Gombok Sculpture Park.

Today while the sun shone we went for a drive to Gombok Sculpture Park in Middle Swan, to see our friend Sara's sculpture.
It was a quick drive up the Roe Highway, almost to the very end of it. It was even past the airport!
There were some very cool sculptures up there. We stood Sara's piece up - it had blown over in the strong winds yesterday. I think we left it pointing the wrong way, though!?
Gruntle even got to have a run around. He was quite interested in a few of the sculptures, too.
We found another spot for him to runaround, and we had a cup of tea, off Bailey Road in Mahogany Creek.
We treated ourselves to a Judge's "famous" hamburger at the Parkerville Hotel. It was very tasty; with chips and salad it was quite a meal.
There are still some fairly chunky marri and tuart trees up that way. Good to see tree holes that black cockatoos would fit in - hopefully there are some nesting there.

It was good to see a few wildflowers out too. There was a beautiful Daviesia with dark red and yellow flowers, tiny ones along the jagged edges. Gorgeous and spiky. The Daviesia genus are pretty amazing plants. They are very tough, and have sharp points on the small, stiff leaves. The flowers are small but quite brightly coloured. There was a fair bit of Hovea pungens around in full bloom, too. You can see the striking purple spikes of small purple pea flowers from quite a distance.
It was a very pleasant Sunday drive. And a little bit cultural. Aah.

There's actually been a decent bit of rain the last couple of days. Like winter should be, almost. It's still way below average, though. The dams are still less than 20% capacity.

Anthurium coriaceaum

This is an interesting plant that I didn't like when I first saw it, but it grew on me, and after three other owners it ended up amongst my collection of oddities and useful species.
It's quite tough, doesn't need a lot of water, just plenty of shade.

Greville hedge at Mike's.

Planted a hedge of Grevillea at a client's house, as a privacy screen.. It includes G. Winpara Gem, G. "Apricot Glow" and G. "Honey Gem".

Getting into planting some natives.

On this fine Monday (kind of my Sunday), I have planted a few more bird-attracting plants, which also happen to be pretty and drought hardy once established.
These were a dwarf Banksia, a rescued, broken Grevillea Winpara Gem, a Dryandra nivea and some mystery low-growing Grevillea that I'm hoping will handle coastal conditions out the front.
Finally the pepino dulce plant has been put in too.
There has been a bit of rain recently, so the ground isn't bone dry, which is great. The other grevilleas that that have been in for a month or so are all looking good. Some have even started to flower.
It's a great time to be planting. The soil is still warm and there's a bit of sun, but the rain has been as well, with, hopefully more to come.

Waterwise gardener training.

Yesterday I did the professional Waterwise training at the Water Corporation building in Leederville.
I am pleased to say I actually did learn a few things, some of which were really reminders of why I prefer organic gardening in the first place.

One piece of news that I was glad to hear is that soluble chemical fertilisers are being taken off the market in coming years. These are the sort of products that quickly leach through our degraded sands and get into the river or the aquifer.
A rather shocking thing to learn though, is that in some areas around Perth, there is enough fertiliser in the bore water to feed everything, and in some areas there is even a toxic amount of nitrogen. All these excess nutrients leach quickly through the sand into the water table.

While there is more and more bore use the aquifer is getting less fresh water recharge from rain fall. What rain does fall is often diverted from roads and paving into the sea, instead of soaking into the ground.

Having the correct (chunky) mulch and groundcover plants will allow rain to soak into the ground, where it can sustain your garden between showers and help recharge the aquifer.

"Climate of Hope" movie.

I meant to mention the other week that I saw a documentary called "Climate of Hope".
It explains the process that happens to create nuclear power, and tells about the other uses of 'by-products' from the nuclear industry.
Depleted uranium has been used in a few wars now. This means that hundreds of people have been exposed to it.
It seems like a stupid and terrible thing to keep digging the stuff out of the ground so that even more people are exposed to it.

If you see it advertised anywhere, being shown for free, check it out. It's probably even on the web somewhere for download by now - it has copyleft on it, so once it's been paid for it can be shared.

Otherwise, just check out and remind yourself how dodgy the whole nuclear power idea is, how polluting and bad it is for generations to come.
I even sent a letter to John Howard after watching "Climate of Hope".
et stirred up and send a letter to a politician today!