An Early Winter Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day ... June 15, 2013

June is our early winter month, and it seems that our dry season has now begun.  We've had lots of big blue-sky days of late.  The rainfall total so far this month has amounted to almost nothing, and this is likely to continue now until at least early or mid-December.

So far this month we've only had 1.4mm  (that's 0.1 of an inch).
Last year from the beginning to mid-June 2012, we had received 4.4 mm (0.6 of an inch).
Back in mid-June 2011, we had received 15.4 mm  (0.5 of an inch) over the month.
By mid-June 2010, 21.8 mm  (0.8 of an inch)
By mid-June 2009, 0.4 mm  (which is way less than even 0.1 of an inch).



So it seems there's been a return to the very dry June conditions of four years ago, which is pretty much when I first became more interested and dedicated to gardening on this property.

Our total rainfall so far this year is 553.4  (21.8 ins) over 50 days.
Total to end of June 2012 was 1185.2 mm  (46.7 ins) over 65 days.
Total to the end of June 2011 was 1336.0 mm  (52.6 ins) over 76 days.
Total to the end of June 2010 was 1221.4 mm  (48.1 ins) over 77 days.
To the end of June 2009, 1691.6 mm  (66.6 ins) over 76 days.

On the whole, this year has been one of the driest so far, and our dry season has only just begun!!!  The poor wallabies are now reduced to digging deep to find grass roots because of the lack of green grass atop the ground.

Not only are the large 'grassed' areas looking decidedly brown and unappetising, my garden plants have responded to the drier conditions by not flourishing quite as much as previous years, and not producing as many blooms by this time of the year.

Compared to previous years, there are quite a few absences from the Bloom Day list.  In a region that's characterized by only two seasons really, the wet and the dry, we do get used to the slight changes in the length and intensity of these seasons though.

Right now, there are no trees showing any blooms whatsoever,

 apart from the one lonely flower spray on one of the deciduous Plumerias.

There are however some buds appearing on the two tall Corymbia torellianas or Cadaghi Gums that grow beside the concrete hill driveway.  Last year they were already covered in flowers by this time.

There are flowers on some of the shrubs however, and whilst there aren't as many as last year, they are blooming at the same time.

The Calliandra haematocephalas both have a few flowers here and there.

One of the Duranta repens shrubs down the front driveway has had a long flowering cycle and still has lots of flower sprays on show.  The other Durantas, which were decimated by Cyclone Yasi a couple of years ago, are still only about one-third of their previous size and have very short flowering cycles at the moment.

The Euphorbia leucocephala or Snowflake Bush always blooms at this time of year, but again compared to this time last year, there are only a few of the white bracts and little white flowers to be seen so far this year.

The Euphorbia pulcherrimas or Poinsettias growing in the tiered garden beds are usually starting to show the first coloured bracts by this time, but they're a no-show at the moment.  The lovely Justicia brandegeana which also grows in the top tier of the tiered garden beds is usually always blooming, but the Agile Wallabies have been feasting on it and the poor thing looks like a much skinnier and uglier version of itself, with almost no leaves and absolutely no flowers.

There are always blooms on the year-round bloomers, the Hibiscus.  This is my favourite, Hibiscus schizopetalus or Japanese Lantern.

The only blooms to be found in the front tiered garden beds are the stark white flowers on the Pentas, the last remaining flower spikes on the Salvia madrensis, a bloom or two on the invasive weed Clitoria ternata which is scrambling through the Russelia, and a few of the unusual flowers on the Dianthera nodosa.

There are quite a few flower sprays on some of the Dracaenas and Cordylines, which are found in the tiered garden beds as well as out in the courtyard garden.

The courtyard garden usually has the most colourful blooms at this time of year, but I've been rather neglectful of the container plants out there this year and haven't spent as much time potting up lots of annuals or perennials for the winter-spring display.  I'm really missing all the usual colour.

At least there are some flowers ...

... like the gorgeous faces of the Violas and the striking flowerheads of the Celosia argentea and Celosia cristata.

In pots out in the courtyard there's also the brilliant Angelonia angustifolias, which bloom forever, as does the Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender, the Salvia splendens 'Vistas Mix' and Cleome 'Senorita Rosalita'.  There are also flowers on the Ixora 'Twilight Glow', Turnera subulata, the double white Impatiens walleriana and the Schlumbergera or Zygocactus.

