I’m writing this with a little trepidation. The weather forecast is for 44 Degrees Celsius tomorrow and I live in one of the most bushfire prone areas in the world. It’s all over the news.."Tomorrow the conditions for bush fires are the worst on record".

This comes on the back of 3 days in a row (last week), of the same kind of temperatures. WOW

A friend of ‘the bloke’ came within 1km of the fires near Mirboo North last week and some of his neighbours were wiped out - lock, stock and smoking houses.

Last weeks ’super heat’ has left the garden dry and crunchy. It’s heartbreaking to see that some plants will not make it though the summer.

In the vegie patch, the leaks will go to seed, even though they are well watered. Luckily the tomatoes have not been pruned so that the fruit is protected (but still not ripe!!!)

I have reverted to puting up bed sheets over the vegie patch to try to save some of the crop this year. As we used to say in the 70’s - it’s a bummer man.

I am using all of my well tested watering techniques, even though I have very little to give the garden. I feel like I’m doing well but there is only so much you can do in an oven.

All I need is a thermometre for my belly button, to know when I’m done…

I have long been a fan of Jackie French’s gardening books and articles. I plan to review some of her books on the podcast in the future. Here is her web site with some beautiful pictures of her house and garden. She is truly a garden inspiration. If you’d like to have a look the link is at:

http://www.jackiefrench.com/garden.html

I consume a lot of garden media: TV, radio, print, library and internet and it seems like one of the most common querys, from concerned gardeners, is about lemon trees.

I have two lemon trees which suffer various degrees of neglect. The funny thing is that, regardless of the drought, both of my lemons trees are surviving quite well.

One is really old with damage at the base. It lives in full clay near gum trees, with nearly full shade and still pumps out good tasting (if not small) fruit. The other I planted from seed, so it is a mongrel, and boy is it tough! It gets no water, no food and it’s right in the root zone of a big gum tree. It has a tree full of large fruit which are a bit more acidic that the old lemon lady round the back.

Granted, lemons don’t like the cold and where I live, I don’t get frosts, but it can get down to zero celsius at night, in winter, so that’s still reasonably cold.

Lemon trees love their tucker, no doubt about it. I like to feed my old lady lemon in spring, when the rains come, and in summer, if it looks like the rains are about to come. This tree has a taste for dynamic lifer. I like to feed lightly and often, as I said, when the rains come….to wash it in for me.

The other tree gets ‘diddly squat’, mainly because it’s so vigorous and doesn’t seem to need it. Maybe the answer to a good lemon tree, is a long drought and a bit of neglect!!!

Bob said to Delores, “You want me to what?!?” “Take it easy” Delores drawled as she leaned wearily on her grandfathers pitchfork. “I only want a few minutes of your time, for you to turn over this garden bed for winter planting". “It’s summer! Winter is months away” insisted Bob. Any minute steam would come from his ears…..

Hey everyone it’s January, and it’s time to prep the soil for winter veg and flowers. It’s time to get ye to a nursery for vittles for the soil. Compost, dynamic lifter, lime or dolomite and mulch. If your a ‘digger’ or a ‘no digger’, it’s time to build it up, or lay it on thick, so that it has time to settle and brew.

Planting can commence as soon as February. As my old gaffer used to say, you want your brocolli ‘well big’ when the cold hits. You can also put in peas and corriander, rocket and boc choi etc… On the flower side you can throw in poppy seeds, pansys, and ornamental kale. By the time Autumn come around, you can plant all sorts of shrubs knowing you can give them a good start.

If your super super busy and you don’t want to plant flowers and veg, then now is a good time to do a little soil prep on the odd weekend, so that you can plant your bare rooted stock in winter. Roses, raspberries, fruit trees and deciduous trees.

Now back to my soil opera…..coming Bob, coming Delores.

I have every garden impliment that I need. There was a time when ‘the bloke’ broke almost every tool around the house, but I have lovingly replaced them with the extra heavy duty type. I brought my fork from ebay, mainly because it had a 25 year warranty.

Anyway, the other day I was taking stock in the tool shed (of the tools of course)and it struck me that I didn’t have a hoe. I made a note to myself - go to the store and buy a hoe.

Then something struck me as incredibly funny.

