Reaching for the sky

Earlier this year I blogged about the insect infestation of the young tuart in my garden.

Unfortunately the insects that have already made homes among the tuart’s leaves are causing quite a bit of damage…The problem is the sap-sucking psyllids, also known as eucalyptus lerps, because the nymph constructs a “lerp” to hide under.

In the course of my investigations as to what insect was causing all the damage I decided it was lerps, even though the lerps I’ve seen on other gum trees looked nothing like what this lorikeet is eating in my garden (see above). I figured there must be some lerps somewhere up high that I couldn’t see. This is an example of why you shouldn’t believe everything you read on a blog (or the web) because I may have been wrong :P

Pond Matters

The rain over the past couple of days has filled the pond in my garden and it’s very close to overflowing. I planted Phlebocarya ciliata, a bog plant, in the area where the overflow will run, so it should enjoy this winter wet area. It’s in the Haemodoraceae family along with kangaroo paws. The plant structure looks similar, but it likes damp swampy ground, unlike kangaroo paws. I also got hoary twine rush (Meeboldina cana) for the water and removed one of the Villarsia from the water and planted it in the overflow area. Villarsia like boggy areas or shallow water, so it should do as well in the ground as it did in the pond.

More on rain (not more rain)

Since May’s rain there’s been lots more sunny days, until this week. The satellite image of the cloud cover on Thursday morning showed a large portion of WA covered in thick cloud. This produced a nice downpour of 22.2mm for Perth, with June’s rainfall so far now 43.6mm. As a result we’re no longer having the driest January to June on record [1], but the rain didn’t last. It’s been fine since then and the forecast is for more un-June sunny weather until Thursday, even if the temperature has dropped.

Last winter I blogged about Perth’s water restrictions:

Only in October 2007 were restrictions placed on summer bore use, for irrigating residential gardens, parks, sporting fields and golf courses. Theoretically restrictions shouldn’t be needed in winter months because you’d think people would realise that irrigation isn’t necessary when it’s raining. Sadly, I’ve seen sprinklers in use at Curtin University and gardens near my house, when it was raining.

Winter weather

I’ve been hibernating from blogging while writing my thesis, but I had to blog about winter’s late arrival. There was a dismal amount of rain in May, 46mm on only 4 days with almost half falling on one day. This is way below the monthly average of 87mm and means in the last five months Perth has had a severe rainfall deficiency (in the lowest 5% of historical totals). To complement this, Monday was the hottest June day on record: 26°C. The cold weather has supposedly arrived now with 6°C last night (even though sunny days are forecast until Wednesday).

Perth is not the only place experiencing low rainfall.

Rainfall was below to very much below average across most of the continent during May 2009. Another month of low rainfall for southern Australia exacerbated already dry conditions. Victoria has now experienced its third driest start to the year on record and southwestern WA its fifth driest since reliable records commenced in 1900. Short-term rainfall deficits are now evident over most of southeast and southwestern Australia.

Summer Produce

I’ve been enjoying lots of summer produce from my garden – carrots, radish, pak choy, lettuce, onion, garlic, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, lots of herbs, and one leek. I’ve already blogged about my adventures in growing garlic. And it’s so much more pungent than shop bought. They didn’t segment because I didn’t fertilize them enough. This April when I plant more I’m going to add lots of manure and compost before planting the cloves. And in April I’ll remind CW to plant some garlic in her garden. There was only one leek because from eight seedlings, only one survived.

My tomatoes were a bit slow to start fruiting because I didn’t plant them at the start of spring. The rain in November gave them a good start and I’m slowly becoming inundated with tomatoes. The compost tomatoes* came up earlier than the Tommy Toes I planted from Diggers seed, but the cherry tomatoes are now ripening too. I was told cherry tomatoes are less prone to bugs, and I thought this meant they wouldn’t get caterpillars in the fruit – a problem I had last summer. They do get caterpillars, but there are still lots that are caterpillar-free. My uncle told me I should use a spray of garlic and chilli, but I haven’t got around to it.

Bushfire in Kings Park

On Friday it was 41.8°C. It’s not usually quite that hot until February and the extreme weather didn’t help in controlling the fires which burnt in Perth and the south west [1].

The deliberately fire at Kings Park burnt 20ha of the Mt Eliza escarpment. Australia’s bush is resilient in regenerating after fire and the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) is confident the area will return to good cover within four to five years [2], but it might need some help from the BGPA.