Thank goodness for the cheery Marigolds too.

Elsewhere around the property, if you look carefully, you might also spot other blooms on the ...

Bougainvillea, Russelia (where the Yellow Honeyeater has been feasting lately), Galphimia glauca and Vriesea Bromeliad.

I'm joining Carol for her fantastic garden blog meme Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Working Towards A 'Healthy Habitat' ... Chapter 3.

Well chapter 3 has been a long time coming.  It's amazing how our everyday life (away from the garden) can take over completely.  We've had a few surprising curve balls thrown at us since we began the Healthy Habitat project back in August of last year.

Back then, eight months seemed a long enough period of time to get the project well under-way.  Eight months of weekends!  That sounded like plenty of time to get things done, but you know the old saying about the best laid plans!  A combination of unexpected events meant our good intentions went unrealised for a number of months.

First, there was series of family crises, which culminated in a couple of absences from home totalling around a month and a half.  While I was away, my husband had to take on a major home renovation/painting job, which took two months of all his spare time to complete.  We both had experienced a significantly heavier work load at both our jobs, which meant quite a few late afternoons and early evenings spent at our workplaces instead of at home on the project.  My husband's growing commitment to a couple of community and church groups meant that he had almost no spare time at all, spending many weekends elsewhere from home.  I was also (ambushed!) talked into lending a helping hand with a couple of his huge fund-raising events.

This all resulted in very little time spent on the Healthy Habitat project between August 2012 and April 2013.  Whilst this is not the end of the world, we had hoped to be much further along with the project by now.  So, what have we done since my last Healthy Habitat post back in October?

We had received our "Land Management Plan" which provided in-depth details of the regional eco-system, identification of all the environmental and declared weeds on the property, along with a listing of all the native species growing here.  It was time to write up an application for funding and an action plan.  Lovely Jaymie made another visit to help us out with this, and we worked out priorities for our project and costings.

Our plan was fairly straightforward.  The number one priority was weed control, primarily the control of Lantana camara and Zizipus mauritiana or Chinee apple, which are two of the most invasive declared weeds on our property. Now while the plan was not at all complicated, it was not going to be a walk in the park.

Because of the steepness and inaccessibility of nearly half of the property, especially the area we refer to as the 'bush paddock' where the majority of the weeds were quite widespread,  removal of the two declared weeds, Lantana and Chinee Apple, was not going to be an easy or simple job.

The shot above shows a section of the bush paddock looking back up to the house in the distance ... you can just see the roof of the house right up at the top of the photo ... and this gives some idea of the steep rocky slope our bush paddock sits on.

We couldn't hire a large piece of machinery to knock down the massive clumps of Lantana and stands of Chinee Apple.  It would have been far too dangerous.  The other risk with digging out these horrid weeds, was the potential for erosion on the steep slopes.

So, poisoning them and then leaving the dead plant in-situ, was considered to be the best way to control erosion.  The decaying and dying trunks and roots of these woody weeds would provide some holding capacity.

We applied for funding to purchase herbicide, and a selection of native plants to plant.  The approval letter arrived in early November, but we had already started work.

To begin the weed management exercise, my precious husband spent hours and hours and hours, over a couple of weekends and after work, creating fire breaks around the bush paddock where the majority of the declared weeds thrive.

It was arduous, back breaking work which proved to be quite a feat not only for the man, but for the weed trimmer as well.  There were huge clumps of Lantana growing pretty much all the way round the fence line, as well as lots of young Chinee Apple saplings and more mature trees.  It was a job that nearly killed my poor darling hubbie.  The trimmer had to go into the workshop for many, many little fix-up, repair sessions.  Hubbie had to take a few breaks too, as he suffers from osteo-arthritis in his spine.  As I said, it was back-breaking work for him. 

Anyway, after many long afternoons and weekends of work, hubbie had established quite a large area of fire breaks all around the fence line, on all four sides of the bush paddock.  When the task was finally completed, I accompanied him as he took a stroll around to get a look at his great work.

In the photo above, that whole section laid bare was completely covered by Lantana that stood around a metre and a half in height and stretched for around five metres in from the fence line.

This is a close-up showing the almost impenetrable web of branches that formed one of the massive clumps.