The sound of the word ‘Hoe’ is the same as the sound of the word ‘Ho’, which is American (and now possibly Australian) for a wanton woman of ill repute (slang for whore). I point this out only for those over the age of 45 who are wondering about the jibberish that I am pouring upon this virtual page.

Back to the funny bit. I had an image in my head of asking the young sales man for a hoe and him holding back a sly smirk as he walked me to the appropriate aisle. The upside of this is that I would have a chance to mimick my parents (and every authoritarian figure that I ever encountered) and give the young upstart a piece of what’s left of my mind.

Then there is the other problem. What about when I cant find my hoe and I shout to the bloke, “Darl where’s the hoe?” And don’t get me started on ‘dont bring that dirty hoe in the house’.

There was a time when a hoe was a garden impliment and a thong was a piece of footware and my my…maybe I was born too early!

GARDEN NEWS::::
Veggie Patch:
The lettuces are powering along. Tomatoes are up and at em. Beans are growing superbly. Potatoes are so so. Zucchinis are growing but the male flowers are not opening so there is no polination. Cucumbers and Rock mellon are stalled as babies - too much cloud and a cool spring.

Flowers:
The bed behind the post box is full of flowering geraniums and roses..a delight of burgundy, white, crimson, mauve and some orange. I have planted flower seedlings in front of the house and potted up tube stock that I brought from diggers club.

More on the December podcast due out soon!

Yesterday, I was able to practice my pre-rain dance. That’s when I can see that rain is definitely coming and all of a sudden there are a million things to do in the garden, to take advantage of this manna from heaven.

Firstly, there is the snail pellet waltz. I like to use enviroguard and scatter them in all the spots where they might lurk - tall grass (including agapanthus), rocks, garden edges and flower beds.

Then there is the manure 3 step. I throw around the dynamic lifter slow release pellets taking care to give the citrus trees and roses a really good feed. There is no way that the fertilizer will penetrate the soil, without a good rain storm, as we are on water restrictions here.

Last but not least is the seedling tango. I have had a few flower seedlings coming up as well as a couple of seedling shrubs that I brought from Diggers club. I was able to get them in before the long big garden drink, and so I have not had to worry about running out with the bucket every day, to settle them in.

My thoughts are now turning to the empty flower beds at the side of the house. With this rain, the heavy clay might soften enough for my to put a mattock to it?!? Doubtful you say? I’m going to give it a good try.

The Bloke and I went for a walk down to the falls in Sherbrooke Forest. It was hot and the air was sweet and moist. The forest takes on a magical quality when the air is still and the birds are flitting around you. We were lucky enough to see the elusive Lyre Bird ducking about the falls. I couldn’t get my camera on quick enough to snap a shot but here are some snaps from the day.

PS I ’scored’ a Lyre Bird feather while walking back from the falls. There was one perched on a bush!

Pictures of the falls, mountain ash, tree ferns up close and more….

The Judgement of the Moutain Ash

Sherbrooke Falls

Deliciously dishevelled undergrowth on the way to the falls - Sherbrooke Forest

Up close and personal - moss on a tree fern

Well the seeds that I sprouted on August the 28th are ‘up and at ‘em’. Most of them were potted up twice and they had a lovely stay at the Dig It Down Under Garden Hotel. French beans, Italian Zucchini’s, Japanese Cucumber, French Canteloupe are a demanding bunch.

They relaxed in the sun by day and they had a private suite under grow lights at night. They drank seaweed solution to excess and watched from inside their fishtank greenhouse as the wind whipped precociously around them.

So, comes the time for them to ‘get planted’ and the royal treatment still applied. I prepared compost rich beds that were layed out with a fine tilth. I then created individual swales and planted each plant in the middle like a little island with a mote. This means that the drainage is excellent and that every drop of water will stay around the roots. They were then mulched with the finest pea straw.

The beans and tomatoes were given a level bed with good drainage with a layer of about 40 lettuce greens planted between them. These will be harvested pretty quickly and they will be done just as the tomatoes are taking off.

Here are some pictures:

Zucchinis in their private suites. The dutch creme potatos are powering away in the foreground.

The French beans are flowering already. The mixed greens are down the middle and tomatoe seedlings on the right hand side.