has faired better than most other parts of the garden (most probably because it is protected from the scorching north winds). One water and things seem to have sprung back to life.

So "How long to water?" is probably the big question around here at the momement. My mother's suggestion is possibly the best I have heard

Count to ten (1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10) slowly as you water important shrubs
...my mum

How much water the plants get depends mainly on your water pressure and which nozzle setting you have on your triger hose (under current water restrictions you can only water, at the designated times, using a hose fitted with a trigger nozzle, which instantly cuts off the water when you release it). However it is easy to work out the flow, just place the hose into a standard plastic bucket (most of which have volume marks on the side) count to 10 and see how much water is there. With a bit of calibration you might be happier count to 5,7 or even 15).

How much water your garden needs, is a more complex issue and is sure to be the topic of posts to come.

The bucket brigade, a month on.

Melbournians, including me, have embraced using plastic buckets as a really easy way to save water (eg. first flow in the shower). In fact their has been a massive 24% reduction in water usage for january 2007 (compared with the same time last year) in a year when January has been significnatly hotter and drier than average. So water restrictions are working and most people are acting responsibly. We even have a website to monitor weekly water usage now.

Well done folks.

Drip Watering #4

The Melbourne City council have come up with a great way to water their significant trees. All around the center of Melbourne at the moment you will see the red and white traffic barriers babysitting a big tree. These barriers are designed to be filled with water to make them heavy, in their normal traffic`hjazard management duties, but with the simple addition of a drip hose they can become a personalised tree watering system that the council can refill with recycled water periodically.

Nocturnal visitors

This guy, a small bushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula, is not such a welcome quest. His relatives devastate fruit frees and prize plants around here this time of year and seem to be flourishing in tree lined street of Melbourne. Whilst they are officially protected in Victoria, most locals consider them pests. Despite looking cuddly and docile these small marsupials have sharp teeth and claws as many dogs and cats soon find out.

This is the species of possum that has caused such environmental destruction, when they were introduced to New Zealand.

my other (token) conifer

At the moment they only other conifer (other than the wollemi pine),is a very low growing juniper. It was planted long ago, vaguely I remember it having a name like carpet juniper, and it looks a little like a Juniperus squamata but thats supposed to be fast growing and this one is definitely not that!

I did have two other conifers, pencil pines, but they were growing so fast and tall I had to move them well away from the house. They were definitely unsuited to my restricted space. Now I just have to dream of getting a more slow growing King Billy, Celery top or Huan Pine to replace them.

An interesting (re)discovery

Today I came across some old sketches of my original ideas for the cretaceous garden. The first was perhaps a little ambitious, with a water feature and mini pier from the carport. However on the back of this sketch was an interesting hand written list-

suitable plants with cretaceous ancestors

• ferns
• moss
• cycads
• laurel (eg sassafras)
• cypress (low growing)
• deciduous beech
• ginkgo
• bamboo ??

The fact that I had included bamboo suggest that I had not researched this list well, if at all. Grasses, of which bamboo is one, didn't really evolve until until after the cretaceous (but more about bamboo later) I suspect it is on the list because it was already there in the garden.

I also has a second list of look-alike cretaceous plants

• broad leaf cover (eg aspidistra)
• pin cushion plant
  

Looking back that was a pretty good list to start, and matches what has flourished, I'm giving myself 7 out of 10 for plant selection (now is that a B minus or a C plus on a standardized marking system?)



My second design is much closer to what I have created it has a dry creek bed of rocks instead of a pond. I left out the stepping stone and have a mini island instead.

You might like to see what the area looked like before it became cretaceous.