From 1996 to 2005 a major project to restore the escarpment’s ecosystem health was undertaken [3]. Introduced plant species were removed, including eradication of major weeds: veldt grass, century plant (Agave americana) and bridal creeper (Asparagus asparagoides). Jute matting was laid down to improve soil stability and the escarpment was revegetated with locally collected plant species.

The escarpment comprises limestone heath which is poorly represented in the Perth region [3]. It is one of only three remaining areas of estuarine cliff along the Swan River and is the most inland. A disjunct population of the Scarp Snail (Bothriembryon indutus) lives on the limestone cliffs, it usually occurs along the Darling Range. Hopefully the population was not wiped out by the fire. A number of trapdoor spiders also inhabit the area, including Aganippe rhaphiduca which has localised population differences not found in other populations on the Darling Scarp and southern jarrah forests [4].

Perth is Tuart Country

Last July I blogged about land clearing in WA. Felling of trees not only occurs in rural areas, but also the suburban areas of our cities – some local councils being rather adept at razing a tree if it’s in the way.

Last year The City of Stirling wanted to rezone numerous small parks from open space to business or residential. Local residents weren’t impressed and compiled petitions to save their local parks and trees [1]. One of these parks was in Wembley Downs and has mature tuarts and xanthorrhoea. It was to be rezoned for business [2] so the area could be “reinvigorated” [3], which would mean the end of these beautiful trees. Some of them could be hundreds of years old and people want to fell them to make some money. Tuarts this old can have hollows that birds such as Carnaby’s black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) use as nesting sites – rarer and rarer in the cleared land of Perth and its suburbs. A tree will only develop hollows after decades of growth and a bushfire, which doesn’t happen to the isolated trees set among houses in our suburbs.

Growing Garlic

Last April I planted garlic in my garden for the first time. At the time I wondered if I’d planted it too late, but it was just right. Matt a friend of Trina’s at Greenfoot recommended planting it a month or so before the cold weather starts.

My dad is my usual gardening mentor, but my friend Anouska is my garlic mentor. When I told my dad I was planting garlic he wanted to get in on the action and did the same. Anouska said she’d planted an organically grown bulb she got from the supermarket. I went to my local Absolutely Organic shop and bought a WA organically grown bulb. It has to be organic because ordinary garlic may be treated with growth inhibitors so it won’t start growing on the supermarket shelf. I divided up the bulb and planted the cloves 5cm deep, in a sunny spot. And then they grew, with no effort on my behalf – my kind of plant! You can grow garlic from seeds, but it takes two years to form bulbs. In the first year garlic shallots can be harvested, used in Asian cooking [1]. Anouska is trying this next autumn.

A pond in the garden

After much digging and shovelling and ripping out lawn, I have less lawn, more garden for native plants and a pond which one day might attract frogs.

Removing the lawn was a hell of a job. My dad and I did it together, although it was more like I helped my dad :P There were a lot of roots from the palms growing through the lawn and they needed hacking with the shovel to cut them off. Sheeba the dog loves to dig and roll in dirt so we had to fence the area. It may be the wonkiest fence ever constructed. Despite leaning every which way, it does keep out marauding dogs. The replacement Calytrix has not been dug up! and it’s covered in buds. I’m going to plant native climbers Hardenbergia comptoniana (Native Wisteria), Billardiera heterophylla (Australian Bluebell) and Kennedia coccinea (Coral Vine) to grow over the fence and cover up the wobbles, but in the mean time red wattle birds and jiri jiri (willy wagtails) like to perch on it.

Christmas in the Garden

Last Christmas I blogged about the WA Christmas tree (Nuytsia floribunda), which grows its own beautiful orange decorations. People are searching and finding this post as Christmas approaches, so I thought I’d add a few more photos of my favourite Christmas tree.

I’ve come across more Nuytsia this December. Since I’ve been riding my bike to take Sheeba to doggie day care every day, I see the mass of orange flowers behind some houses at the cross walk leading to Karrinyup Shops. This Nuytsia is parasitizing a red flowering gum and the red next to the orange looks particularly striking. I went to Ellenbrook a couple of weeks ago and on Gnangara Road, at the edge of Whiteman Park, there are multitudes of Nuytsia and Xanthorrhoea. The Xanthorrhoea flowers didn’t look so good now spring is over, so it’s the turn of the Nuytsia. There are more Nuytsia here than I’ve ever seen in one place and the orange blooms on every second tree are amazing. Now I know what Perth used to look like, before we came along and bulldozed everything.