Gardening

[Lefty]

Hmm, a cold, grey, blustery day - don't get in winter here often.

[HBS Guy]

Need to transplant my Cherokee purple tomato seedlings into peat pots. Mainly so they will grow quicker in more suitable media and give me time to get rid of the 1metre high weeds in the patch I want to grow them in! Oh my aching back!

Got two cherry toms to plant too, Tommy Toe, thick skinned but delicious and cherry romas.

The big patch I might devote to potatoes—easy, just keep piling on the straw. The long skinny patch next to that—Charentai rock melons. Need to visit Diggers in the Botanic Gardens and buy some seeds.

[Lefty]

Tommy Toe were successful here in the warmer months - that thick, tough skin helps deter fruit flies. The poor old Black Russians - so tasty but with their thin skins it's party time for fruit fly. So BR's are a winter time tomato only, for when the fly are few and far between.

[HBS Guy]

I have never had luck with black tomatoes, neither the Russian nor the Krim(?) ever did well. Dunno why.

[Lefty]

Could be climatic I guess but I wouldn't be surprised if it were soil-related. I'm guessing your soil is probably slightly on the alkaline side, maybe they prefer slightly acidic?

[HBS Guy]

Yeah, my soild is slightly alkaline and I do dig in a bit of dolomite to keep the soil sweet.

Maybe dig in sulphur instead and spray with calcium chloride and epsom salts for the calcium & magnesium? Might try that.

[Lefty]

Yeah, just slightly acidify the soil, might suit them better.

[HBS Guy]

Well, UNfortunately, can’t do any digging, still raining and soil saturated but will look for seedlings.

[Lefty]

Bucketed down here the night before last as the remains of the system that hammered SA came through CQ. No damage but some nice rain, probably about 15 mm (gotta set up new rain gauge).

[HBS Guy]

Was more like 100mm down here! did we get some rain!

[Lefty]

Hey, your rainfall total finally beat mine Beautifully cool here this morning - humidity is normally starting to kick in by about now. BoM says enjoy the cool weather while it lasts, it's almost over.

[HBS Guy]

Yeah, going back to Clare to have that little holiday next week before it gets too hot.

Hope we don’t get another storm like last time that drive through a blacked out Adelaide is not something I want to do again!

[Lefty]

Tahitian limes now a mass of small fruit Good to see it wasn't the roots from it that was backing up the septic tank, just a heap of sludge. Of all my trees, this is probably my favourite one. Might give them a drink this morning - we've been getting a bit of rain but the temps have been rising as well and sucking it back out of the ground pretty quickly.

[HBS Guy]

Mulch it goood!

[Lefty]

Mulch it real good!

Those huge and annoying Pacific yams are getting some of the water from water the limes and are sprouting - might have to poison the ones to close to the tree lest they smother it in rampant growth and block the light needed for continual fruit set.

I quite like these yams - very crispy when roasted - but I'm the only one who eats them and they become an enormous and rampant weed.

[HBS Guy]

Yeah, not good.

[Lefty]

Hmm - someone said a mini-heatwave this weekend (I'll be in Brisbane anyway) but at 34 it doesn't look all that bad. The air is actually quite dry at the moment - 34 and high humidity is rather unpleasant but with the drier air it should be just regular unpleasant.

Heat and dry - despite La Nina being confirmed - sucking the moisture out of everything. Gave the citrus all a good drink - not enough water and the fruit are dry and juiceless.

[HBS Guy]

That is why I want the trenches filled with gravel around the cider apple trees, run grey water into that, but will depend on what is under the topsoil.

Either Tassie or mid north NSW can grow apple incl cider apple trees so that is good. Reckon I might be doing mainly cider and mead and little to no brewing, unless I can find a 30L ss pan for a kettle and a 30L temp controlled urn as hot liquor tank. I can convert an esky into a mash tun no probs. It is carting 50L ss kegs around is too hard due problems with my shoulders.

[Lefty]

Drove through a helluva wild storm near Miriam Vale on the way home from Brissy. Rain so hard you could only see about 20 metres ahead, wind bending the big trees along the road rather scarily and hailstones pummeling the car like bullets, we were forced to pull over and wait for it to pass. Got home and there had been nothing. There had been a little on Saturday night apparently but we're supposed to be in La Nina yet it feels like an El Nino, hot and bone dry for the most part.

[HBS Guy]

I had rain like that driving home from Mt Gambier one night. Very low visibility, I had seen a car behind me and it had been raining heaps for days so I did not dare stop or pull off the road, would have been bogged for sure. Bit of a nightmare drive for half an hour or so.

[Lefty]

Yeah, can be a bit worrying at times to drive through stuff like that just hoping for the best.

Temps have suddenly plummeted and overnight and early mornings feel more like September. Weird weather.

[Lefty]

But not anymore - gonna be a warmer one today, 36. Normally that would be pretty brutal with the humidity but thatnkfully the humidity is unseasonally low at the moment so it's be a dry heat, still pretty warm but not as punishing. Gave the fruit trees a good soaking last night to help them cope with the moisture-sucking conditions today will bring. Got fruit on them, this is when they are vulnerable to drought stress - tress will pull up a bit stressed but ok if not watered but the fruit will be adversely affected.

[HBS Guy]

La Nina weather I guess.

[Lefty]

La Nina should bring the opposite though - plenty of rain (it brought the devastating 2011 QLD floods). Can never be certain though, some El Nino years have had decent rainfall though generally it brings below average to drought conditions.

Shit awful heat yesterday, got cooked. Nowhere for stupid barstards like me to get out of the heat, just have to suffer it. Came home this arvo feeling crook from heatstoke. Had a shower, took some pills for raging headache, laid down about 5:00 this arvo and it was lights out. Woke up at 11 tonight, stomach upset from not eating any dinner. Had a few bits of toast, will turn back in again now I think.

[HBS Guy]

Yeah, you needed your ice vest!

Maybe talk to the headmaster, arrange for breaks every so often to come in from sun and cool down and rehydrate?