Walking around the fence line afterwards meant we could get a better look at some of the existing local native species, like the Planchonia careya or Cocky Apple trees in the photo above.  Whilst they're not the most spectacular looking trees, they do have fabulous looking flowers.

After the back-breaking job of creating fire breaks, it was time to get a fire permit to burn off the bush paddock.  Usually the best time for a controlled burn off in this area is early 'dry' season, when there is still good soil moisture after the short wet season.

We had however had fairly decent Spring rain, which occurred towards the end of our long 'dry', so we decided to go ahead with a late 'dry' season fire.  The intention of a controlled burn was to clear out some of the smaller, lower priority weeds and allow better access to the Lantana and Chinee Apple trees on the slopes.

Of course, with steep hill burn-offs, it's best to burn from the top down.  The aim was for a cool burn of short duration and low flame height.  That was achieved.  The burn-off took a few hours in the cool of the afternoon and evening, when the wind speed had dropped to less than 24 km per hour, and the flames remained fairly close to the ground throughout the exercise.

Now I've never been in amongst a burn-off before, and found the whole experience to be just a little overwhelming to the senses.  There were times when I just could not breathe because of the smoke.  We had to walk around the outer edges just to make sure the fire didn't jump the fire break sections.  It didn't, and the whole thing went off without a hitch.

After the burn-off, the bush paddock was a bit of an eyesore, all blackened and scorched.  We did lose a couple of tall trees, like the Eucalyptus in the photo above,

but most of the Eucalyptus and other native trees remained unscathed by the flames.  They have evolved to withstand bushfires.  It was remarkable to see the contrast between the stark white trunks of the Gums, and the black scorched earth all around them.

Okay, so that was the state of play at around the end of September / early October.  Then ... everything went haywire and the next stage of the project went on hold for quite some time.  It was so strange that as soon as our application approval letter arrived, all work on the project ceased!

As part of the project, we were to keep a detailed project diary listing all the activities undertaken, including the in-kind contributions that matched the amount funded by N.Q.  Dry Tropics.  The funding is only supposed to represent 50% of the value of the project.  We had to contribute the other 50%.  This contribution could include our own labour and purchases.

Well the project diary sat on the office desk for months, with no further entries made all through the Summer and into early Autumn.  Then we finally got a break from the demands of life, and resumed some of the work in April.

It was time for the careful and judicious use of recommended chemicals.  Yes, this was part of the negotiated plan of action.  The basal bark method was considered the most effective for dealing with the Chinee Apple trees and the Lantana.  So out we went, backpacks of poison on our backs, and we proceeded to spray.  It took ages!!  We tried to be very, very careful with the application. 

While we were down in the bush paddock dealing out death and mayhem, we saw some wonderful insect life.

... and signs of insect life,

like these Cicada shells.

It was also fantastic to get a closer look at some of the native species out in the bush paddock.

Acacias were blooming.

The native Lomandra longifolia was flowering.

The Paperbarks looked absolutely magnificent.

The Corymbia tessellaris or Moreton Bay Ash trees showed off their distinctive tessellated bark.

The branches of the Casuarina cunninghamianas or River She Oaks were swaying in the breeze, and creating that wonderful whistling sound that happens when the wind blows through the She Oak foliage.

There were a lot of different grasses growing in various locations.  I'm certain some, if not most, are native grasses but I'm afraid I'm not all that knowledgeable when it comes to identifying which grass is which.

I also spotted this unusual plant.  I'm not sure if it's a weed or a keeper!

We've had two runs at using chemicals now, and it certainly has had an impact on the almost indestructible Lantana and Chinee Apple plants. 

Looking at the top photo in the collage above, you can spot the massive clumps of Lantana, over the fence, stretching from one side of the photo to the other.  You can probably see the masses of orange and yellow flowers.  Looking at the photo on the bottom, all you can spot is a few dead brown sticks.

Comparing the two scenes in this collage, you will notice the decidedly different look of the second shot where the Chinee Apple trees, and Poinciana trees (which we also treated) are yellowing and dying off.  We're also slashing the top part of the slope regularly now to keep those weeds under control.

So, we're finally back on track now.  The next step is to tackle some of the other environmental weeds on the property.  That will be the next chapter.

Snapshots of Mid-Autumn on this April Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, 2013

Continuing my Snapshots series ...

I know I'm a little late for GBBD, but better late than never.  It's been such a long time since I last posted on here anyway, that I felt I should make the effort, even if the due date for joining Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day has passed.   Work life, home life and family life are always priorities over blogging, and those areas of my life have been so very, very busy over the last couple of months.  The garden has suffered somewhat as a consequence, with the more favoured areas, the courtyard and shadehouse gardens, receiving very little attention; and the other garden spaces being left to fend for themselves.

Conditions during April?

We've had mostly fine blue-sky days so far this month.  Our dry season more or less begins with the start of our mid-Autumn month of April, so our skies tend to be clear and bright blue.  We did have two days of quite decent rain which totalled around 43 mms (almost 2 inches).  As the wet season had been a big disappointment, it seemed like a rather cruel joke that right at the end of the wet, we get a reminder of what decent rain is like!!! 

So far this year our rainfall total has reached only about 516 mms ( 20 inches), which is less than half the total reached by the same time last year.  It's meant that our wet season has been remarkably dry this year, which is not good news for a garden that's about to suffer through a long nine-month dry season.  I think it's going to be tough going for some of the younger plants that have only been planted out in the last two to three years.

Anyway, let's take a wander around and see just what's going on this mid-April.

Starting with the trees on the property ... what's blooming?

The answer is short and sweet.  Very little!

I found one lone flower spray on one of my three Lagerstroemia speciosas, or Queen's Myrtles.  This particular Queen's Myrtle is growing at the end of our hillside driveway, and the flower spray is the last for its flowering season.  The other two Queen's Myrtles finished their flowering season quite a while ago now.

The only other tree blooms to be spotted were those on a couple of the native trees around here.

There is one Acacia mangium growing near our shadehouse, and it's covered in lovely lemon flowers.

There are also blooms on the Acacia leptostachya trees, out in the bushland.  Luckily there's a rather large tree growing very close to one of our fences and the flower-laden branches are hanging out over the fence onto our property.  It's a lovely sight.

April last year, I remember there were still blooms on the Tabebuia heterophylla and Citharexylum spinosum on the property, and there were loads of flowers on the Melaleucas out in the bushland.  There are no flowers to be seen on any of these this April.

Onto the shrubs ... what's blooming?

There are a few more blooms to be spotted on the various shrubs around my place.   Of course, there are always flowers showing off on the various red-flowering Hibiscus scattered in the far corners of the garden.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Snowflake' at the back of the courtyard,

Hibiscus schizopetalus near the pergola,

more Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Snowflake' in the front-of-house garden bed,

and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis in the hillside driveway garden bed.

The Mussaenda philippica 'Aurore' growing down at the end of the hillside driveway is covered in white bracts and little yellow flowers.

Down the gravel driveway there are flowers on some of the Crotons,

and out in one of the front-of-house garden beds the Allamanda cathartica 'Sunee' is still showing a few of its bright yellow flowers.

Now, out in the potted courtyard garden ... what's blooming?

Again, not much, as I cut back most of the potted plants out there a couple of weeks ago now, and they're still filling out.

Tabernaemontana 'Sweet Love' is showing off its stark white pinwheel flowers.

There are flower spikes on the Coleus and the Angelonia angustifolias.

The lovely double white Impatiens walleriana flowers are still on show.

The climbing Jasmine officinale is still flowering and filling the air with a soft, sweet perfume.

There are a few flowerheads on the Cleome 'Senorita Rosalita', 

and the Salvia splendens 'Vista Mix' and Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' are all starting to fill out and bloom once more after their cut back.

Onto the shadehouse garden ... what's blooming?

 Once more the answer is pretty short and simple ... not much.

My fabulous Dendrobium bigibbum continues blooming,

and the Streptocarpus caulescens is putting on a great show.

The Aeschynanthus lobbianus and Costus productus also add a touch of red,

and there are a few Impatiens walleriana flowers to be seen here and there.

In the front tiered garden beds ... what's blooming?

The huge sprawling Salvia madrensis is throwing out loads of flower spikes,

and the Justicia brandegeeana is covered in its wonderful bracts and tiny blooms.

Here and there, around the place ... what can be seen?

There's a Vriesea bromeliad blooming as it sits in amongst the stumpy ends of old palm fronds,

and there's a patch of Cosmos sulphureus that have re-seeded in a spot in one of the gravel driveway garden beds.

I'm joining Carol for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day